Lea Jaffe and Otto Klammer are two thirds of Dazey and the Scouts, which began in 2015 in a Berklee College of Music dorm room. In early 2017, the Scouts recorded and self-released Maggot, their one and only album. It blends irreverent punk with surf-rock and girl-group harmonies, riot grrrl energy without any TERFy garbage, splashes of dream pop and math rock and spoken word. It was a living scrapbook of their active influences, both the classics and the classmates. The album was well-received in the local Boston scene and the Scouts continued to perform around the city and surrounding area for the next year until they went their separate ways amicably. 

That was until the COVID lockdowns when Tiktok worked Maggot into the lives of millions of new listeners, most of them young women and queer high schoolers who resonated with the comically vulgar and confessional nature of the Scouts’ lyrics. Songs like “Wet” and “Nice Nice” became the wellspring of thousands of Tik Tok lipsyncs and cosplays while “Sweet Cis Teen” became a rallying call for a new generation of LGBTQ+ teens coming to terms with their identities. What started as DIY college fun became millions of monthly listeners and a top song with over 125M streams on Spotify. Dazey and the Scouts remains dormant with the exception of a self-released vinyl pressing of the album that sold out almost immediately and one sold out reunion show at Brooklyn’s Elsewhere Hall. 

Jaffe and Klammer continue to make music independently with their own projects.