Monday, June 25, 2012

Zentraedi

In August of 1997, I quit my band Secret Girlfriends (this is not their story).  Dave Choi (the drummer) and Nora Robinson (the singer) went on to join forces with the drummer of Lycosa (Ross Horwitz, who switched to guitar) and Adam Juresko on bass.  I think that soon after, Liz Connolly played keyboards.
It's hard to compare both bands objectively, but now that it's been long enough, I must concede that Zentraedi was the superior of the two.  There was something almost stifling or heavy-handed about Secret Gilfriends, while Zentraedi gave the listener a little more room to breathe.  Zentraedi was the kind of band that knew that the way to a young girl's heart was complimenting her shoes and asking her to talk about herself.  I seem to remember being turned off at the time by the lack of repetition in the songs, but now it kind of makes sense.  It gives them a more linear quality, opens up more room for a vocal melody, and shifts focus to things like tonal texture.  These 6 songs were recorded some time in 1998, which was when the band was at its peak.

For some reason, Nora quit and was replaced by Maud(e?), and Adam quit and was replaced by Nathan from Ipecac.  There may have been more personnel changes, but I don't remember them.  This guy from Venezuela named Tomás may have served as an interim bassist at one point.
Anyway, I'll shut up now so you can listen to these tracks!
Zentraedi youtube playlist

4 comments:

  1. xoxo...you didn't mention my triumphant come back! haha...and actually how i met my husband, because he was drummer #3 ish?

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  2. @ Nora, I was thinking the exact same thing!

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  3. Adam had beef, though I don't remember why. But I know that as soon as he quit the band, he started a solo project called Skull Squadron, which was the name of the fighting brigade of interstellar jet pilots who fought the Zentraedi in the Robotech cartoons. I actually have the Skull Squadron demo somewhere--it's a solo grind project, a lot more what you'd expect from Adam. My copy is a black cassette that came in a pink paper bag. I haven't heard it in at least 13 years. I should dig it up sometime.

    Also, the Zentraedi did a three-way split with my band (Tri State Killing Spree) and my friend Braden's band (Hands Held Out). That record was the first appearance on vinyl of any of my bands. Whee!

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  4. I saw Zentraedi as a twosome at a house show in Blacksburg in ‘98 or ‘99 supporting The Victoria Principle. I was just thinking about that show for absolutely no reason and decided to google them. Thanks for writing this!

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