News Archive

Burn My Eye

The debut of Burn My Eye on cable access is this Wednesday, April 3rd at midnight. The show is the brainchild of Virgil Porter and utilizes the shaky cinematography and interview skills of George. It airs the first Wednesday of every month on San Francisco's Channel 29, the pilot episode features Pink and Brown and Blectum from Blechdom.

NEW STORE ITEMS: our online store is carrying some new goodies from our local friends - new releases by Deerhoof include the My Pal Foot Foot 7", Halfbird CD on Menlo Park, and Dualplover's Koala Magic live CD. From our friends at Frenetic, we have the debut album by C4AM95 aka the Fucking Champs, III. Oakland's Tigerbeat6 has produced a cute little 3" CDEP from the delightfully perverse Kevin Blechdom entitled The Inside Story. That's in addition to the stable of compilations (Tired of Standing Still, Translation.Music) and other releases in the store (Krill, Aislers Set, Kublai Khan, Caboto, Milky Elephant gear).

Posted by George

Back From the Mother Land

The Chenpire is back from a sojourn to the motherland, Hong Kong (and a hellish 24 hours in China, most of which was spent in lines at customs). We return to California soil weary but wiser, some heavier, some lighter, mostly sleep deprived. Note to airborne parents; children are best seen, not heard, nor smelt.

Okay, so the exciting news updates you've all yarned for...at long last, Reflections, the debut LP by Total Shutdown is out on Thin the Herd Records. March also promises the issue of Broadcast Performances, a 7" collecting radio sets, on Life is Abuse. Also, Nate of TS has a solo album, Prepare to Die, due out on King Crab Records sometime this year. KCR is run by Mick Turner of Dirty Three and also boasts releases by scruffy Australian actor Noah Taylor.

Posted by George

Happy Groundhog's Day!

We are poking heads out of our virtual hole to inform you of zum happenings. The Intima's live EP, Under the Wire, is out now on Yo Yo Recordings. It's got a bonus video of "End Over End" with Kanako on vocals.

Xiu Xiu's debut album Knifeplay is out on February 19th on 5RC (distribution through Touch & Go), vinyl courtesy of our local friends Absolutely Kosher. We have the CD available now in the zum store.

Speaking of Touch and Go, rumor has it that ! ! ! have signed on with them to release their new album! Rad. The OUTHUD album on Kranky is supposedly done too, we can hardly wait to hear it. GSL and zum are talking about compiling some older OUTHUD and !!! tracks, including the 12", for a CD reissue, but that has yet to be solidified.

The Total Shutdown/Boxleitner 7" got a write up in the most recent Wire! They spelled BXLNTR wrong, but that's okay. That 7" is essentially out of print, but we have a few copies left on pristine white vinyl. Gabe of Boxleitner is playing in a new band called Yellow Swans, who are coming to the Bay Area for a few shows in February (see shows page). One of these promises to be the freak rock festival of the season.

Pink and Brown, The Lowdown, Total Shutdown, Nice Nice, Yellow Swans, February 10th afternoon barbecue show at Bottom of the Hill. This will be the record release show for both Pink and Brown's 12" with Death Drug (Le Shok) on Load and Total Shutdown's one-sided 12", Reflections, on Thin the Herd.

In unrelated news, they're talking about making a Tron sequel! Sweet.

Did you see Justine Bateman on Blind Date? Oh Mallory, how ye have fallen.

Posted by George

January 3rd and 4th Shows

 If you are going to be in the Bay Area the weekend of January 3 and 4th, 2002, please come check out these zum related shows: a night at Bottom of the Hill with Yvonne's band Xiu Xiu, George's new project Aggregates with friends Warren Ng and Casey Farnum, and a new band featuring all of Nuzzle, The Dying Californian. Dying Californian, Aggregates, and Hit Self Destruct (featuring Chuck of Sound on Sound Records) will be playing Oakland's Stork Club on Friday the 4th. Hope to see you there!

Posted by George

Wow, so the year is almost done with. Go figure.

Changes are abrew here as zum the label is going solo. After a good run with Bottlenekk/IMD, we have parted exclusive distribution ways and are now looking for new sales outlets. Distributors or stores who are interested should get in touch with us at sales@zumonline.com. We are also leaving our long-time ISP because of buy-outs and bunko performance, so any bookmarks or e-mail addresses containing "sirius.com" should be purged from your minds/records.

As part of the East Bay music festival known as bEASTfest, zum is presenting a night of happening sounds with Anticon, Kevin Blechdom, Blevin Blectum, 25 Suaves, and the Silents. The big event is going down at the Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, on Saturday, December 1st (just two days before George's birthday). We will be debuting some limited edition stylish zum t-shirts and record bags. After 11 years in existence, we're finally making some utilitarian merch.

In more ZUM PRESENTS news, Intervention is on the move and going strong. The lastest installment is taking place at Kimo's on November 26th with Crack: We are Rock, Massacre Prive (France), 25 Suaves, and Madame Morte (Olympia). Be over twenty-one and there at 9:30pm.

The Intima have just gotten home from another successful national tour. They had some long drives but had a great time. Their tour EP, out on Yo Yo, suffered some delays so it is now being released as a regular EP in December. We will soon be getting some copies of their Post Present Medium 7" for sale on the zum store.

More than a year after ceasing print zine production, we're proud to announce our highest Zine Guide ranking yet. Zum was up there at #30 of Favorite Zines Overall. Thanks to those who gave us props.

On a side projects tip, the zum crew is busy busy. George has become an editor for West Coast Performer and is always looking for willing contributors, good West Coast bands, and new venues to carry the free monthly. Band-wise, he is playing shows with Nate from Total Shutdown as Sobretooth. In fact, they will be playing with the band Yvonne's in, Xiu Xiu, on December 6th at Kimo's in San Francisco, along with the very cool band Kill Me Tomorrow from San Diego. Xiu Xiu's debut full-length has a release date of February 19th (CD on 5RC, LP on Absolutely Kosher). In the meantime, they have a song on the very impressive compilation of Bay Area talent known as Tired of Standing Still on Highpoint Lowlife Records (which is available in the zum store). In another show of sibling unity, George's old band Boxleitner also has a track on the double CD comp. Jeremy has started a label (Scenester) with his friend Greg to put out the debut album of Italy's Caboto. It will be released in the US in January, is titled Nauta, and is really good.

Posted by George

A Hard Month

Well, it has been a hard month. We hope that you, your family, and friends are well, and we collectively mourn the loss of those in New York and DC. In these times, there is a rush to stifle discussion and dissent in favor of waving flags and shouting for blood. The proliferation of hate crimes in the past few weeks shows where that impulse leads. This should be motivation enough to educate our monoculture about what is going on in the world. One good resource is a page of news reports and opinion compiled by Sharon Cheslow.
One of the Intima's stops in the Bay Area is a benefit show for RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, who clandestinely educate women under the Taliban. The show is this Saturday at Oakland's Stork Club, September 29th. Thanks to Young People, Ibobuki, and From Monument to Masses for donating their time and talent.

the Intima are embarking on a national tour throughout October. They will have more copies of their No Lullaby for Sleep EP, as will we. There are some great write-ups on the band and increased radio play around the Bay Area lately! Thanks to KFJC and the SF Bay Guardian.
The Intima are playing shows with Q and Not U, who George conducted an interview with.

Look for the October issue of West Coast Performer, which has Beans on the cover. They also have reviews in recent issues of Magnet, XLR8R, and Vice. The band is taking a break from shows, but you can read about their tour and 48 Hours on their website. Tune in to WNYU on Tuesday, October 9th, at 5pm Eastern to hear the broadcast of their in-studio.

On a final note, George, Matt (aka Miso), and Nate have started a night of DJ and live music called Intervention which has been located at the Coffee Gallery in San Francisco's North Beach, but may soon be moving to multiple locations, West and East Bay. Upcoming events may include such diverse folk as Monotrona and Syncopation.

Posted by George

Many Thanks

Thanks to everyone who has come out to see the Beans on their tour so far. They've played a great set for CKUT and pre-recorded a set for WNYU, been interviewed and taped for a feature on Flipr.com, and been featured in Time Out New York. They have five more shows left, so catch them if you can. Later this month, they're slated to be the cover story of West Coast Performer so keep an eye out. Stefan's other band, Birthday Machine, will be playing a couple shows with xiu xiu at the end of the month--Sep 28th at Vanvouver's Sugar Refinery and Sep 29th at Seattle's the Rainbow.

Just after Beans return home, the Intima will be hitting the streets for a good ol' national tour of their own. We are almost sold out of their No Lullaby for Sleep EP and may just be making another batch. In the meantime, their 7" on Post-Present Medium is now available.

Well, thanks to the success of our Stereolab contest (congratulations to Jeff, Helene, and Kristen!), we've got another whopper of a giveaway... how about some Björk ? Her new album Vespertine just came out, but what we've got for you is the UK CD single for "Hidden Place," which incluces a special track not on the album. To enter, send an e-mail to contest@zumonline.com with "Björk" as the subject and your name and address in the body. We will pick three winners at random on September 22nd.

We know updates of reviews and interviews have been a bit sporadic of late, but hey, we're busy peeps. We do have some new features coming up soon though--interviews with Q and Not U and comic artist Jessica Abel. Check our Reviews and Articles section for updates. We're also closing in on the 100th member of our club so we encourage anyone interested to join up. For more frequent updates than you'll find here and road reports from the Intima, the zum club is the place to hang.

Posted by George

They did it!

Beans have successfully completed their 48 hour show! As much as they trained for it, they were not prepared for how crazy it was, but they pulled it off, and played some of the best music of their lives. The record stay for an audience member was 18 hours, but many staff of the Sugar Refinery were there the whole time. Thanks to everyone who helped and to those who first went expecting to see the band fall asleep and fail but cheered in the end. There are still some t-shirts and postcards for the event if you're interested. Contact the band at mainflag@ibeanstrument.com. We also forgot to mention that Beans have been commissioned by the prestigious Vancouver New Music program to compose an original work for the 2001-2002 season. It is a great honor and we're quite proud of them.

Up next for Beans, and Total Shutdown, and the Intima... tours! Find dates at our tour page or each band's webpage (links on the label page). As tours tend to go, there are some open dates for each band, so if you can help out at all with a show, please do.

We haven't had a giveaway in a while, but here we go with a doozy. Now you have a chance to win the new Stereolab single, Captain Easychord. On vinyl no less. What do you have to do? Just send an e-mail to contest@zumonline.com with "Stereolab" as the subject and your name and address in the body. We will pick three winners at random on September 1st. Bon chance!

Posted by George

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