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Zs is a Brooklyn, New York based experimental/avant-garde band. Since the band’s inception ZS has incarnated as everything from a sextet to a duo, most recently solidifying into the trio of Patrick Higgins (electric guitar), Greg Fox (percussion), and Hillmer. While Zs' music has been variously categorized as no-wave, noise, post-minimalist, drone, and psych, it is primarily concerned with making music that challenges the physical and mental limitations of both performer and listener. The band has been heralded by New York Times as "one of the strongest avant-garde bands in New York." ==Biography== Zs was founded in 2000 by tenor saxophonist and composer Sam Hillmer. In 2003, the group (as Alex Hoskins, Brad Wentworth, Charlie Looker, Matthew Hough, Alex Mincek and Sam Hillmer) released ''Untitled'', a two-track written by Looker released on Ricecontrol Records. In July of the same year, the band released ''Zs'', recorded at Westbeth Studios, in New York City, consisting of 5 tracks primarily written by Alex Mincek and Sam Hillmer, the two saxophonists. In November of that year, the EP ''Karate Bump'' was recorded in Brooklyn. It was later released by Planaria Recordings in March 2005. ''Magnet'', a single-track CD written by Matthew Hough, was released in December 2005, followed by ''Buck'', released on cassette by Folding Cassettes in 2006 and on CD by Gilgongo Records in 2007. The LP ''Arms'' was also released in 2007. Interestingly, Zs were thrown into the spotlight on a November 2007 broadcast of the Howard Stern show, in which Stern played tracks from ''Arms'' and subsequently started a discussion on avant-garde music, and an impromptu exploration of a list of theoretical questions about what constitutes "music" and why we listen to it. In a particularly memorable moment, while listening to the opening notes of "Woodworking", Stern stated, "it's mood music... if you're in a mental home," later asking "do they write this stuff down? Can this be repeated? How do you tell when something's 'good'?" By the end, Stern and his cast had decided to form their own faux-avant-garde ensemble, and talked about trying to open for Zs' upcoming Knitting Factory performance. ''B Is For Burning'', a track from ''Arms'', was released as a 7" live recording in two parts in February 2008 by Rock Is Hell records. In August 2008, Zs and Child Abuse released a split album on Zum records, the A side of which was the Zs track ''In My Dream I Shot A Monk''. The cover painting was "Incident at the barbecue" by John Dwyer. The same year, ''The Hard EP'' was released by Three One G, and received critical acclaim, with Chris Sabbath of the San Francisco Bay Guardian writing "Zs excels with high marks across the board... earch member vents ballistic impulses into one giant movement of astounding precision. Throughout its 15-minute sprawl, () are so accurate in their delivery that you start to question the laws of memory and begin to wonder if some telepathic device factors into the outfit's formula..." In April 2009, a remix album was released entitled ''Zs Remixed''. The album contains two tracks remixed by Excepter's Nathan Corbin (Zebrablood), each followed by their original. The remixed songs are "Except When You Don't Because Sometimes You Won't" (which originally appeared on ''Arms'') and "Bump" (which originally appeared on ''Karate Bump EP''). On July 7, 2009 ZS released its first record for the label The Social Registry. ZS' first record without longtime member Charlie Looker (who had left to build his band Extra Life) the band explored the possibilities of the studio as compositional tool for the first time. While none of the music on this record was ever performed live, the band did do several short tours of the East Coast and Canada. In May 2009, Zs played at the prestigious Moers Festival, an international jazz festival in Moers, Germany. In December of the Same year ZS played in Madrid and Barcelona as part of the famed Prima Vera festival. In early 2010 ZS made its first excursion through the southern states of the US culminating in 10 performances at Austin's South By Southwest Festival. On May 11, 2010 ZS released their 2nd full length record New Slaves, also on the Social Registry. The record was celebrated by the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/arts/music/10choi.html, Pitchfork http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14230-new-slaves/, and the Village Voice http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2010/04/premiere_downlo.php, and was named Album of the Year by Tiny-Mix-Tapes.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=50 albums that defined our 2010 )〕 In support of the bands longest and most ambitious full length record ZS embarked on its first proper European tour. During their summer 2010 European tour the band performed in 11 countries including a now legendary performance at Poland's OFF festival where an audience member was removed from the performance by paramedics due to a sort of blissful stupor brought on by the music???!!! "The festival is over for me" the inebriated fan was quoted as saying on the way out. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Zs (band)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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