ON TOUR IN
SPRING 2011...

ZEVIOUS

The New York punk-jazz rockers hit the road!

 

"The music of Zevious shrewdly juxtaposes order and its opposite: structural intensity pushed to its breaking point in the most appealing way. These boys are brilliant and fearless."
Vijay Iyer

Zevious is a genre-bursting, out/electric/punk-jazz trio based in New York City. It consists of cousins Mike Eber on guitar and Jeff Eber on drums, and Johnny DeBlase on bass. Zevious’ sound is equally influenced by the improvisational approach of contemporary jazz artists Vijay Iyer and Ben Monder, polymetric metal of bands like Meshuggah, and vintage jazz and rock by such jazz fusion groups as Mahavishnu Orchestra and avant-progressive/Rock in Opposition bands like Magma. Songs wind through odd-metered, groove-laden landscapes that morph into brooding, reflective passages. Interspersed with edgy, hard-riffing contrapuntal guitar and stop-on-a-dime breaks, such tunes tread treacherous sonic grounds and reveal Zevious’ ability to shred.  Zevious is one of the most distinctive and aggressive genre-defiant/fusion bands in the burgeoning punk-jazz movement, a 21st century update on the compositional ferocity of bands like Fred Frith’s Massacre, Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Decoding Society, and James Blood Ulmer’s Music Revelation Ensemble.

TO PRESS & RADIO:

If you would like to INTERVIEW Zevious while on the road for your publication or radio show, or if you would like to REVIEW one of their LIVE SHOWS, please contact:

Joyce: joyce [at] cuneiformrecords.com
and/or
Mike: mikeeber1 [at] gmail.com

TOUR DATES:

Mar 26
Dallas, TX
The Phoenix Project
406 S. Haskell
Dallas, TX

Mar 27
8 pm
Austin, TX
Salvage Vanguard Theater
2803 Manor Rd
Austin, TX 78722
(hosted by Church of the Friendly Ghost)
All ages, $10-$30 sliding scale (pay what you can)
Mar 28
Ft. Worth, TX

Elmo Jones Metal/Punk Music Complex
8329 Camp Bowie W.
Ft. Worth, TX 76116

With Raging Boner
Mar 29
Midland, TX
Scorpion's Nest
406 Alta Ave
Midland, TX 79705

Free house show
Mar 30
9 pm
Tucson, AZ

Solar Culture Gallery
31 East Toole Avenue
Tucson, AZ 85701
(520) 884-0874

With Gamma Like Very Ultra,
21+, $8
Mar 31
7:30 pm
Phoenix, AZ
The Trunk Space
1506 NW Grand Ave
Phoenix, AZ 85007
(602) 256-6006
With Destroyah, Permanent Squint, and The Bovine Fury
All ages, $6-$8
Apr 1
8 pm
Los Angeles, CA

The Smell
247 South Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 625-4325

With Upsilon Acrux
All ages, $5
Apr 2
7 pm
Oakland, CA
Mama Buzz
2318 Telegraph Ave,
Oakland, CA 94612
With Groundskeeper and Narooma
Apr 3
Reno, NV
St. James Infirmary
445 California Avenue
Reno, NV 89501
With Frendo
Apr 5
7 pm
Denver, CO

The Walnut Room
3131 Walnut St
Denver, CO, 80205

With Bottesini Project Presents: Paul Riola Quintet
21+, $5
Apr 6
9:30 pm
Lincoln, NE

Zoo Bar
136 North 14th Street
Lincoln, NE 68508
(402) 435-8754

With Masses
Apr 7
Kansas City, MO

The Brick
1727 McGee Street
Kansas City, MO 64108-1423
(816) 421-1634

With Nomad Atlas
Apr 8
9 pm
St. Louis, MO
Schlafly Tap Room
2100 Locust St
St. Louis, MO 63103
(314) 241-2337
With Spelling Bee and Britches
21+
Apr 9
Grand Rapids, MI
Mexicains Sans Frontieres
120 S Division Av #226, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
With Night Toucher
Apr 10
8 pm
Indianapolis, IN

Melody Inn
3826 North Illinois Street
Indianapolis, IN 46208
(317) 923-4707

With Kuan, Gash Hound, and Goliathon
21+, $5
Apr 11
9 pm
Dayton, OH

South Park Tavern
1301 Wayne Avenue
Dayton, OH 45410
(937) 586-9526

With Kuan
All ages, $5
Apr 12
Columbus, OH
Bernie's Distillery
115 Parsons Ave
Columbus, OH 43215
With Kuan, Pat Brown, Kieren Smith, Famous Like You, and Skies Alive
Apr 13
8 pm  
Rochester, NY
The Bug Jar
219 Monroe Avenue
Rochester, NY 14607-3527
(585) 454-2966
With Rickles and Epilogue
18+. $5/$7
Apr 14
8 pm
Ithaca, NY
Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA)
3rd Floor Auditorium
330 E State St
Ithaca, NY 14850
With Makeshift and The Invisible Hand
All ages, $5
Apr 15
9 pm
New Haven, CT

Elm Bar
372 Elm St
New Haven, CT 06511

With Old Man Lady Luck
21+. $3


Don't miss these opportunities to see Zevious perform LIVE!!!!


********************************************

After the Air Raid

Listen to "Where's the Captain?"

Press Release:

Zevious is a genre-bursting, out/electric/punk-jazz trio based in New York City. It consists of cousins Mike Eber on guitar and Jeff Eber on drums, and Johnny DeBlase on bass. Zevious’ sound is equally influenced by the improvisational approach of contemporary jazz artists Vijay Iyer and Ben Monder, polymetric metal of bands like Meshuggah, and vintage jazz and rock by such jazz fusion groups as Mahavishnu Orchestra and avant-progressive/Rock in Opposition bands like Magma. Songs wind through odd-metered, groove-laden landscapes that morph into brooding, reflective passages. Interspersed with edgy, hard-riffing contrapuntal guitar and stop-on-a-dime breaks, such tunes tread treacherous sonic grounds and reveal Zevious’ ability to shred.  Zevious is one of the most distinctive and aggressive genre-defiant/fusion bands in the burgeoning punk-jazz movement, a 21st century update on the compositional ferocity of bands like Fred Frith’s Massacre, Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Decoding Society, and James Blood Ulmer’s Music Revelation Ensemble.

Mike Eber and DeBlase met in 1999 while attending Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania and instantly hit it off musically. After graduating with music degrees, the two worked as freelance musicians in PA, playing together in several rock, funk, and jazz projects, and gigging extensively in the Lehigh Valley Area, both in their own groups and in other’s jazz projects. Eber eventually made his way to New York City in 2004, and in 2005, DeBlase moved to Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Mike’s cousin Jeff, who had studied music at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, had been touring the US with his instrumental avant-progressive-metal group Dysrhythmia (who have numerous albums on Relapse Records). Coming off the road in 2005 after extensive touring, Jeff Eber settled in the New York area.  Sharing an interest in starting a straight-ahead jazz project, Jeff, his cousin Mike, and DeBlase decided to form the group Zevious.

Zevious’ first gig was at Lounge Zen in Teaneck, NJ during the summer of 2006.  The early group used all-acoustic instrumentation – Mike Eber playing hollow body jazz guitar, DeBlase playing upright bass, and drummer Jeff Eber keeping everything swinging. The band performed at numerous jazz clubs. Deblase, who would travel from Philly to rehearse and perform with Zevious, moved to NYC in 2007. In August 2007 the trio went into the studio and began recording its self-titled debut CD, Zevious, which it self-released in 2008. Zevious showcased the band’s early, acoustic, more traditional jazz-based approach, featuring knotty jazz compositions and technical soloing. Sold at their gigs and used to obtain numerous additional shows, Zevious’ debut CD helped establish the band’s reputation on the East Coast’s live music scene.

Shortly after Zevious,’ release, by the beginning of 2008, the band began developing a new, more electric and more radically genre-defiant sound that had been incubating since its first recordings. Mike Eber ditched his jazz guitar for a Telecaster, DeBlase replaced his upright with an electric bass, and both picked up distortion pedals and cranked them up. Zevious began to forge a unique compositional style, combining progressive rock grooves, technical metal, structured group improvisation, and complex song forms with a more conventional jazz sound. The band began playing numerous shows in New York City and across the northeastern US, in a wide variety of venues ranging from art spaces in Brooklyn, to dilapidated concrete shacks in central Virginia, to more mainstream rock and jazz clubs, proving itself to be comfortable and ferocious in any live setting. Zevious often shared the stage with other independent acts who can not be stylistically pigeonholed, such as Faun Fables, Circles, Scurvy, STATS, and Kevin Hufnagel.

After the Air Raid is Zevious’ second album and its first release on Cuneiform.  The culmination of nearly two years of composing and performing, the CD features music that is carefully crafted and exquisitely yet aggressively played. The music winds through peaks and valleys of odd-metered bass and drum grooves, contrapuntal guitar vamps, poly-metric riffing, and hard hitting drum workouts. Coupled with more subtle, introspective, and often brooding segments, After the Air Raid is a record with lasting depth. Beautifully and clearly recorded by Colin Marston (of Behold...the Arctopus), After the Air Raid is masterfully presents Zevious’ powerful live sound.

Zevious In The Press:

"If your thing musically is the prototypical, gnarly, and loud instrumental power trio, then Zevious should be right up your alley...Zevious makes inroads toward establishing a new fusion amalgam in varying tones and shapes...Where Zevious definitely suggests a Zen-like concept wielded onto a devitied (or even devious) attitude, you’ll find the music is fully realized, a terrible wholeness reflective of today’s societal anxiety and tenseness released—nay shot out of a cannon—into the ether" – Michael Nastos, All Music Guide

"Zevious is capable of some heinous shit and unbelievable complexity, but thankfully you don’t have to understand it to be in awe of it." – Ross Edwards, Knocks From The Underground

"The music of Zevious would be the result of improvisation of aleatory, if the group didn’t navigate its self-assembled rhythmic obstacle courses with such uncanny precision." – Ryan Wasoba, Riverfront Times

"These guys have melded the '70's Progressive Fusion "Rock idea with a modern sensibility o fideas that should find a home with fans of Mahvishnu Orchestra to Frank Zappa to Progrssive Metal fans of bands like Meshuggah...Structurally intense, odd and seemingly backwards at times, Zevious do seem utterly mad and genius at the same time...This is just simply a really cool record." – Butch Jones, Sea of Tranquility

"There are moments in this album [After The Air Raid] that I want to re-live, at different times to see how I hear it at that moment. Can’t wait to find the right emotions for each track, it hits me just right!!!" – Green Arrow Radio

For more information, visit Zevious online at:
www.zevious.com
www.myspace.com/zevioustrio
www.facebook.com/zevioustrio

For more information on their new release on Cuneiform, email Joyce [ at ] Cuneiform Records [ dot ] com.

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THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING ADVENTUROUS MUSIC!

If you have received this email in error and want to be removed from Cuneiform's email news list, please ask me [Joyce] to 'PLEASE REMOVE"

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Zevious Info:

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Zevious Spring Tour Dates: info

"Zevious' music...is often jaw-droppingly intense and tight in concert"
-Washington City Paper

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Video:

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Zevious's Latest Album is on Cuneiform:


After the Air Raid
Listen to a track:
"Where's the Captain?"
[More Info]

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CUNEIFORM RECORDS:
Official Website
MySpace
Twitter
Facebook

Waysidemusic.com
(our web store)

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TO PRESS & RADIO:

If you would like to INTERVIEW Zevious while on the road for your publication or radio show, or if you would like to REVIEW one of their LIVE SHOWS, please contact:

Joyce: joyce [at] cuneiformrecords.com
and/or
Mike: mikeeber1 [at] gmail.com

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