Zilch

Zilch is the title of two different artistic groups. The first is a project founded by Hideto "hide" Matsumoto in 1995 during a stay in Los Angeles. Zilch was intended to launch an English-speaking market for hide. At its core, hide was joined by two English musicians; guitarist Ray McVeigh who had previously played with members of the Sex Pistols in a band called The Professionals, and bassist Paul Raven of Killing Joke. To complete the line-up American drummer Joey Castillo (now of the "Queens of the Stone Age" fame) and I.N.A, a good friend of hide and member of his solo band "hide with Spread Beaver" in Japan joined the group. The band was first mentioned in hide's personal online blog in January 1998 when the video for "Electric Cucumber" was released on Japanese music television. hide said that the band had recorded the particular song and video in 1996 but its release was delayed due to the adult nature of the themes it dealt with. hide said that the he planned to release an album with the band which had already been completed the previous year as well as concentrate on live work with the group. It has now transpired that the band were set to tour with American alternative act Marilyn Manson, the lead singer of which hide was friends with and gave a special "thanks" to in the album notes for his "Psyence" CD. It was not to be; hide died on May 2, 1998. The album was released on schedual and is regarded as being close to how it was originally intended with only post production work been contributed after hide's passing. The band released an album of remixed songs the following year and another original album in 2002 before officially disbanding. The band took on numerous members in their post-hide era such as Dave Kushner (now of Velvet Revolver) and had guest performers such as Duff Mckagen (Guns n' Roses, Velvet Revolver), J (Luna Sea) and Steve Jones (Sex Pistols). The second is a Christian pop group formed out of the backup artists for another Christian group named dcTalk. Zilch was arranged in the fall of 1996 from members of dcTalk's backing band while on tour of Europe in support of their album "Jesus Freak". They use the word "arranged" because none of the members had much in common as far as musical taste or background, which is not the optimal way to form a band. Guitarist and frontman, Mark Lee Townsend, found influences in everything from 60's pop to alternative (think somwhere between Matthew Sweet and The Zombies). Keyboardist Jason Halbert was a synth pop from Cars to Madonna. Bassist Otto Price was everything R & B but loved The Smiths. Drummer Rick May was into Dave Weckl but had roots in power pop. In any case, the four locked themselves in the studio after the New Year and wrote the material which would make up the songs on the 1997 release "Platinum" (Gotee Records). The name Zilch was suggested by Mark, possibly to indicate what kind of impact the band would have on the world, which was a somewhat harsh assessment. Probably closer to the truth is that the name was taken from a cut on The Monkees 1967 album "Headquarters" (ironically, another band that was "arranged"). The original lineup was a strong one musically, but with such disparate tastes, the band struggled on the road and ultimately retired when dcTalk resumed touring in 1998. Fast forward to the present where Mark Lee Townsend, the principle visionary in original Zilch, is back to writing new Zilch music. Mark is joined in the studio by Dan Gartley on bass and drummer Mark Graalman (both in the EMI band, Sanctus Real) to finish a new Zilch album, some 10 years after the original release. In keeping with tradition, the new Zilch promises quirky power pop guaranteed to bring a smile. (Material for the second Zilch entry taken from their website http://www.zilchonline.com/)