Bop bop a lu-wop a wop bam boom. Zen Guerrilla – fierce in its magnitude and as subtle as a tin can. Four score and seven more, our forefathers set foot on this planet, packing laser beams and collard greens. With X-ray eyes they were jettisoned to birth in the small town of Newark, Delaware in the year 1991. Kicking sticks up the street, holes in shoes, singing the blues, they rolled their way to Motown Philly, hometown of the cheesesteak and “where the fuck’s my car stereo?”

It was in 1992 that Zen Guerrilla slapped down two slabs of vinyl on their own record label, Insect Records. Super swanky in reel boxes with hand silk-screened posters. The kids went crackerjacks over them. In 1993, they released their first full-length on Philadelphia’s Compulsiv label, run by Philadelphia rock-and-roll Mafia kingpin Bryan Dilworth. And yeah, they were down with the Goats. They did a couple more singles for Union Hall in the following year and they toured forever in the back of a pick-up truck, all bad breath and bloody fingers. But they washed the dishes and they rocked the house, putting TNT to the PA. They played with everyone from Tiny Tim to Buckwheat Zydeco, living off of 50 clams and two drink tickets to fight over. Now that’s rock’n’roll!

They put out a bunch of shit in 1995, namely the Creature Double Feature LP and the six-song-InvisibleLifteePad CDEP. Then old man Otis McDaniel said, “Get your chilly asses out to Frisco and try to make an earthquake. -” They made the Jello quiver and he signed them up to his label Alternative Tentacles. Biafra whipped their asses into shape and re-released the Invisible Liftee Padand Gap Tooth Clown EPs in one big clump of jam and a limited-edition hand-scribbled LP cover. They’re loud, they love the rock and they want to work. Give me a broom, said the Zoom Zoom man, and I’ll sweep you up some dirt.

And here it was ’98, Zen Guerrilla laying down 12 tracks, calling it Positronic Raygun. It’s freak’ay, lip-lickin’ delicious, like orange juice in your barbecue sauce, like a healthy itch on your white ass. The band have released one album on Sub Pop since leaving Alternative Tentacles, with another one being recorded in early 2001.