The Zap Guns

Named after Philip K. Dick's eccentric novel about Cold War weapon inventors, The Zap Guns are a bold but elegant Rock 'n' Roll power trio from the San Francisco Bay Area. With backgrounds in punk, metal, folk, pop, jazz, and avant-garde minimalism, The Zap Guns began as both an attempt to get back to their early Rock 'n' Roll roots, and as a mission to destroy and rebuild those roots into something dramatic and new. The Zap Guns have taken their collective decades of experience and transformed the aggression and anarchy of past endeavors into some of the catchiest power pop imaginable. Taking inspiration from artists like Elvis Presley and Eddie Cochran, as well as early punks like The Ramones, The Clash, and The Misfits, The Zap Guns' first EP shows their strengths as skilled writers of captivating, deep songs, and as tight, fast, high-caliber musical explorers in the footsteps of Led Zeppelin, The Beach Boys, and Queens of the Stone Age. Influenced by his literary heroes like John Keats, Wallace Stevens, and, of course, Philip K. Dick, bassist Matte Martin croons poetically about the boundaries of human psychology, science fiction, the occult, and the morbid histories of humanity. Michael Tornatore’s passionate drumming provides a rock-solid structure of rhythmically hammered columns and grooved lattices to attach the vast textures and blistering leads of Vince Mazzella’s guitar. With one EP under their utility belt and a soon-to-be cult classic video for “Waiting for You” released, The Zap Guns are set to stun audiences with a frantic live show, and are already at work on a full length followup, filled with vampires, posthumous hallucinations, sci-fi dystopias, and, of course, an arsenal of hooks.