ON TOUR IN ZEVIOUS 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
For show updates, please visit: Don't miss these opportunities to see Zevious perform LIVE!!!!
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 releasednay shot out of a cannoninto 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: For more information on their new release on Cuneiform, email Joyce [ at ] Cuneiform Records [ dot ] com. ********************************************
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Zevious Info: --------------------------- Zevious Spring Tour Dates: info "Zevious' music...is often jaw-droppingly intense and tight in concert" --------------------------- Video:
--------------------------- Zevious's Latest Album is on Cuneiform:
--------------------------- CUNEIFORM RECORDS: Waysidemusic.com --------------------------- 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
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