ZUM NEWS              current | 2002 | 2001 | 2000

12/25/01
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!

11/18/01
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.

9/27/01
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.

9/7/01
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.

8/15/01
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!

7/16/01
Heads up for anyone headed to Yo Yo a Go Go: the Intima have been officially added to the line-up and are also playing the Rock-Itch festival, going on between Yo Yo shows. All Rock-Itch shows are at the Arrowspace, are $4, and start at 7pm. The line-up is as follows - (7/17) the Replikants, Mac Dawgs Super Human Jukebox, ACamp; (7/18) the Intima, the Lowdown, Ibobuki, Comets on Fire; (7/19) the Places, Jeanne & Warren, el hombre invisible (aka Kanako), Romantic Retard Nation; (7/20) the Bangs, the Necktie Party, Guilty Teachers. There may or may not be a Boxleitner reunion on Saturday (7/21) at the Voyeur so keep an eye out. Regardless, you should go just to see Birthday Machine, Stefan of Beans other band with Miko from Gaze. The show runs from 5-7pm.

For those of you not headed up to Olympia this week, the Intima will be going on a national tour (west coast with Ibobuki) at the end of September. Beans are firming up their tour plans too. They set out for across Canada and the northern US at the end of August. We will have tour dates soon. Anyone in the northwest with two free days can join the band at the Sugar Refinery in Vancouver for their epic Forty-Eight Hours show starting midnight August 10th. If you can't be there for the whole thing, at least stop by and give 'em a wake-up nudge for us. By the way, you can now find the first Beans album, Portage, in the zum store.

7/2/01
Just a little late addendum to show news to say that Beans are also playing in Olympia on Friday, July 6th, with Amy Annelle of the Places, Xiu Xiu, and Verticalville at the Voyeur. They have a new site up at ibeanstrument.com with some mp3s and snippets from some very nice reviews of Crane Wars.

6/16/01
The official release of the Beans album, Crane Wars (zum012), has been pushed back two weeks to June 29th, but you can get your copy now (on CD or vinyl) from the ZUMonline store (now happy to be serving Canada and Europe). We've just gotten a preview of François Couture's review of the album for the All-Music Guide. "With Crane Wars, the Vancouver-based post-rock quintet Beans established themselves as a leading creative force in melodic experimental music." He strongly recommends it and we couldn't agree more! (gee, go figure)
Anyhow, we're very excited about this record and we hope you can join us in Vancouver on July 5th for the release show at the Starfish Room, with Beans, Dixies Death Pool, and Xiu Xiu. A good time will be had by all and we would love to see you there. If you don't live in the Northwest, do not fret--the Beans will be touring across Canada and the northern US in September. We will have tour dates on this site as they are confirmed.

The Intima are busy living in two towns and getting together to work on new music. You can find them on the new Eighty -North Records comp, Lullaby Lullaby, which also features Mirah, the Microphones, Wolf Colonel, Vehicle Flips, Jen Turrell, Audio Armada, and more. Speaking of Mirah, violinist Nora is playing on her album which will be out in a few months.
The Intima are not confirmed for Yo Yo yet, but they'll definitely be playing a show or two that week and they'll be on the next Yo Yo comp (out early next year). They have a 7" coming out on Post-Present Medium with three songs (two of them unreleased) and hand-screened covers. This release has been made possible by a Backstreet Boy (no shit). Look for it in July. The band plans to go on another national tour in October so you all have something to look forward to. Check their website for the latest.

Total Shutdown have been playing around San Francisco non-stop and receiving press mentions in the SF Bay Guardian, SFGate, MRR, HeartattaCk, and more. They are planning a tour to the Southwest and Midwest in early August. They have a compilation track forthcoming on the Troubleman Mixtape (along side the Intima, Petty Crime, Pink and Brown, !!!, OutHud, etc.) and releases scheduled for Thin the Herd, Life is Abuse, and Sound on Sound. Bassist/vocalist Nate Denver has a solo record entitled "Nate Denver's Neck" coming out this summer on King Crab (a new label founded by Mick Turner of Dirty Three). He is also playing in a straight-edge band with George called Sobretooth.

Boxleitner have decided to make their unofficial hiatus a permanent condition. Gabriel is playing in another excellent band called the Silents (with Lara of the Receptionists) and is moving to Portland with Owen (aka Casiotone for the Painfully Alone). Ian is a permanent member of the Jim Yoshii Pile-Up and Ceci is concentrating on school and doing college radio. Boxleitner have a track on the upcoming San Francisco compilation entitled Tired of Standing Still along with members of Tarentel and JYPU.

As mentioned above, Xiu Xiu will be taking a short jaunt up the west coast the first week of July to play the Beans record release show. They will also be making appearances at the following locales: Portland, Melanie's house (7/4), Olympia, the Voyeur (7/6), and Seattle, the Paradox (7/7). On the home front, Jamie Stewart has set up a series of benefit shows for Mines Advisory Group, a community landmine awareness program for the Vietnam/Laos border. We'll have the shows posted on our Bay Area shows page.

4/1/01
Hope none of you have been too psychologically scarred on this day of fools and loss of an hour. We'll keep this one fairly short and sweet. The Intima will be heading down the West Coast in a couple weeks. Check our tour dates for where you can catch them. We want to bring special attention to the show at the Smell on April 21st in L.A. as it will be an extra zummy event. Nuzzle and Xiu Xiu (the band Yvonne's in) will be joining our Portland pals so come on over and say hi. Xiu Xiu has two songs out on comps now: you can find one in the latest issue of Cool Beans and the other on Translation. Music., a comp put out by Don Lee Records. You can now find Translation. Music. in the zum store.

Boxleitner and Total Shutdown will continue their split tendancies by sharing an Insound chat on April 17th. You can prep for questions by reading the Boxleitner interview at Mister Ridiculous.

2/26/01
It's been all of too busy at zum headquarters these days. Friday, the 23rd, saw the release of our latest foray into sound, the Total Shutdown / Boxleitner split 7" (zum013), co-released by Olympia's Thin the Herd. This family of Bay Area noiseniks rips up two sides of white vinyl and leaves you chanting for more. It's available at both Amoebas, Aquarius, Open Mind, and many more to come. Total Shutdown are playing many a show around town and now that George is back from NYC, Boxleitner should go back to being more of a permanent live fixture. (Ian is super busy with his other band, Jim Yoshii Pile-Up, who are playing Noise Pop, releasing an album on Absolutely Kosher, and heading out on tour for South by Southwest. Speaking of our East Bay homies, congrats to Ryan and Christine on their January wedding!)

Come see Pete from Total Shutdown's other band, Ee (ex-Korea Girl and Seam), along with Orange Space (ex-members of the Boredoms and Ladybug, coming all the way out from Chicago just for this show), Deerhoof, and The Fairways at Cafe du Nord in San Francisco on Sunday, March 11th, at 9pm. This is part of the Directions In Sound program for the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. The other night of the program is on Saturday, March 10th, at the Justice League and will feature videos as well as live performances from Terracotta Troop, Azaad, Mike Park, and the Skyflakes.

We just got back from a nice visit with The Intima in Portland and they have all kinds of things going on. Their first interview is now online at Mister Ridiculous and will also be available in some form in an upcoming issue of Punk Planet (#44). They also have an interview coming out in the next issue of Skyscraper and received a very favorable review in the last issue of Clamor. Things are going comptastic as the Contact Records (Japan) Northwest comp and the Portland Mercury's Compact Disc of Sound have just been released. A West Coast April tour is in the works, including shows with Gogogo Airheart, the Rapture and Le Shok. They've also been offered a huge show in the midwest but we won't go into details until it's all firmed up. shhh...

The Beans's second full-length is just a couple weeks shy of leaving our hands. We've got Crane Wars (zum012) CD and vinyl scheduled to hit the streets of your town in May. In the meantime, you can find their song "Ponderosa" on the Fat Cat Records (UK) comp No Watches. No Maps. There will be no Beans shows until June as the actor in the group is off in Toronto (all the way across the country) filming a submarine pic, but a record-release show and a 48-hour benefit marathon at the Sugar Refinery will be must-attend events after his return to Vancouver.

Nuzzle, has a live performance coming up in Southern California. They will be playing with Track Star and Aden at Koo's Cafe on March 18th. Sam is moving back down to LA and there are some new recordings in the works, so check out www.nuzzlemusic.com for updates.

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