Zox

Despite their musical differences, eclectic jam band Zox will forever be nestled next to cult favorite Vancouver indie rockers Zumpano (Carl Newman’s band before the New Pornographers) — not only alphabetically, but also for quirks of nomenclature: both bands are named after their drummer’s surnames. In cases like this, drummer John Zox fulfilled vocalist and guitarist Eli Miller when both had been undergrads at Dark brown College or university in Providence, RI, in 1999. Zox and Miller’s dorm area jam sessions, proclaimed by a distributed love of classic ’80s college rock and roll and sensitive vocalist/songwriters, were sometimes joined up with by Miller’s roommate, a classically educated violinist. Experiencing the ’70s prog vibe developed by a business lead violinist (an indie rock and roll rarity last observed in Petra Haden and Anna Waronker’s ’90s music group that pet dog.) but struggling to convince Miller’s roommate to become listed on their nascent music group, Miller and Zox located another, Spencer Swain, through a paper advertisement. Adding bassist Eli Batalion (changed in 2004 by Dan Edinberg) and raising their live profile through intensive touring throughout New Britain, Zox self-released their initial album, Consider Me House, in 2003. Solid review articles and a significantly increased touring plan for the today post-collegiate quartet noticed the group sell over 10,000 copies from the debut beyond the most common distribution channels. Even though the Mitch Easter-mixed follow-up, The Wait around, was originally also released in the band’s very own label in 2005, the punk-oriented indie Aspect One Dummy agreed upon the music group later that 12 months and reissued the recording with fresh artwork in the springtime of 2006.