Back in January, J’cuuzi became the first act to perform on the Chess Club patio. Vocalist Gorge Bones, opening her denim jumpsuit to reveal her bare chest, hung over the railing and crowd surfed, while multi-instrumentalist Trey Razeldazl played guitar and twisted knobs on a synthesizer in their own camo two-piece. They shot fake $100 bills into the audience; giant golden balloons spelled out the band’s name behind them.
There was also the chair.
Call this teal piece of furniture the third member of J’cuuzi. Actually, don’t – though romantic partners Bones and Razeldazl write all of the project’s dancey post-punk themselves, they count “at least two” other creatives as J’cuuzi contributors, bandmates who either play with them at certain shows or design the performers’ graphics or onstage costumes (“We’re doing a lot of vertical integration,” Razeldazl quips). In any case, the chair is integral. Bones spins in it, hangs off of Razeldazl on it, changes clothes behind it.
“I was wanting to do a big physical performance thing,” Bones explains of the set-piece. “I’m a stripper as my job, and I wanted to weave a lot of that kind of energy into it without it being so like, ‘Oh, we’re sexy on purpose.’”
It’s certainly an eye catcher. “People who have no intention of coming to the show watch us load in an ironing board and a big midcentury modern spinning chair,” adds Razeldazl. “People are like, ‘Where are you guys going?’ We’re not carrying a snare.”
Bones, who’s never been in a band, and Razeldazl, an Austin music scene veteran, formed J’cuuzi around this time last year; they performed their first show in February, then immediately began playing unofficial South by Southwest shows. Now official showcasing artists, the duo plays more free-to-the-public gigs this year – including the Chronicle’s Hair of the 3-Legged Dog Day Party, March 14 at Hotel Vegas – in addition to their three fest-presented performances.
“I’ve always been a musician, [but I’ve always been] been really protective of it, because it was just pure catharsis for me. I never wanted to actually try to be [a performer],” Bones explains. Leaning into physical, rather than musical, performance felt more natural. “I love playing instruments,” she says, but “when I’m onstage, I’m like, ‘I want to freak out and rip my shirt off like Hulk Hogan.’”
“If we’re going to start a band and introduce that dynamic into our lives, it should be fun, and we should be doing the stuff that we feel confident in and we have fun doing onstage,” Razeldazl adds.
J’cuuzi’s electric performances have surely contributed to their rapid rise, but their music proves equally captivating. Catchy but noisy, irreverent but ominous, the duo intertwine competing vocal lines atop thumping bass, churning keyboards, and campy glam rock guitar. “Bad Toy,” you might guess, is about a haunted vibrator, while the chorus of latest single “How 2 Get Everything You’ve Always Wanted 4 Free (Forever)” literally spells out the answer to its titular question: “D-E-B-T.”
Summing up their songwriting approach, Razeldazl says, “I think the through line is [we create] something that’s fun, but also something that makes you go ew a little bit.”
Last week, the duo dropped a video for “How 2 Get Everything You’ve Always Wanted 4 Free (Forever)” directed by Kai Winikka, the filmmaker behind Being Dead clips “Big Bovine” and “The Great American Picnic.” Though Razeldazl says J’cuuzi has “plenty more songs” recorded, they’re – naturally – not plotting a conventional album release for them.
“We’re having fun and planning just far enough ahead for us to accomplish a goal in two or three months,” they say. “And then once that’s done, it’s like, ‘Alright, what are we going to do next?’”
As Bones puts it, “We don’t like to [say], ‘Big things coming soon.’ We just like to [say], ‘Big things! Here they are.’”
J’cuuzi plays The Austin Chronicle’s Hair of the 3-Legged Dog Day Party on Friday, March 14, at Hotel Vegas.
J’cuuzi
Thursday 13, 7:20pm, Hotel Vegas Patio
Saturday 15, 1am, Chess Club
Saturday 15, 10pm, Elysium
This article appears in March 14 • 2025.