THE HISTORY OF TZ ROCK

Thrashing Zombies established it self in the late nineties and quickly became the most popular band on the east coast of Australia. Initially Tommyzygote and Marcus Gorgon established the band with Hags. Hags soon quit the band because Tommy and Marcus refused to play ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ by Gn’R (Hags quit the music industry and now trains horses). Marcus and Tommy then recruited Billy Snodgrass who established himself as lead vocalist for nearly a decade before the rock n roll lifestyle took its toll. Billy fell off a log while filming a T.Z. music clip claiming he hurt his back, thus, the pain killers began. Billy was last seen at a rehab facility In South Australia. Arguably the most significant line up change in Thrashing Zombies was to happen in the late late nineties. Keith Fontane – muso and producer joined the band and took T.Z. in a new direction. The 1st album “live in the lounge room” was recorded, edited and produced in one, three hour afternoon session at air force studios. Unfortunately there was only one copy made that was lost years later. Computers were not integrated into our lives and the demo was on tape. There has been much conjecture on what happened to the tape. Marcus claims Tommyzygote taped over it with Warrants new album ‘Cherry Pie’; Tommy thinks Marcus chewed it up in his mums tape deck. To this day there is still friction between the two founding members as to its whereabouts. NO lyrics were written. No music. And no one remembers any songs. Tommy claims he remembers his bass lines but in response Marcus claims Tommyzygote had only started playing bass and all the songs were just an open E string. (Tommyzygote has no comment on this matter). The 2nd Album “Zombie Holocaust” was recorded at Church Studios. It is here Tommyzygote and Marcus Gorgon collaborated with Keith Fontane for the first time. Together they created magic. The first album “live in the lounge room” was ground breaking but critics called “simplest” they didn’t like that all the tracks were guitar, bass and vocals. Paul Donger from Rolling Stones magazine called it “primitive”. Together for the first time – Keith Fontane, Marcus Gorgon and Tommyzygote came together as Thrashing Zombies. In a 12 hour studio session Thrashing Zombies ate 10 bags of Doritos, drank 6 bottles of Innkeeper spumante ($2 chuck) smoked a packet of PJ dark blue 15`s and produced a variety of classic tracks. Songs such as STOP, Japan, fly and D-dirty. Thrashing Zombies had arrived, and with the benefit of hindsight they were here to stay. In 1999 Thrashing Zombies stopped touring and working in the studio. They didn’t return until 2001. Marcus Gorgon and Tommyzygote needed a break. industry rumors are they flipped a coin. Heads – east coast, tails – west coast. Tommyzygote called heads and played the east coast circuit solo for three years while Marcus took west coast. By this stage Keith was in his compound in the mountains. Here he was self sufficient with three years of food, water and musical recording equipment (which he stole from his mothers music shop Pam`s music box). Keith was sure the world was going to end with the year 2000 and Y2K. He was prepared to survive total anarchy and be ready to create music. After the Y2K scare Thrashing Zombies reformed and a young long haired skater dude, a returning balding junkie, Dorbo the clown and Wack Dady took the outfit to a new level. Thrashing Zombies were now a 7 piece band and entered a golden era. The start of the 21st century was a prolific time for Thrashing Zombies. Was it the new millennium technology at Keith Fontane`s hands? The building of Cawkwell Studios? Perhaps the two new frontmen: Johnny Farqua Juanoss and Billy Snodgrass? or was it a combination of all three? Who knows! One thing is for sure, the music that was produced was nothing short of phenomenal. Thrashing Zombies hyptnotised a generation of fans. Albums such as Zygote Poet, live in the lounge room (redone) Renal Hell and TZ Xmas 2003 were gold.