Richard Cheese and Lounge Against The Machine

Not every rock, pop, or rap tune sounds good jazzified. For instance, hit up your local radio dial for that yucky thing called smooth jazz, then grab the barf bag. But Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine, the LOL cover band from the nation’s capital of jazz corniness, Los Angeles, is a much different sack of cheeseballs. Not only do these cats play the crap out of any genre of song and make it sound awesome with hard-swinging, cocktail bar arrangements, but frontman Mark Davis gets fingers snapping and heads nodding with troubadourian, Sinatra-sounding vocals. Davis, who grew up in west Phoenix, is well aware that his ensemble is a joke band – the group’s repertoire includes lounge-style imaginings of Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up,” Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice,” and Beyoncé’s “Naughty Girl” – so he lays on the Vegas-style stage persona extra thick for all of the Dick-Heads (fans of Mister Dick Cheese). One decade and eight albums later – including the group’s latest effort Viva la Vodka that features 2 Live Crew’s “Me So Horny” and the theme song from WKRP in Cincinnati – the formula still works.
Sun., May 3, 5:30 p.m., 2009