ZEBU! has created improvisational surf-noise-punk for an impressive eight years, and is determined to let nothing slow it down—perhaps not even the death of one of its two members.
“We’re gonna do this ’til one of us dies, or both,” says Ted Lee, who provides drums, lead vocals and prepared guitar. “But if Steve [D’Agostino, guitars and vocals] dies, I’ll just play with a record and a picture of Steve with some dancing people in freak-folk get-ups. Should be a good time.”
“If Ted dies I’ll just pay to stuff him and just play along to recordings, Milli Vanilli-style,” D’Agostino says.
The band members met at Hampshire College in 2007, when D’Agostino and Nick Williams knocked on Lee’s door and asked if he wanted to play drums. He acquiesced, and the trio jammed as Professor Fishface and the Fuckfaces before Lee suggested ZEBU!, a name he had written down as a possible band moniker while in high school in Providence, R.I.
The group played incessantly before Williams moved on to create Cave Bears. The remaining duo continued with different members before deciding that two was enough.
“We always came back to Steve and myself,” Lee says. “No bass needed—the empty space was more than enough bass.
“I think since it’s just the two of us doing this beast of a band, it’s pretty easy to keep the beast together.”
With influences varying as wildly as its sound—from the Sonics to Frank Sinatra to Gary Wilson—the duo is fully immersed in the medium, as evidenced by its almost overwhelming discography.
“Music is life. It’s going on outside the Feeding Tube every day and inside it,” says Lee, citing the Northampton record store he operates with Williams.
“You’re wrong, Ted,” D’Agostino says. “Music is living. And in our cases a way to make a mediocre money pit.”
The fellows are heading to Germany soon for two weeks, to “play some rock ‘n’ roll for the beautiful German people.” They are also releasing a surf album recorded with Justin Pizzoferrato, a split seven-inch record with Atlanta’s Savant, and a limited edition “Nolte 4 LP” set which collects audio from their previously-released “Nick Nolte” cassettes.
D’Agostino is off to teach in Georgia, leaving Lee to man Feeding Tube and continue cultivating sounds through other channels. Rest assured, the two will still find plenty of ways to collaborate, until death—and beyond.”
ZEBU! kicks off its global domination tour at Flywheel in Easthampton July 4 along with Humans and other special guests. For more info, visit www.ubezzebu.com.
