ZEBU!: Chill Wave - a Feeding Tube Records Release ...by Steven D'Agostino

ZEBU!: Chill Wave

...by Steven D'Agostino

Feeding Tube Records is proud to present ZEBU!’s Eighth Record. The basic duo consists of Steve D’Agostino and Ted Lee, but they are neither averse to allowing guest members to pop in for a few shots, nor are they afraid to allow their releases to follow certain semi-conceptual boundaries.

This one – if actually categorizable as anything – serves as ZEBU!’s surf album. With saxophone by Peter Van Siclen, and bass by either Jonathan Granoff or Stephen Surrett, ZEBU! creates an atmosphere not unlike the woozy venues frequented by Eric Von Zipper in William Asher’s mid ‘60s series of beach movies.

There are a couple fo slow tunes tossed in for Annette, but the large part of this stuff is classicist American instrumental ho-daddyism. The structure of the album is typically whacked – snippets of Volcano Suns-like indie-rock and semi-abstract power blurts pop up here and there -- but the semiotic heft of the record is shockingly straight-ahead. It’s almost as though these guys were trying to figure out how to make teenagers spin their pony skirts the way they once did. Catch a wave and you’re sitting on top of the world. Honest.