ZUM NEWS              current | 2001 | 2000

10/13/02
Yow, it's been a busy busy summer for team zum! Yvonne and Jeremy have been working all summer to set up a vegan boutique in San Francisco and we finally opened last weekend. The store is called OTSU and you can find more info at www.veganmart.com. There's also a new Xiu Xiu ep out on Absolutely Kosher called Chapel of the Chimes. George has gone back to school and started a new band with friends from XBXRX and Lil' Pocketknife called K.I.T. They have some mp3s up at the zum yahoo groups site, groups.yahoo.com/group/zum/. He is also a helper elf to the Trouble collective.

P:ano's album, When It's Dark and It's Summer has almost sold out! Thanks for all the support and for everyone who came out to see them on their West Coast tour with Jerk With A Bomb in August. They are hoping to hit the road again early next year. In the meantime, Nick's solo project, Burquitlam Plaza, has a whopper of an album almost ready for release. We can't give you all the details yet, but suffice it to say that we have the new Stephin Merritt in our midst. Chris' solo project, Parks and Rec, will shortly have a limited edition ep out on Hive-Fi. They also just released the Northern and Industrial ep from the other band he is in, The Secret Three.

the Intima just completed a West Coast tour and they are tighter than ever and about ready to release their full-length that they spent the last 6 months recording. The preview we heard was amazing! Themba and Nora's other band, Liar Bird, who was on tour with the Intima, are playing out more and already have a set of songs recorded. Look for more news from both bands.

Beans have just retooled their website www.ibeanstrument.com and launched their own record label, Foreverbad. They will be putting out the next Beans release, Inner Cosmosis. The latest movie that they scored, Various Positions, has just won an award at the World Film Festival in Montreal and screened at the Vancouver Film Festival. Their next big project is "Liquid Suspension"--a live performance at the Vancouver Aquatic Centre next April for Vancouver New Music. And congratulations to Damon & Erin who are expecting their first child in mere weeks!

Total Shutdown are set to hit a town near you! Check out our tour dates for details. The first part of the tour will actually be Pete the Genius (Paul and Pete) and Nate Denver's Neck until Bob is able to join them. They are also in negotiations to record an ep for Ecstatic Peace.

The Lowdown is close to finishing their album to be released on Zum that will include most of their Fall 2001 tour CDR and 5 new songs. Also in the works are a split 7" with Numbers to be released on Troubleman Unlimited and a Sfdario album to be released by and including artwork by Rob Fisk (deerhoof). Both the Lowdown and Deerhoof are featured on episode 6 of Burn My Eye, which failed to air at the proper time but is available via videocassette for sale at Spockmorgue. Noel's other band, Comets on Fire, is getting tons of great press for their new BaDaBing! album Field Recordings From the Sun.

6/8/02
***...AND IT's SUMMER***
We are extremely thrilled to announce our next release... zum014 will be the debut album from Vancouver, B.C.'s p:ano. P:ano's Nick Krgovich and Larissa Loyva have been playing together since 1999 (when Nick was in high school!), with the recent addition of drummer Justin Kellam and bassist Chris Harris. Their debut, When It's Dark and It's Summer, is a sublime mixture of gorgeous harmonies and sparse atmosphere. Members of Beans and Jerk With a Bomb play on the record. P:ano side-projects/other bands include Secret Three, A Luna Red, Micronice, and To Bad Catholics. They've played with bands like Pedro the Lion, Album Leaf, and the Microphones and they're planning a West Coast tour for mid-August with Jerk With a Bomb. This will be a co-release with Hive-Fi, the new label of the Hive Recording Studios, recording home of the Beans and many of Vancouver's best bands. We're pleased as punch to be working with them.

We are also pleased that we will be working with our good friends The Lowdown on a forthcoming release. A trio based in Santa Cruz / San Francisco, Josh, Hugh, and Noel have been churning out dancey skronk wave from the vampire capital, releasing staff favorite Revolver II (recorded by Microphones' Phil Elvrum) on Thin the Herd Records, and touring the US. Their tour EP was a limited (less than 200) CDR with awesome asymmetrical artwork, but we think it's the best thing they've done so far and needed a wider release. Though they've been around a few years, The Lowdown is part of a new school of Bay Area underground rock that includes Erase Errata, Numbers, and Total Shutdown. Read a little bit about the group courtesey of Owen Ashworth. Check out Noel's other band, Comets on Fire, on tour this month. They will have a release out on Badabing in August.

**COMICS in the STORE**
Our commerce site (zummedia.com) is now carrying a wide selection of independent comics and graphic novels. Our selection features publishers like Highwater, Top Shelf, Drawn and Quarterly, and Fantagraphics, encompassing artists like Jessica Abel, Adrian Tomine, Dan Clowes, Chris Ware, Joe Sacco, James Kochalka, Jordan Crane, and Ron Rege.
Zum will be representing the comics buffet at Burt's June Bug Bash at the Stork Club Saturday June 15 along side comics artists Jason Shiga, Andrice Arp, and Andrew Goldfarb. There will also be performances by Cast Of Thousands and friends.

We'd like to congratulate Nuzzle's Andrew Dalton who got married last weekend! The new EP by Dying Californian (f.k.a. Nuzzle) is going into production this weekend for Turn Records and should be out this summer. Turn Records also just released the vinyl LP of Track Star's new one, Lion Destroyed the Whole World.

Total Shutdown makes an appearance on the new 5rc comp, If the Twentieth Century Didn't Exist It Would Be Necessary to Invent It. Other acts on the comp include Xiu Xiu, Young People, Wolf Eyes, Orthrelm, Lightning Bolt, Deerhoof, and THE TEETHE.
TS members have got lots going on on the side--Paul Costuros has been performing with Murder Murder and guesting with Zeek Sheck and Crack: We are Rock, as well as SF supergroup Why You Versus Us? Nate Denver's Neck has been getting heaps of praise for his folk-metal-epic poetry and is going on a West Coast tour with Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. Pete Nguyen just returned from a national tour with Ee, who have a new album coming out on Asian Man Records, and Bob Linder just finished his MFA program at Stanford.

The Intima have a few Northwest shows lined up and are finishing up their next record.
They are playing June 14th at the Capitol Theater Backstage in Olympia:
Submission Hold, Antiproduct, the Intima, the Din (featuring Michael Griffen of Behead the Prophet NLSL)
this show is a books to prisoners benefit.
7:30pm all-ages $5 ($4 with a book)

Themba and Nora also have a band with Kanako and Heather Dunn called Liar Bird, watch for them also!

3/30/02
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).

2/18/02
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.

2/2/02
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.

in the zum store:
Total Shutdown
Boxleitner
split 7"

 

interview:
Q and Not U

in the zum store:
Nuzzle
Junk of Myth '92-'95