Skid Marks: (vocals, guitar, white pants) Lenny Deitsch: (bass, vocals, red white and blue headbands) Scott Ramsayer: (synthesizer, moustaches) Mike Zelenko: (drums, motorcycles).
Influences
David Bowie, The Cars, The Beat, Adam and the Ants, Human League, T. Rex, The Buzzcocks, The Only Ones, Blur, Soft Boys, Sex Pistols
FYI....
Skid from The Ladies & Gentlemen not only sings and plays guitar in the band, but he and his good friend Dave from The Assembly are a DJ tandem known as DJs Yin & Yang!
They spin the finest in New Wave, Old Wave, Britpop, Garage, Glam and Power Pop!!!
Their DJ dates are listed above in the "upcoming shows" section...
Here's how The Ladies & Gentlemen got started...
Unlike their name, The Ladies & Gentlemen do not feature any ladies in the band, yet the all-male group can certainly not be described as gentlemen either. What they do feature is blasts of hook-filled new wave power pop songs that clock in under 3 minutes!
Formed out of the ashes of venerable Chicago stalwarts Box-O-Car, singer/songwriter Skid Marks brought aboard ex-Material Issue drummer Mike Zelenko, ex-Verbow bass player Lennie Deitsch, and Lennie and Skid's friend, "recording-engineer-extaordinaire" and ex-Poi Energy, Inc. keyboardist Scott Ramsayer to play synthesizer in the spring of 2004.
Since forming less than 2 years ago The Ladies & Gentlemen have already performed with Iggy Pop, Jet, Louis XIV, The Dead 60's, The Cramps, Superdrag, Cheap Trick, We Are Scientists, and Say Hi To Your Mom, to name just a few. All this was with no recordings released due to the word-of-mouth buzz about their incendiary live shows!
Now with the release of their debut album, "Ladies and gentlemen... The Ladies & Gentlemen", they are now playing to even bigger crowds than ever!
"Getting a synth player was crucial to separate our sound from the traditional 2 guitars, bass, drums line-up", says Marks. "In Box-O-Car we loved The Cars, Adam and the Ants, Human League, etc., but we never quite fully distilled that sound like we have in The Ladies & Gentlemen and I feel it's definitely due to having Scott on board. I like to think we're the sum of our influences without aping them completely. That's what I hope anyway... My vision for The Ladies & Gentlemen is simple: A rock band that makes people wanna shake their ass!"
THURSDAY MARCH 26th MY COLD DEAD HAND and DORIAN TAJ are doing a free show @ ALIVE ONE(2683n halsted). DORIAN'S doin a solo set around 9:30 then he's gonna sit in with us on a few. Come check it. Alive one is an intimate room. Come get sexy!
Yo cool cats...... Long time no see! The Melismatics are playing Reggie's Live tonight (Saturday, Novemeber 8th). It would be great to see your ruggedly-handsome faces there! love, The Melismatics
