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| History: Zip Tang began as a conversation between Perry Merritt and Richard Wolfe when they met at a local jam session in the summer of 2003. Rick had moved to Chicago from Michigan in the '80s and played bass in a couple of hard rock bands that had varying degrees of success. Perry and Rick had both been musicians since childhood in the '70s and they both quit playing for several years in the '90s while pursuing careers outside of music and getting married - and divorced a couple of times in one case. |
Both feeling the need to end their hiatus, they sought out some local jam sessions and met in a basement in the Chicago suburb of Lincolnwood, IL. Coming from Classic Rock backgrounds and bands, but sharing an interest in more Progressive Rock, they agreed that they were looking to find and play more challenging music and the discussion turned towards finding a drummer. Fred had been playing drums in Buffalo since childhood and played in various rock, jazz, musical theater and "Holiday Inn Circuit" situations throughout the '80s. Fred moved to the Chicago area and had been playing with The College Of DuPage Jazz Ensemble and other Jazz bands to keep his chops up. His buddy, another drummer from New York, saw Perry and Rick's ad for " a Jazz/Rock drummer" and forwarded it to Fred. "We asked drummers auditioning to come prepared to play "Green Earrings" by Steely Dan. We thought that would be a good challenge and represented the kind of influence we wanted to incorporate into our harder rock backgrounds. After several drummers auditioned, Fred showed up and after the first few bars of Green Earrings, we knew we had found our third member". The search then turned towards finding a keyboard player but turned out to be a much harder task than anticipated. Fred mentioned to his fellow College Of DuPage Jazz Ensemble musician friend Marcus, who primarily plays saxophone, if he knew of anyone and Marcus quipped "I play a little keys also". The quartet was formed. The band -- then known as RPM -- started out playing covers of some of their favorite artists such as Steely Dan, Santana, Phish, The Allman Brothers, Jeff Beck, and Yes. Choosing admittedly difficult songs helped them hone their individual, as well as their collective chops, and got them ready for the next logical step -- writing and recording their own material. Initially reluctant to go beyond playing unusual and impressive covers at local venues, coupled with the concern of whether or not they could approach the caliber of their favorite artists in writing and execution, jamming inevitably ensued and original creations and concepts began pouring out of their modest studio in Perry's basement. Having the most previous experience in writing, Marcus lent some of his lyrics, older and new, to the developing "jams" forcing some structure to develop around them. Perry started dabbling in writing some lyrics (Tower Of Tuna), Marcus added a simple melody, and Fred and Rick gave it a heartbeat. Almost unwittingly the band quickly started churning out songs using the same formula, with Marcus supplying most of the lyrics and the band shaping jams around them. Heading in a new direction, and finding that there were way too many bands out there with the moniker RPM, the band changed it's name to Zip Tang. In a few months they had enough good originals, they thought, to record what would become their first album "Luminiferous Ether" including their ultimate, and possibly their last, cover - Tarkus by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Frankly, there wasn't quite enough great original material to fill out a full LP. Tarkus at about 20 minutes would do nicely especially since they spent so many months learning and perfecting it to play it live knowing full well it's a piece for only the most ardent prog fans. It also served to showcase their individual and collective instrumental talents not necessarily showcased fully on their early originals. Perry, being somewhat of a self proclaimed tech/geek, and partially because the gear was in his basement, began learning all he could about digital recording and the new gear they upgraded to - a Mackie Onyx mixer with a Firewire connection to an old pc, and a hodge podge of old microphones and rack-mount gear left over from Rick and Marcus's previous musical endeavors. Somewhat to their surprise, "LE" received overwhelmingly great reviews from various rock and progressive rock internet forums and e-zines, and with the help of the internet started a minor buzz with new fans buying the CD in the US, Europe and South America. Perhaps equally surprising were comments made about the quality of the recording and mixing ("the best sounding self produced album I can ever remember hearing") considering Perry had virtually no previous experience recording, nor mixing or mastering just a year earlier. Although they only sold enough CDs to barely cover expenses, the response encouraged them to continue. While Perry was mixing and mastering LE (with the band contributing their input), Zip Tang continued writing and jamming and accumulated quite a large back log of material, some that eventually developed into the eleven tracks of their second release - "Pank". |