Zom Zoms

Monkey-goers end up in the Zoms' palms
Zom Zoms
Chuggin' Monkey, 1 a.m.

"I can't hear a single thing, but let's do it," said one of the three Zom Zoms during the preliminary sound check. While the jackasses in "Jackass the Movie" were wrecking rented cars on the Chuggin' Monkey's TV screen, the Zom Zoms' lead singer — who won't tell reporters his real name — sang along to the Darkness on the jukebox, then busted into the weirdest flashback to pre-sophisticated video games demonstrable by man. If Kenny Loggin's "Danger Zone" were slowed down, sped back up, then slowed down again over the span of an hour, and the screams of an ant-covered 12 year-old playing video games were dubbed over it, that would sound kind of like the Zom Zoms. A dark and refreshing three-piece, all were dressed in rainbow polka dot shirts and red pants. Singer "Zom Philmapster" seemed electrocuted by "Hyper Lenny" when he played it, and the other two backed him in charming synth-punk fashion. Coincidentally, during one song the electricity went out for a while, but the crowd's dedication persisted, as they cheered for the band to start the same song again. Lesson learned. Obnoxious, sputtering sound effects sound especially obnoxious at 1 in the morning. And this is a good thing, because the Monkey was half empty when the Zoms started, but full again by its keytar-studded finale.
— Margaret Myrick - Austin American Statesman, March 05

If a cadre of savage geeks had commandeered a Brook Mays Organ store at the mall in 1981, the resulting disturbance might have resembled the Zom Zoms' third album in both tone and attitude. With synthetic rhythms oscillating at full speed, the Twister-mat-patterned, sleeveless-shirt-wearing local quartet injects as much ferocity into primitive synth-punk as their vintage mechanism will bear. From start to finish, Yellow Rainbow is a breakneck fusillade of aural grist for the inner spaz. While Devo is an obvious touchstone, the Zom Zoms' speedy emulation focuses on the raw Sturm und Drang of the scalped pioneers' earliest Rust Belt demos. "Caught on Tape" dances as fast as it can against panoptic dystopia, while the title track gets busy disemboweling the culture of tanning booths. "Race of Zom Zoms" kicks off with the poetic exhortation, "Replace my feet with 30 rubber wheels while folding the map with the jealous part of your mind," which might as well be a manifesto for the group's synapse-confounding New Wave traffic jam. Such quasi-lionization stands in stark contrast to the album-closing pizza-delivery-driver ode "Pizzarama Universe," an occupation seldom covered in song but undoubtedly familiar to musicians. Yellow Rainbow may be a discombobulating ride, but healthy minds need a good shaking every now and then.
--Greg Beets - Austin Chronicle Weekly

So this Texas Devo obsessive called Zom gets a job in a pizza shop, right? And already working there is this Texas Devo obsessive called Zoms, OK? Confused? Well, frankly, that seems to be the point. But the story behind the creation of Zom Zoms is only the start of the oddness, because these guys dress like four gay Noddys on meths and make the kind of music that wouldn't sound out of place on the new-wave soundtrack to camped up '80s schlock horror classic Return of the Living Dead. Whew! Super fun. - NME 4/1/06