Zeb Zaitz :: “Who Cares”
Photo: Elle Willson
When he’s not behind the kit conjuring the reassuring rhythms and blissful beats on drums and part-time piano behind Kyle Field’s legendary outfit, Little Wings, you can confidently find Zeb Zaitz conquering the essence of enlightenment and the irresistibility of West Coast consciousness brimming within the waves of his solo career that dates back to 2013’s debut “Beneath The Electric Church.” Ziatz followed up with 2016’s self-titled, released on Royal Okie Records, featuring friends and cosmic colleagues such as Joel Tolbert, family members Anthony, and Zara Zaitz, and producers Kyle Myllarky and Kyle Field to help bring the songwriter’s ultimate vision of crashing waves and echoing canyons to life across ten tracks of pure pacification. Though Zaitz was staying busy hustling the harmonies on albums like Little Wing’s “Explains” or playing the role of Zebedee Zaitz in the group Sparrows Gate, a duo inspired by the sorcery and limitless literature of John Steinbeck, the musician miraculously made time to follow up his sophomore album with quite possibly his most compellingly complex album to date, 2020’s “Who Cares.” Blending the bubbly blues with the tasteful archaic atmosphere of both Dennis Wilson and the lyrical legacy of Laurel Canyon legends, Zaitz blissfully bridges the generational gap by pulling from the greats and taking the vibe directly to the eager ears of an entirely different audience, whose enthusiasm are equal parts curious and inspired during a time in history that reminded us just how vulnerable and small we are, as if we hadn’t already been aware of the true terrors at play.
“Zeb Zaitz cuts quite a figure against these cold winds of time, turning his back on much of the way the world is turning and facing timelessness as a salve so precious he holds it secret and within. This new plate fresh off the press finds him rejoicing and lamenting using a brush so subtle and generous with human warmth you’ll wonder where the hell they put the mold when they broke it. God only made one Zeb Zaitz.”
While cosmic candlelights are held high in the grace of generosity and galactic gestures, the album’s soft, radiating core ripples into the dimensions of duality and equality where substance meets sustenance via the impact of recreational reverberation. Stumbling into multiple sonic situations, Zaitz teamed up with an array of musicians from a collective community to, once again, help shape this brilliant body of work into a perplexing pearl of perpetual peace and vibrational content to face a world of chaotic contingencies. Harmoniously humbling and as simple as sipping a morning cup of coffee in the spiritual sea breeze, the album features tracks such as “Summer Wind,” “Wilderness Of Mirrors,” “A Day Before The Flood,” and the album’s epic opener “The Only Week I Know” that poetically provoke the foundational freedoms of American culture in the sense of its rich, melting pop of people, places and things that ultimately bring together the better parts of society, ritual, and tradition if only you place your ear in the direction of the right wind that blows.
Photo: Elsa Tanoukhi
