Zorch

Zorch are currently on tour see ALL dates / details HERE It’s hard being in any band – but it’s especially tough for a two-piece.

When a duo doesn’t work, they can sound like an incomplete group. When it does work, however, there’s a certain chemistry that other bands can’t replicate. The Austin-based twosome Zorch -- which played a Red Bull Sound Select show last month in Dallas -- has this chemistry in spades, along with a knack for creating the sonic illusion that there are more members. Almost every song has a layered depth that’s very tricky to pull off live; while the music might seem like it’s about to go off the rails, it’s intricately planned and coordinated.

Sam Chown (a.k.a. Shmu) and Zac Traeger first met as dorm-mates at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. They built up both a friendship and a musical relationship, improvising two to six hours a day, though it wasn’t until the two moved away from Boston that they began writing their own music. Their decision to stay a duo was inspired by fellow two-piecers Lightning Bolt and Death From Above 1979, along with the breakthroughs in synth and computer technology for live performance.

Zorch© Daniel Cavazos

Zorch’s songwriting and recording process is also affected by the lineup. “The creative limitations I think are really interesting,” Traeger explains, “especially since we don’t have anything where we press play or play along to any sequencers. For this particular project, I think it just generates a different approach or thought process towards sampling or live performance.” While some bands have trouble replicating a track live, Traeger says they rarely have that problem: “Anything you hear on record, we already were able to play live.”

Zorch’s psychedelic tunes have earned high praise from Wayne Coyne and The Flaming Lips, who last year invited them to perform at The Womb, Coyne’s Oklahoma City art gallery. The duo also make an appearance on 'With A Little Help From My Fwends,' The Flaming Lips’ 'Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band' tribute album, performing 'Good Morning, Good Morning.'

According to Traeger, the band is currently kicking into high gear, with no plans to stop anytime soon. They recently recorded two collaborations (one with Marijuana Deathsquads, the other with Swans’ Thor Harris) that they hope to see released as albums. “We’ll probably write some more once we get done with this tour and record another Zorch album,” he adds.

Zorch© Karlo X Ramos

So what are their songs like? Consider 'Zut Alore,' from their debut full-length, 'ZZOORRCCHH.' Over Chown’s furious drumming, synth after synth fill up the space, while clearly building up to something big. Only in the last minute of the song do the vocals come in: "Giant surprise, we are lizards disguised and we're controlling your lives with trilateral spies."

The song refers to the belief that many world leaders, heads of state, and celebrities are actually shape-shifting reptilian aliens who want to control the Earth. It sounds strangely plausible. But does Zorch really believe this?

So far, the details about the Flaming Lips' forthcoming tribute album to the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band are about as ambiguous as the chicken-scratch list of contributors frontman Wayne Coyne posted on Instagram. However, we now have a fresh cut from the recording process courtesy of Zorch.

We're told the Austin psych-pop duo's version of the famous LP's titular track (below) is an outtake, and that Coyne also tapped Tegan and Sara, Foxygen, and My Morning Jacket for covers of the same tune. Some permutation thereof will end up on the final release, alongside the likes of Lips side project Electric Würms, Miley Cyrus, and Moby, whom we interviewed about the experience last month. We also had a chat with Coyne at Outside Lands about hitting the studio with Cyrus for the upcoming album, which is titled With a Little Help From My Fwends. According to the record's iTunes preorder page, it's is due out October 28.

Judging from Zorch's contribution, the other bands who recorded a version of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" have a lot to compete with, including a painstaking and ingenious recording process. The pair enlisted vocalists like Holland Andrews, Emma Ruth Rundle, Karla Manzur, Ben Aqua, Rich Aucoin, and Sam Chown to sing the track, then cut up each syllable and pieced it back together. Each syllable is sung by a different combination of the vocalists that never gets repeated, and the result is a borderline-noise take on a classic anthem.

SEE Zorch Live 2014: August 21 - Dallas, TX @ Sons of Hermann Hall w/ El Ten Eleven August 27 - St. Louis, MO @ The Livery August 28 - Chicago. IL @ The Burlington Bar August 29 - Pontiac, MI @ the Pike Room * August 30 - Toronto, ON @ Lee's Palce * August 31 - Montreal, QC @ La Vitrola* September 3 - Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall * September 4 - Washington DC @ Rock And Roll Hotel * September 5 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's * September 6 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Bowl * September 8 - Richmond, VA @ Gallery 5 Arts September 9 - Nashville, TN @ Queen Avenue September 10 - Texarkana, TX @ The Silver Dollar September 28 - Dallas, TX @ Index Fest November 8 - Austin, TX @ Fun Fun Fun Fest

Zorch have released a live in-studio performance video today via Earmilk. Watch the dual perspective clip for album track "Zut Alors" above from their album ZZOORRCCHH. Zorch have just finished recording a song for the Flaming Lips curated tribute album to Sgt Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band that will come out later this year. This Summer Zorch will take to the road for extensive North American dates and have also been tapped to play at this year's Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, TX in November. To see All Zorch Tour Dates & Details go HERE

Zorch have just been announced to play on the Blue Stage at Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, TX this year.  Dates and set times for all bands will be announced later in the year - tickets and all FFF Fest info can be found HERE. See ALL Zorch Tour Dates HERE

Zorch have begun tracking their song in Austin that will be their contribution to the new album curated by The Flaming Lips- we can't wait to hear this! "Big Beatles fans The Flaming Lips will be taking their love for that band even further when they release a full cover album of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, as The Future Heart points out. It follows the band's full-album covers of Pink Floyd, King Crimson, and The Stone Roses, and includes some big name guests including Miley Cyrus, MGMT, Tame Impala, Foxygen, Zorch and others. No release date, but stay tuned." - Read more about in Brooklyn Vegan HERE.

Zorch - Official SXSW Show Tue., March 11, North Door, 11pm

Consider how just two musicians summon the sonic tornado of joyous electro-madness that is Zorch.

Face-to-face, Zac Traeger and Sam Chown take their places and power up. Speckled by roving lasers, illustrative of the Austin duo's future psych, they come to life in a robo-blitz of jaw-dropping dexterity, speaking a secret language of math and mania.

Headbanging, Traeger appears to have grown a third arm as he works a keyboard setup that includes a Moog monosynth, on which he plays bass notes and generates arpeggios; a Prophet '08 analog keyboard; and a MIDI controller that triggers samples from his laptop. Each spastic composition from Zorch utilizes dozens, even hundreds of homemade samples.

Chown, meanwhile, makes most drummers look like they're napping. His wiry arms go berserk on an acoustic kit augmented with an electronic sample pad, while he sings lead vocals into a headset microphone that's run through a convoluted collection of pedals and stereo effects. Mid-song, he'll pop one foot on the drum throne, lay an electronic auto-harp over his knee, and flutter rapidly between two chords.

These are dedicated musicians who honed their considerable talents at Berklee College of Music, only to have eccentric tastes lead them away from convention and into the obscure lands of glitchy, synth-driven, psychedelic jazz-pop. Their wild sounds have caught the ear of oddball extraordinaire Wayne Coyne, leader of the Flaming Lips, who last summer invited Zorch to be the first band to play at his Oklahoma City art space, the Womb. More recently, Coyne asked Chown and Traeger to record a version of "Good Morning Good Morning" for a potential Sgt. Pepper project.

"I think Wayne sees us as younger weirdos carrying the torch of neo-psych," laughs Chown.

Zorch, who got an expert lift last year when they signed to L.A. indie Sargent House and released dynamite debut Zzoorrcchh, plans to have a laid-back SXSW.

"We'll play at least seven, maybe 10 shows," shrugs Traeger. "It will be the least amount of shows we've played during a South by Southwest."

In 2012, they played 19 sets, a Herculean feat when coupled with helping book the Escapes concert series at Club 1808 and South by South Mess at premier campus hang the 21st Street Co-op. What return have they seen on that investment?

"Well, we haven't got any white dudes in suits with cigars saying, 'I'm gonna make you famous!'" notes Traeger. "But a big part of South by Southwest is helping your friends from out of town. Everyone needs shows and doesn't know what's going on."

Bosnian Rainbows/Zorch at Trees, May 28 - Click for full review

I did not have the first idea what I was going to get from this concert. I was still mad at Omar for the Mars Volta ending, and someone had told me Zorch were good once. It was one of those gigs you're not even sure about attending. You know the sort, where you feel like you might be paying actual money to be disappointed and frustrated for several hours, as if you were attending a Cowboys game.

Zorch remains the full-on weirdest thing I saw in 2013, a pair of normal-looking guys that have no time for things like verse-chorus-verse structure or indeed time signatures, yet still play at a pace that would make Megadeth blush. I spent a long while exchanging looks with my colleague that established we didn't really understand a single thing that was happening right now, but it was fantastic. Bosnian Rainbows, meanwhile, were triumphantly great -- another feather in the cap of Rodriguez-Lopez.

Zorch tour starts next week with a couple shows added with our dear friend and musical companion New Fumes and then we will zig zag around to meet up with Tera Melos in Boise for the first show on October 15th. We also added a few new dates filling in the days off we had that do not have TM on them. SEE ALL SHOW DETAILS HERE ZORCH LIVE Oct 10 - Tulsa, OK @ The Soundpony w/ New Fumes Oct 11 - OKC, OK @ The Blue Note w/ New Fumes Oct 12 - Kansas City, MO @ The Record Bar

Zorch have been hand-picked by The Flaming Lips front-man Wayne Coyne to be the first band  to perform at the group's Oklahoma City art space, The Womb. Coyne's enthusiasm for Zorch spilled over to his Instagram account this week with several posts about the band and what sounds to be quite an event this Saturday, September 21st. Zorch will perform a portion of Igor Stavinsky's The Firebird Suite in their set per Coyne's request.

Zorch will then meet up with label mates Tera Melos in October for a tour that will also have Fang Island joining in on the East Coast dates as well making it a full Sargent House party. SEE ALL ZORCH DATES AND DETAILS HERE Sept 21 - Oklahoma City, OK @ WOMB

In this edition of Tools of the Trade, Austin duo Zorch demonstrate their love for their Suzuki Omnichords with a series of self-made videos.

“What’s Zorch like? 1 part Lightning Bolt, 1 part Yes circa 1975, 1 part Flaming Lips, 9 animal parts & 3 hits of acid.” – Thor Harris (drummer of Swans, Shearwater… captain of humanity)

Suzuki’s Omnichord is an instrument that has two primary groups of advocates. Group 1: really old people drawn in by the strange autoharp/chord organ replacement marketing on geocities websites, or group 2: experimental sound weirdos. We’re not that old yet, so we probably fall in the 2nd category. As you can see in the following videos, its a very versatile and amazing instrument that we both often use. I think we probably will end up being really old experimental sound weirdo people, then we will fall in all categories of Omnichord use. Hopefully that makes us pro level omni players and then we can bring our Omnichords to the afterlife or reincarnation or maybe it all just ends and no one gets Omnichords when they die. That would suck. Life rules way more with Omnichords.

Shmu (Sam Chown) of Zorch, easily one of our favorite drummers thanks to his patently stunning polyrhythms he smashes out on acoustic and electronic drums simultaneously. DON'T MISS ZORCH ON TOUR WITH TERA MELOS DATES HERE

Zorch is a duo of comprised of Berklee College of Music alumni Zac Traeger and Sam Chown. Together they brought a mutated mash-up of experimental, psychedelic, danceable tunes. They played through much of their new album ZZOORRCCHH while a screen hung in the center broadcasting visuals over their eclectic synth and drum kit set up. By this time the Museum was an inferno, but the crowd and performers alike were not phased.

Zorch – ZZOORRCCHH Sargent House

Back in February we featured Zorch in Under The Needle for their digital Cosmic Gloss/E.M.F.  ZZOORRCCHH , the debut Sargent House release, was kind enough to include the track “Cosmic Gloss” along with 8 brand new tracks.  I think this tweet from drummer extraordinaire Thor Harris ( @thorharris666 ) sums it up best:

“What ‘s Zorch like ? 1 part Lightning Bolt, 1 part Yes circa 1975 , 1 part Flaming Lips, 9 animal parts & 3 hits of acid.”

Pick up a copy over here –> Zorch – ZZOORRCCHH

There are some chances to see them live on tour in the PNW….with label mates Tera Melos! dates below, or see ALL ZORCH TOUR DATES HERE

It was another steamed afternoon in South Austin. In front of a mildly renovated nursing home, a sign that read “A Musician’s Community Center” marked the destination. A home only a hipster could love, with a crooked pathway leading from the parking lot to a makeshift porch underneath a roof that has seen its share of days. At first glance, there’s potential that this could be a humble place—but no.

Once inside, where “Get Well Soon” and birthday cards from grandchildren could have been neatly tacked before, graffiti now politely decorates the walls. Down a hallway, lined with matching doors and heavy locks, you can hear the guitar distortion that is the essence of the South Austin Music Room. However, just beyond the other side of one particular door frame halfway down that dimly light escape, a mismated kind of clicking and clacking leaks through the sound proof room.

Here, in between four dingy corners, wall-to-wall with wires and drum kit, is where the experimental band Zorch makes an approach to their own assorted genre.

Spastic Austin phych rippers Zorch have a new LP out now called ‘ZZOORRCCHH’. It’s great and if you haven’t heard it I think you should listen to it. I decided to have a little chat with the duo comprised of Zac Traeger and Shmu and see what they had to say. The catch is, we’ve all known each other for years now so inevitably this interview took a strange turn and all in all has very little to do with music. But, here it is…

TE: So you guys are on the road now, how that going?

SAM (Shmu): We’re having fun. Shows have been a mixed hand basket though, mostly positive.

ZAC: Great, just relaxing in denton right now, shows have been fun.

TE: What’s the worst show you have ever had? What happened?

SAM: I have a few: Memphis house party where it started with 30 people and ended with 7… They didnt like us. OR Athens, GA at Go Bar, same kinda deal but we were in rough shape: my headset mic was non operational so a guy offered to hold a mic for me while I sang into it, my drums were fucked, my amp wasn’t working, the room was small and tinny and we were loud and shrill…people were not into it.