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- Zs is a Brooklyn, New York based experimental/avant-garde band. Zs was founded in 2000 and has existed as a trio, quartet and sextet, now solidifying into the quartet formation of Sam Hillmer (tenor saxophone), Ben Greenberg (electric guitar), Amnon Freidlin (electric guitar), and Ian Antonio (drum set). The band has been heralded by New York Times as "one of the strongest avant-garde bands in New York. " 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, [Zs] 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). Their upcoming album, Music Of The Modern White will be released by The Social Registry July 7, 2009. In May 2009, Zs played at the prestigious Moers Festival, an international jazz festival in Moers, Germany. Late June 2009, the band will embark on their 'Music of the Modern White' East Coast tour.
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- Zs is a Brooklyn, New York based experimental/avant-garde band. Zs was founded in 2000 and has existed as a trio, quartet and sextet, now solidifying into the quartet formation of Sam Hillmer (tenor saxophone), Ben Greenberg (electric guitar), Amnon Freidlin (electric guitar), and Ian Antonio (drum set). The band has been heralded by New York Times as "one of the strongest avant-garde bands in New York.
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