“I'll form a new religion. I'll feed it to the pidgeons.”
it began in silicon valley...
Zru Vogue formed in Palo Alto, California in 1980, when three former members of Idiot (a 70s glam-rock-punk band steeped in irony) began experimenting with pop music by blending African tribal and Middle Eastern rhythms, ambient, and British-influenced avant-garde rock with dada sensibilities, minimal electronics, and funk-rock guitars.
cumulonimbus floats by
Zru Vogue’s first single “Nakweda Dream” was released by independent San Francisco label Adolescent Records in February 1981. "Nakweda Dream" was a college radio hit, topping indie playlists. The B-side "Cumulonimbus" was an atmospheric percussion-heavy experimental track described by England's New Musical Express as a "neo-African avalanche" that also received widespread airplay on college radio. "Nakweda Dream/Cumulonimbus" was criticallyl acclaimed in the alternative press, including Sub-pop who named it the best independent single of 1981.
breaking up is hard to do
From 1982 to 1984, Zru Vogue released an album and an EP, and played clubs in San Francisco and the bay area. In 1985, Zru Vogue disbanded and the core duo of Rick Cuevas and Andrew L. Jackson made solo records through the late 80's and 90's.
reunited and it feels so good
In 2002, Andrew and Rick reformed Zru Vogue and they have since recorded and released several albums of new material including Beautiful Again, Survival of the Cutest, and The Exile. Andrew and Rick continue to write and record solo albums and the occasional film soundtrack. In 2005, they shot a dada-inspired video for the song "Nuthin Means Nuthin" from the album Survival of the Cutest, with Patrick and Colin lending their talents as bag-headed backing musicians and Boris behind the camera.
living in the past
in 2007 Rick and Andrew put together a compilation CD, 5000 Years Ago, of extremely rare Zru Vogue songs from their early 80's living room demo tapes. Standout tracks are "Wigwam Woman," "Immaculate Conception," and "Move With The Water."
zru vogue in 2005 shooting the video for "nuthin means nuthin"
full of sound and fury, signifying nothing
Rick Cuevas and Andrew Jackson met in 1972 at Jordan Middle School in Palo Alto. Rick liked to draw scary cartoon faces and pictures of cars. Andy also liked to draw scary cartoon faces (and still does).
By 1974, Andy was getting good at playing guitar and starting to write songs. That year he bought his first electric guitar, a Fender Jazzmaster with a sunburst finish. Andy showed Rick some guitar chords, and soon Rick was playing guitar day and night.
Andy and Rick started their first band. Then when Andy met Tad at Paly High, Andy started writing songs with Tad (Tad’s words, Andy’s music). Their new band together, along with Tad's friends Tom and Paul, they called Idiot. The name was Shakespeare-inspired: Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing — a phrase that seemed to describe the band perfectly.
Alter-egos of the band Idiot included Parallel Grooves (Tad and Andy playing their acoustic party songs like "Ilsa, She-wolf of the SS"; imagine a thinner Tenacious D), The Bay Cruisers (a Bay City Rollers parody), Xander Povar and the Soul Commandos (soul music meets surrealism), Slim Chances (Tom and Andy's minimal pop duo), Starbrats ("glitter faggots from space"), and Wheatstraw ("we're from Nebraska" -- with Tad in a wig, Andy with ponytail and fake mustache, and Rick in blackface).
zero risk unobtainable
In 1979, Andy, Tom, and Tad made a newspaper Room of Concentration in their apartment. One of the walls had a headline that read “Zero Risk Unobtainable” so Andy wrote a song with that title, immediately followed by another song titled “Z.R.U. Part Two.”
In Palo Alto on New Year’s Eve 1980, Andy, Rick, and Tom performed at a party as The Random Factors. The sound was rhythmic, strange, chaotic, and near explosive. After the party, the ZRU from “Zero Risk Unobtainable” was coupled with “Vogue” and Zru Vogue became the new band name.
By June 1980, Nancy had joined Zru Vogue and they planned to record a single at Oasis Studio in San Francisco. The day before the recording session, Tom broke a bass string so they traded instruments and start improvising. A strange new song emerged, and in the 11th hour they chose to record it for the single instead of another song they’d rehearsed for months. That new song was “Nakweda Dream.”
“Nakweda Dream” b/w “Cumulonimbus” was released on Adolescent Records in February 1981. The first 3,000 copies sold out within months, and another 3,000 were pressed. Following a legendary performance with The Sleepers and DNA at the Savoy Tivoli in San Francisco’s North Beach, Tom and Nancy left the group, leaving Andy and Rick to continue Zru Vogue as a duo. At the same time, Andy and Rick began playing experimental electronic pop music with Christopher and Spike in a band project they called Science Patrol.
From 1982 to 1984,, Zru Vogue produced an album and an EP, and Science Patrol cut the EP "Bandit Ducks From Outer Space" that became an international cult hit.
After a 1985 New Year’s party at a friend’s art studio, Rick and Andy broke up Zru Vogue and each pursued solo projects.
On November 11, 1997, the six original members of Idiot got together for a reunion concert in Palo Alto. The Idiot reunion got Rick and Andy playing music together again. In 1998, Rick digitally remastered the original Zru Vogue recordings to CD, and Andy created the cover art for the compilation CD Zruism: Zru Vogue 1980-84. The CD included "Big Fish Swing," a previously unlreleased song from the 1982 recording sessions that didn't make it onto the Zru Vogue album.
Four years later in 2002, “Inside My Head” and “Cut the Cord” were the first two songs that Andy and Rick recorded together as “Zru Vogue” since the mid-1980’s. And in 2004, twenty-two years later, they completed Beautiful Again, the follow-up to 1982’s Zru Vogue The Album.
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