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ou have to have been where you were
\J to get to where you are. That's the
story that takes shape when Jared
Gandy, Theo Hilton and Dain Marx dis
cuss their collective experience in the punk
band Zumm Zumm. While they've all gone on
to notoriety with bands like Witches, Nana
Grizol, Here Comes a Big Black Cloud and oth
ers, Zumm Zumm is where they cut their teeth.
Sitting around a table at Little Kings, the trio
recollect and re-recollect moments, finish each
other's anecdotes and half-attempt to explain
harebrained ideas that almost weren't or never
were. It's a confusing array of information.
The group formed in 2001 and first
formulated its musical identity at fondly
remembered DIY practice space/venue Tight
Pockets—"before it was Tight Pockets," notes
Gandy. The first show set the tone for the
band: theatrics, noise and an exuberance that
could only be described as youthful.
"Our first show was at the Caledonia, and
it was some show that Andre [Gallant, then
of Carrie Nations] put on. We had really good
costumes, but we didn't have any songs,"
says Hilton. "We billed ourselves as 'Athens'
premier queercore band,"' says Gandy. (At one
point, the band had tossed around the idea
of starting a Madonna cover band called The
Immaculate Collection.) That initial set fea
tured strippers, mock-whippings and Hilton
drawing a Zorro-like double-Z emolem on
audience members' chests. On a video docu
ment of the show, says Hilton, "you can hear
our friend Susie saying, 'They're so bad!' and
Andre's like, 'Sing into the microphone!"'
From there, the band continued on a simi
lar tear, recording constantly, touring and
working in a steady, if haphazard fashion.
Without settling on an easily defined sound,
an eclectic and jokey aesthetic began to
coalesce. "I almost want to call it a primordial
mess, but it's not really a mess; it's cohesive
to me," says Gandy. "A lot of songs ended up
climbing out of the ooze."
Following a chaotic set at one of Orange
Twin's first shows at its bucolic outdoor pavil
ion—which saw the bandmembers stripped
to their underwear and caked in red clay
mud—they were invited to tour with Elf Power
during the spring of 2003. With the help of
guitarist Ian McCord (Wade Boggs), Zumm
Zumm summarily subjected Elephant Six fans
across America to their noisy punk and con
frontational dancers.
' That tour almost broke us," says Hilton,
eliciting a huge laugh from Marx and Gandy.
"We were on tour in this 1972 Dodge van with
a flame job, and the gas tank had a leak that
just pissed out gasoline constantly—to the
point where we brought it to a shop and the
guy was just like, 'Get it out of here!"'
A short while after that tour, Hilton, Marx
and friend/tourmate Madeline Adams moved to
Bloomington, IN; from there, Marx headed to
Portland. (He has since moved back to town
and has joined no fewer than three bands:
Crun Pun, Gnarx and Green Thrift Grocery.)
Since then, Zumm Zumm has only made spo
radic appearances.
But the band reveals that the experience
shaped them as musicians and friends; it's
worth noting that it was on tour with Zumm
Zumm that Hilton first encountered future
allies and eventual bandmates in Defiance,
Ohio (a band, not a place) and. Toby Foster.
"We used to practice for five hours at a
time four or five days a week, which is crazy
because I've never done anything like that,"
says Hilton. "And then go watch movies all
night," adds Gandy. "Yeah, go smoke ciga
rettes at The Huddle House and write lyrics,"
laughs Hilton. Beyond the bonding experience,
it seems the band also provided an outlet for
its members' weirder ideas without any pres
sures whatsoever. Says Hilton: "The experience
of being in Zumm Zumm versus other bands
that are really special to me is, I feel like with
any band, I put a lot of attention and time
and effort into it. With Zumm Zumm, there
was less of this idea of needing to get things
done or move at a schedule, and more of an
idea of exploring what we could do and spend
ing a lot of time doing things in different
ways."
Jeff Tobias
\
WHO: Zumm Zumm, Madeline Adams,
Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship
WHERE: Go Bar
WHEN: Monday, Aug. 29,10 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $5 (suggested donation)
V J
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