On The Verge

Zoogma

Oxford, Miss.
Primal Party Jam
www.zoogma.net

You’re at a club—lights flashing, bodies dancing, music pounding—but instead of just a DJ, a five-piece band performs onstage. Oxford-based Zoogma emerged in the jamtronica scene about three years ago. Preston Boutot (keyboards), Brock Bowling (guitars, production), Justin Hasting (guitar, synthesizer), Matt Harris (drums, SPD-S) and Ryan Nall (bass) garnered a lot of attention last year with their free debut album Recreational Vehicles and their successful Wakarusa gig where they treated fans to a Ghostbusters ¬theme song cover. Zoogma pulls from rock, hip-hop, jazz, world music and psychedelic rock. In addition to integrating sampling and produced tracks with actual instruments, the band’s performances feature custom light shows. “Pretty much any element that you can find on the dance floor is something that we try to incorporate,” Nall says. Zoogma derives its name from the Greek word zeugma. “We changed the spelling to be playful with the whole animal vibe and crazy, primal party,” Nall says. “It means ‘to join.’ We wanted to create something that was both a method for connecting ourselves together through the music and also for connecting our music to the crowd.”