Music

UZ JSME DOMA

The Czech avant garde art punk band, UZ JSME DOMA (pronounced:

OOZH-may DOH-mah) are set to embark on a short North American tour in support of the band´s recently released, Caves CD (Cuneiform, 2010).

Released in the Czech Republic by Indies in May 2010, Caves / Jeskyně has been licensed to Cuneiform for Western Europe and North America.

Caves marks the first Už Jsme Doma release made available in North America since 2007, when Skoda re-released the band’s Cod Liver Oil from 2003. In support of Caves, Už Jsme Doma will tour the East Coast of the USA from September 23 to October 11, 2010 in what will be its 17th North American tour.

 

Už Jsme Doma (pronounced "Oozh (rhymes with ´rouge´) Smeh Dough-Ma) was founded in 1985 in Teplice, a small industrial town in the north Bohemian region of the Czech Republic, when that country was part of communist Czechoslovakia. Originally a septet, the band’s founding members were saxophonists Jindra Dolansky and Milan Novy, drummer Jula Horváth, keyboardist Jirí Závodny, bassist Petr Kerka, and guitarists Ota Chlupsa and Jirí Solar. The band’s name, “uz jsme doma,“ literally translates to, “We’re home now,” but is also used in common speech to mean, “Now I get it,” or, “Now I understand.” In Czechoslovakia during the 1980s, the government considered rock to be anti-social music, and the act of performing with a rock band (or creating any non-conformist/unapproved art) was subversive. Už Jsme Doma’s first concert was on July 6, 1985 in the company of two other ‘subversive’

bands: the Czech punk bands FPB (Fourth Price Band, in which Novy was a drummer) and Plexis. Organized and performed in secrecy after FPB’s leader was released from police arrest, the concert was the first of many early Už Jsme Doma shows held on a riverboat, reminiscent of the off-shore pirate boat broadcasts of Radio Caroline.

 

Uz Jsme Doma have "received all kinds of labels, like intellectual punk, Slavic tone provocation, African music, orchestral punk, funky punk, ska, inspiration by Zappa, Uriah Heep, Gregorian chants, melodic avant garde and plenty of others," their distinct take on rock music defies specific categorization or direct comparison. Many accuse the band´s music of being chaotic, when in actuality it is thoroughly arranged, structured in a manner similar to classical composition.

Cited musical influences include The Residents, The Damned, Ebba Grön, Pere Ubu, Uriah Heep, Omega, and the Rock in Opposition movement.Rolling Stone´s David Fricke referred to them as "an amazing Czech quintet ... that rattled like a combination of Hot Rats-aphonic Frank Zappa and John Zorn’s hyperjazz."

 

The band has, to date, released seven proper studio albums, two live albums, a best-of package and a DVD containing live footage and a documentary film about the history of the band, which discusses its artistic significance and chronicles its dozens of lineup changes in its long career. In addition to traditional band functions such as recording albums and touring, Už Jsme Doma have taken on a wide array of ambitious projects outside of simple music performance, including work with theater, film and art. The band´s name translates literally to, "we´re home now" but idiomatically means "well, there you go" in Czech conversation.

 

2005 also brought the formation of a new Už Jsme Doma lineup that has remained essentially stable to the present day.  That year, the band reformed as a quintet consisting of Wanek, Pepa Cervinka (bass), Tomas Paleta (drums), guitarist Petr Zidel, and longstanding visual artist Velisek (brushes, paints). The new lineup toured France and Japan, and recorded a track (with lyrics by early 20th C. poet Ludvik Kundera) for a Czech poetry compilation, Brno-Town of Poets. When guitarist Zidel left in February 2007 and trumpeter Adam Tomasek joined, the band solidified the current lineup.

 

Reinvigorated with fresh blood, Už Jsme Doma accelerated its performance schedule at home and abroad. Increasing its profile in Eastern Europe, Už Jsme Doma toured sold-out performances in Poland, where Nikt Nic Nie Wie was re-releasing several of its CDs as LPs.

Back home, the band continued its long-standing interest in multi-media collaborations, recording music for a puppet series on Czech TV called Krysáci / Rats and planning work for a related future film called Lajka. The band went on its 15th North American tour in October 2007, to support Skoda’s final, 2007 release of Už Jsme Doma material; it performed at DC‘s Black Cat and other venues and headlining for Capillary Action. The following year, the band collaborated with Romek Hanzlik, performing a series of concerts of FPB material to support a 3-CD retrospective (released by Malarie

Records) of the long-gone legendary punk band. Hanzlik also participated in performances of Už Jsme Doma material. In 2008, Už Jsme Doma toured Japan with other Czech bands, documented on Indies‘

2009 DVD, Czech Music on The Road – 10 Days that Shook Japan. In November 2009, the band conquered a new continent, touring Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania for the first time.

 

Well-honed from its Japan and Australian tours, Už Jsme Doma went into Indies‘ studio in March and April 2010 to record its 7th album, called Caves / Jeskyně. In addition to band members Wanek (lead vocals, guitar, piano), Cervinka (bass guitar, vocal), Tomasek (trumpet, vocal), and Paleta (drums) – a lineup that had played about 300 concerts together since 2007– 6 guests participated, supplying female vocals, upright bass, acoustic guitar, accordion, trombone, violin.

The resulting CD contains 11 tracks of high-powered, rhythmically complex Už Jsme Doma songs, sung in Czech by Wanek and other band members.  It is accompanied by a 12-page booklet featuring Velisek’s drawings, English translations of Wanek’s song lyrics, and photographs of the band taken by Hanzlik on the band’s tour in New Zealand. As such, the booklet encapsulates Už Jsme Doma’s ideal art – a free-spirited yet conceptually coherent collaboration of music, art and words.

 

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ZUBY NEHTY

Prague, 1981: Czechoslovakia is still in the dark period after the Soviet Invasion dubbed euphemistically by the Communists as normalizace  ("normalization"), when freedom of expression is curtailed and obedience to the state is demanded in exchange for being left alone by the authorities.  Just five years before, members of the bands the Plastic People of the Universe and DG307 had been arrested, tried, and imprisoned by the authorities for playing "antisocial"

music.  No one had any notion that, by the end of the decade, the Communist regime would crumble.  So when Pavla Jonsonnová (née

Fediuková) and Hana Řepová (née Kubičková) meet in high school and decide to form a punk band, it is more than a typical act of adolescence.

 

From the start they were different, simply by being women in a music world dominated by men.  With Pavla on guitar, Hana on drums, and joined by Marka Miková (née Horáková) on bass guitar and keyboards, they called themselves Plyn (the Gas), and had their first gig in 1982.  Their first songs were simple, about two minutes long, partly under the influence of punk rock, partly because that´s all they could play.  They even had a slogan – "Turn on the Gas, and the Gas will turn you on!"

 

By 1983, all three were married, and the group had already been banned by the Communists.  To confuse the authorities, they changed their name to Dybbuk (originally unaware of the meaning of the evil spirit of Jewish legend), and, joined by Kateřina Jirčiková (née Nejepsová) on saxophone, and, in 1985, by Eva Trnková on guitar, redoubled their efforts.  Pavla, Hana, Marka and Kateřina all wrote songs and sang.

Their songs were direct, playful, sad and exuberent, about small details of life and filled with the energy of youth.  They wrote about the mood of Prague, women in the city, even Kurt Vonnegut.  They continued to play when they could, but there was the constant threat of gigs being shut down by the police or of being arrested.  Towards the end of the 1980s, however, there was the beginning of a cultural thaw, and the girls were able to pool their money to record five songs for an EP which was released by the state-owned label Panton in 1987 (and for which, of course, they were never paid.)  This came too late for the band, which fell apart in 1988, a year before the Velvet Revolution.

 

By 1989, Marka and Pavla had formed a new group, Zuby Nehty (Tooth and Nail), with other musicians, featuring more complex compositions reflecting their increased skill as players.  After the Revolution, their friend Mirek Wanek (of the band Už Jsme Doma), persuaded the members of Dybbuk to get back together to record a full album of their songs for posterity (released in 1991 as Ale čert to vem/The Devil Take It).  The experience was so good that Pavla, Hana, Marka and Kateřina decided to keep playing together, but, to reflect the difference in the music and their attitudes, now under the name Zuby Nehty.  By now, most had children and full time occupations: Marka writing and performing plays for puppet theater and winning awards for her children´s books, Pavla teaching at Charles University and eventually designing courses of alternative Czech culture, Hana becoming a social worker, and Kateřina joining Theatre Dlouha and working as a proofreader. Zuby Nehty went on to release four albums in the 1990s (Utikej/Run Away, Král vysílá své vojsko/Red Rover, Dítkám/Childish, and Loď odplouvá/The Boat is Sailing) and toured extensively in Germany and Central Europe, but called it a day in 1999 as families and careers took precedence.

 

Eleven years later, with most of their children grown, the four friends have reunited, are writing new songs, and are performing once again, including their first concerts in the United States.