TC:
Finally feel like we're out of the lockdown and back on track after last weekend's fantastic show at the AWDC 4x4 Rally event in Ilfracombe.  Massive thank you to Joe Anning of Pioneer 4x4 for booking The Zenn D, there was much rejoicing!

This was our first time out for nearly a year, and first time ever with Tom A, the "new" drummer smashing it out on the kit.  Were we rusty?  Fuck yeah we were!  Noisy?  Of course!

So good to play through a massive rig with awesome sound engineers, I really feel for the people of Afghanistan, where the Taliban have banned music (seriously, they've banned music, I mean full-on WTF?!?!?!?)

The other ace thing about this gig was the freedom we were given to rock out for a decent length of time.  This is just part 1 of a two hour set; we played for so long the sun went down and the crowd were swallowed by darkness!!!

So anyway, there's a load of our stuff from the forthcoming album in here(honestly, the album's within sitting distance of the finish line now so stay tuned) and various covers of tunes by bands we love.  If you like the covers, I urge you to go out and buy the originals and support the artists.

8- Ripcord (cover of a song by Radiohead)

6- Clumsy (cover of a song by Our Lady Peace)

TC:
So this is the second set from the AWDC Ilfracombe event, played in almost complete darkness to a crowd that we couldn't see but who apparently had exceptionally diverse tastes, appreciating The Muffs, Nirvana, The Posies, Peter Frampton, Green Day and Foo Fighters in equal measure!

I suffered some terrible tuning issues, having left my guitars in the sun all day then launching into a violent grunge set just as the temperature and humidity underwent a rapid crepuscular temperature change.  However, it wouldn't be grunge if everything was in tune and running smoothly ;)

I've included most of the banter and idiocy as I think that adds to the atmosphere, recreating what was an awesome and exceptionally enjoyable live show.  Hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed thrashing it out.

As usual, if you enjoy the cover versions then do make an effort to track down the originals and support the artists and the record industry, which is being murdered by bullshit sites like Soundcloud and Youtube and Spotify....honestly, it feels better to physically handle a cd or put a record on a turntable, and they're made by decent, hard-working pressing-plant employees rather than odious web designers and arrogant Silicon Valley money-grubbers.

9- Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle (cover version of a song by Nirvana)

6- Show Me The Way (cover version of a song by The Peter Frampton!)

4- Sad Tomorrow (cover version of a song by The Muffs)

3- Big Me(cover version of a song by Foo Fighters)

1- Crash (cover version of a song by The Primitives)

My good friend Siam asked me to join him for a short unplugged set at Coolings in Exeter, January 2022.  Nobody gave a shit, yet great fun was had by all, as can be heard in the hilarious snippets of banter bleeding into my digirecorder's mics throughout.

Setlist was a mix of covers and my own stuff stripped down to their solo incarnations:
1. Heavy Heart (cover of a song by You Am I.  I'm not usually one for songs about wallowing in self pity [or at least not the sentiment behind them...the subject matter does make for some awesome outpourings of grunge angst] but this one does it for me every time. Great tune, from a great album, by a great band)
2. One Voice and a Guitar (this is one of mine, from my forthcoming album, due out March 2022.  It's unusual for me in that it was specifically written to be performed as a solo piece, rather than a full band affair.  The theme: my love/hate relationship with performing solo, its limitations and paucity compared to playing as a band, and the demand [at least in Exeter] for recognisable contemporary pap hits, but also the brilliantly straightforward, no-compromise nature of not having to assemble a group of other musicians and buoy up their spirits, massage fragile egos, worry about whether or not they've rehearsed etc.

3. Spaceboy (from Siamese Dream by The Smashing Pumpkins, one of the best albums ever recorded.  I'm really getting into playing this relatively new addition to my set...there's something lush and immersive about those ringing open strings above all the power chords in the verses)

4. Sweater (a summer song, played in the depths of winter.  Much like Marcus Aurelius, I try to rise above the confines of the physical self, but it still fascinates me, so I wrote this, about the human body's propensity for oozing, seeping, coughing, spluttering, menstruation, ejaculation, but above all: PERSPIRATION!  Again, it's on the forthcoming album, but in it's proper, full-band power-pop form [though it strips down quite nicely, I think)

5. The Day We Caught the Train (a staple of my solo shows and full band Zenn D shows, this is originally by Ocean Colour Scene, from their album Moseley Shoals, yet another unbelievably cohesive mid 90s gem...and this may even be my least favourite song on that album, though easily the most recognisable, hence my playing it solo in the hope that dead-eyed punters might sing along)

6. Whittling a Way (another one from the forthcoming album, which has grown into a full on psychedelic space prog monster in its studio form but seems to cope fairly well with having the power rolled off for solo sets.  It's about a few different things: firstly the dilemma of being cursed with knowing best but never being listened to and having to let others make their own mistakes, and also our confinement within a subjective point of view, never being truly able to see things through anyone's eyes but our own)

7. Agony (best least-sympathetic song ever, by one of the best least-appreciated bands ever: The Muffs.  You left your boyfriend for greener pastures, found the grass had dried to unpalatable frazzled straw, then whinged regretfully to me...well I'll give you a hug and wish you well but I won't say it's not a bed of your own making! And all that in an ultra-catchy, concise pop tune...how did Kim do it?)

8. On a Plain (err, Nirvana, enough said)

Enjoy, make sure you go and actually buy this stuff if you like it...

03- Spaceboy

02 - One Voice (and a Guitar)

01 - Heavy Heart

Mired in anger, sadness, disappointment in the inaction of my own government, yet full of admiration for Zelensky's calm, eloquence and decency, and the overwhelmingly courageous stand taken by Ukranians in the face of tyranny, I did the only thing I'm really capable of (worthless really, and I feel pathetic to have only this quiet voice at this time): I played angry songs with all the emotion and feeling I could muster, whilst wearing a blue hat and a yellow t-shirt.

We're extremely lucky to be able to enjoy music in the UK without bombs falling on us, rockets being launched at us, bullets being fired at us by forces brutally invading our space, but it still seems trite and decadent in light of what our friends in the Ukraine are facing, alone.  The rest of the world is using these brave, decent, innocent people as a human shield, when we could all act in consort to overthrow Putin's regime.

Hope you enjoy these songs, while you still can.

Ukraine Solidarity solo set, @Coolings, 24-2-22

T7- Here's to the Future (Ukraine solidarity Set) 24-2-22

T6- Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle (Ukraine solidarity Set) 24-2-22

T5- Everything is Wrong (Ukraine solidarity Set) 24-2-22

T4- One Voice and a Guitar (Ukraine solidarity Set) 24-2-22

T3- How it Feels to be Something On (Ukraine solidarity Set) 24-2-22

T2- Whittling a Way (Ukraine solidarity Set) 24-2-22

T1- Heavy Heart (Ukraine solidarity Set) 24-2-22

Champion of progressive grunge, huge fan of the sounds of the 1990s around the Pacific Northwest, 70s progressive rock, and of alternative, indie and "math-rock".  TZD has been through various incarnations, always revolving around the off-kilter song-writing and powerful stage presence of Tom Castle, who now ploughs the furrow alone, a grunge hermit!

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