listen loud and often for maximum refreshment
surrealist electronica-insectica: a day in the life of the zru
japanese schoolgirls and pretty fairies falling into quicksand
melting brains and waking dreams: now you get a second chance to be beautiful
> Unlimited Enjoyment Instant Gratification
one atomic robot man and several beautiful people are abducted by aliens
"the whispers of san francisco are sometimes more haunting than the screams of LA"
"five thousand years ago, my young and beautiful face. i am lovely with erosion. i have a head full of earth and whispers. heaven, where a bed is cheap."
the music of zru vogue
If you listened to college radio in the early 1980's, then you undoubtedly heard Zru Vogue. Several Zru Vogue songs received airplay, including "Cumulonimbus,” "The Dream Stops," and "Do The Zru.” But the underground hit of its day was "Nakweda Dream," a haunting, ethereal song with a lilting melody that Sub-Pop Magazine named the best independent single of 1981.
"Nakweda Dream" (Adolescent) started out as a spontaneous improvisation. Two days before the band's scheduled recording session they scrapped the song they had been rehearsing for months and decided instead to record this mysterious new song. The B-side "Cumulonimbus" began as a small hastily drawn chart with various squiggly lines representing different instruments and noises that band members then diligently interpreted by banging on percussion instruments, vocalizing incoherently, and playing conventional instruments "wrong."
beauty and decay
Zru Vogue’s first album was released in 1982, and six subsequent albums have been produced since 1998 (five of them within the last five years, including a couple of retrospective CDs). Zru Vogue songs are about life, love, beauty, decay, loss, transition, and transformation.Many Zru songs are atmospheric and open to interpretation by the listener. Arrangements tend to be imaginative and unusual, from the arty pop minimalism of “Japanese Schoolgirl Mapping Device” to the moody mysteriousness of “This Will Make You Beautiful Again” and the electronic experimentation of songs on “The Exile.”
serendipitous spontanaeity
Most Zru Vogue songs begin as words scrawled in the book that Andrew Jackson always carries around with him and keeps at his bedside. Typically Jackson will then put some music to the words and then Cuevas and Jackson flesh out the arrangements in the recording studio. But just as often, they’ll start experimenting with sounds in the recording studio and get inspired to take a song in a new and unexpected direction. To capture a fresh, authentic quality in their recordings, Jackson and Cuevas prefer to record most basic tracks in a single take, and whenever possible, use the first takes from their overdubs as well. Any resulting imperfections or serendipitous “mistakes” help to give the recorded music more life.
video feature:
Music video for the song "Nuthin Means Nuthin." The song is from the Zru Vogue CD Survival of the Cutest. Words and music by Andrew L. Jackson. Performed by Zru Vogue (Andrew Jackson and Rick Cuevas). Video guest stars Patrick Coyne and Colin Jackson. Masks by Devi Jackson, Colin Jackson, Andrew Jackson, and Rick Cuevas. Backgrounds filmed by Oren Ratowsky. Video directed by Boris Darling.
zruism and related music
pre-zruism
Before Zru Vogue, there was Idiot — a loud and iconoclastic 70's rock band. When Idiot broke up in 1977, three members of the group went on to play music together in backyards and living rooms. Eventually, in 1980, the band evolved into Zru Vogue and a new related self-mythology emerged along with it.
neo-zruism
Sometime in 1981, an alernative entity came into play: Science Patrol. Starting out as a recording studio experiment, Science Patrol spent many a late night at Bayshore Studios in San Carlos fueled by 24-hour donuts and 7-11 coffee and recording improvised electronic-pop tracks. "Bandit Ducks From Outer Space" was one product of these sessions. A ten-minute opus of chaotic, interwoven multi-tracked guitars and synthesizers, grounded by an incessant electronic drum beat and bass line, the recording was eventually mixed down to a mere 7 minutes, 50 seconds and released as a 33-1/3 7-inch EP on the band's own Zero Risk Records.
solo works - extending zruism
Original Zruists Andrew Lawrence Jackson, Rick Cuevas, and Max Tyrell have each released a number of solo albums since the original Zru Vogue disbanded in 1982. From 1982 to 1985, Jackson and Cuevas performed and recorded as Zru Vogue. Following a long respite (and a good number of solo albums), Jackson and Cuevas began recording and performing as Zru Vogue again in 2002.