Geza X: Zolo Mommyman

Geza X is responsible for some of my favorite Zolo and Zonk tunes from the LA Punk/Newave scene. As a member of the Deadbeats he helped push the band into theatrical Zonk territory, especially on songs like Brainless from the band’s only single (on Dangerhouse).

Geza’s solo record, You Goddam Kids, is another Zolo gem. The jerky rhythms and xylophones take it over the top. Below are a couple of videos of live performances of my favorite songs on the LP, Practicing Mice and The Paranoids Are Coming.

New Jersey Teens Embrace Zolo Music

The Lucky Constrictors began in the spring of 2004, when it’s members were still in high school. I am not sure they are still making music together or if they are still in high school, but what they left us is certainly Zolo. There was word that the band had recorded a CD’s worth of material, but the only songs I can find are on their Myspace profile. Good stuff though. I think they listen to a lot of Mr. Bungle. Can anyone suggest any Mr. Bungle with a definite Zolo edge? The metal has always repulsed me.

Just When You Think You’ve Seen It All – pt. 3

Das Wanderlust

Friend Jason told me bout a new UK DIY group called Das Wanderlust. Pretty good stuff!

Their Myspace page has a few tracks for listen and download. The best was It Will Never Be The Same, with its swell polka dotted xylophone and polyphonic vocals. Nice Zolo touch.

Zolo in a Model Room

P-Model are my favorite Japanese Zolo group. Just about everything they released, from In A Model Room (1979) to P-Model (1992), is excellent. The first four albums have numerous Zolo standout tracks, which afterwards become scarcer throughout the discography. In A Model Room and the followup Landsale are easily grouped by their sonic resemblance, as are Potpourri and Perspective. The former pair treat Newave and Punk much like Devo and XTC, while the latter set moves into Post-Punk and Avant-Rock territory.

Here is a TV performance of Art Mania from the first album:

Quirk Out!

A few days ago I posted a youtube video of Stump’s Zolo masterpiece, Buffalo. Stump are one of those bands that are Zolo at their very core. Terry Sharkie gives a sufficient overview on the Zolophile Homepage, so I will just share that Stump’s bassist Kev Hopper has an excellent page on the band. Hopper had a bio of the band up for a while, but the website now features lots of rare photographs, a discography, and huge press archive.

Swing big bottom!

Zolo Art from French Comics in the Late 70’s

Whilst researching Mark Beyer for an upcoming post, I ran across some artists who are more flagrantly Zolo. This website led me to this one, which is chock-full of late 70’s-early 80’s underground comic artists, some of them very Zolo. The image above is a work by Pascal Doury. Some of the work by the Bazooka Group artists is also quite good:

Both websites linked above provide lots to explore.

@#*&%

@#*&%

Confusional Quartet

This instrumental Italian group emerged from the Bologna Punk/New Wave scene in the late 1970’s. The Quartet’s sound ranges from Jazz with faint Prog touches, to Punk and Wave, and to more experimental zones. The band’s Futurist influence is evident (not only for its synesthetic representation of Futurist art) as they sample a speech by Marinetti. Several Zolo cuts dot their first album (cover shown above), the most significant being their cover of Volare. Here is the video for that wonderfully zany song (included on the 2000 reissue on Elica).

Mary Fleener: Life of the Party

My roomate Seth recently introduced me to the work of Mary Fleener. She hits the Zolo style dead center.

Fleener started as a comic book artist, but moved onto paintings, illustrations, and sculpture.

She states in her bio, “My “cubismo” comic style was perfect for achieving a kinetic effect by using overlapping shapes and contrasting colors.”

Mary Fleener homepage.