Swamp Zombies are an

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band formed during the 1980s in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

(

Irvine, CA Irvine () is a master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on December 28, 1971. ...

). One of Doctor Dream Records most popular bands, the Swamp Zombies released five albums for the label. The core of their sound blended

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

and punk music with heavy doses of calypso and other influences thrown into the mix. The video for the song "Creeps" ( Scratch and Sniff Car Crash) received airplay on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

120 Minutes ''120 Minutes'' is a television program in the United States dedicated to the alternative music genre, that originally aired on MTV from 1986 to 2000, and then aired on MTV's associate channel MTV2 from 2001 to 2003. After its cancellation, MTV ...

Brief history

The band was initially formed in 1985 in Irvine, CA, by two pairs of brothers, Josh and Travis Agle, and Steve and Mike Jacobs. Mike played percussion (congas) on the first single, ''Fire and Dogs'', then was replaced by Gary McNiece, who also performed on the first album. After Gary left, a session musician laid down percussion tracks for their second album until Dave Warren stepped in to fill the void. After the third album Travis left the group and was replaced on the next album by t-ray Vogelzang, who came from a band called The Final Tourguides and also the thrash-a-bash

art punk Art punk is a subgenre of punk rock in which artists go beyond the genre's rudimentary garage rock and are considered more sophisticated than their peers. These groups still generated punk's aesthetic of being simple, offensive, and free-spirit ...

band, The Silly Millions. After t-ray departed for San Francisco, the band continued as a three piece with Travis making appearances at the odd live show in their later years. The most recent Swamp Zombies gig appears to have taken place in August 1997. Members of the Swamp Zombies found themselves in splinter and spinoff bands such as The Tiki Tones, The Huntington Cads, The Calypso Cats, Tombstone Bullets, and Trucker Up. As of April 2007, a documentary film is being made which will chronicle the history of the Swamp Zombies with recent interviews with band members and those associated with the band. A brief revival of the band is rumored to accompany the wrapping up of the documentary's filming.

Lineup

*Steve "Steeve" Jacobs 1985-1997 -

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, nose flute, dulcimer,

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

, tuba, farfisa, jaw harp and

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

*Travis Agle - 1985–1990, 1996-1997 - guitar & vocals, harmonica, slide guitar, some percussion *"T. Ray Vogelzang" - 1990-1992 - guitar & vocals, accordion * Josh "Shag" Agle - 1985-1997 - guitar, mandolin,

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

, & vocals. Also the artist for the cover art. *Smilin' Dave Warren (full name David Warren Williams) - 1988-1997- percussion,

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

, & vocals *Gary McNiece 1987-1988 - percussion & vocals *Mike Jacobs 1985-1987 - percussion, trombone, & vocals Stand-Ins: *Jeff Beals - guitar *Jeff Fairbanks - touring percussionist

Discography

Singles: *''Fire & Dogs'' b/w ''H.B.'' (1985) *''Creeps'' b/w ''California''/''I Love You, Etc.'' (1990) *''Matador'' b/w ''Temecula'' (1994) *''The Fence Builde

' (2020 ecorded 1992- online release)
Additional photos
LPs: *'' Chicken Vulture Crow'' (1987) *'' Fink'' (1989) *'' Scratch and Sniff Car Crash'' (1990) *'' A Frenzy of Music and Action!'' (1992) *'' Spunk!'' (1993) Songs on Compilations: *'' Mr. Heatmiser'' on the Doctor Dream White Christmas Album (1991) *''Santa Claus Conquers the Martians'' on the Santa/Satan: One and the Same? album (1993) *''Creeps, Desolation Girl'' on Doctor Dream Presents III Promo Collection (1990)

External links

Additional SZ informationSilly Millions info1989 US tour photosAdditional photos
{{Authority control Indie rock musical groups from California American folk musical groups