Another one bites the dust…

As King Freddie once infamously told us:

And another one gone
And another one gone
Another one bites the dust

A Facebook post yesterday announced the untimely end of Zebra & Giraffe.

Z&G 2008-2016

It’s with sadness in our hearts that we announce the end of Zebra & Giraffe. Kirstenbosch Gardens (20th March 2016) will be our last show for the foreseeable future.
We’d like to thank each and every one of our fans over the years – your support and love for our music has made this amazing journey possible.
Over the past 8 years we’ve achieved so many things that we’re proud of; we’ve poured our hearts and souls into every recording and every show, but the time has come for each of us to move onto different things.

Why is it that all the good ones go so soon? I’d only just got over Dry The River splitting up, and I’d only just got over a-ha going their separate ways before that. Now, I’ve got virtually no time to get over the demise of Zebra & Giraffe before I have to try and get over a-ha again.

And yet the Parlotones are still a thing. There is no God.

Of course, I used to appreciate the Parlotones, but then they took (for me) a disappointing direction musically and commercially, and I went off them, quickly. Apparently though, according to The Tall Accountant, I should be checking them out again though. We were even going to go and see them next month. I’m nothing if not a glutton for punishment open-minded.

But I digress…

Zebra & Giraffe were different. They didn’t release enough, but what they did release was properly good stuff – just the right mix of pop, electronica and rock. I saw them numerous times from the My Cokefest at Lourensford performance in 2009 when they joined the rest of the audience after their set, supporting the Killers at Val de Vie, and – probably most memorably – with the Dirty Skirts at Wynberg School at a concert that only 12 people turned up to watch. Greg called it “intimate”.

4181041728_00f2d7cc61_b

Happy days. But it would be wrong not to finish off with some music here. I’ve already shared a lot of Z&G stuff on here, including my favourite In My Eyes, but here’s a fresh one, albeit from the beginning, right back in 2008 – this is Arm Yourself.
[dj mode off]

As a goodbye gift from the boys, you can download their last single, Redefine, free of charge on Soundcloud here. Ridiculously rocky. A fitting farewell.

I’m properly sad.
Good luck, Greg et al. Thanks for the memories.

It’s All The Same

Except that it actually isn’t. Because this here single marks an entirely new direction for Zebra & Giraffe, and it’s actually rather nice.

The new EP Slow Motion is semi-available now.

Many familiar places in this endearing, yet ultimately rather sad, railway-based video.
And some important lessons, too. Never open the book. The book is full of bad secrets you don’t want or need to know. You will only end up disappointed. And back drinking cheap red wine in a soulless bar in Beaufort West.

We’ve all been there.
(Through the heartbreak and upset of broken promises and lost love, I mean, not Beaufort West.)

Edit: Oh, apparently it was some soulless bar in Matjiesfontein. My bad. Still: It’s All The Same.

The Inside

This appeared on a random iPod playlist of mine just now and – given where I’ve been this weekend – I thought I’d share it. It might already be 5 years old, but it’s still sounding fantastic.

Ironically, this video for The Inside is filmed on The Inside of a cooling tower. But if you’d have been a 6000 miles… reader back in March 2013, you’d already have recognised that, of course.

I’ve Been Bad

Some vague reference to the all-dominating Oscar Pistorius trial, maybe? If so, I assure you that it was only done subconsciously.

Herewith Zebra & Giraffe’s latest offering – you may recognise them from posts such as A to Z and In My Eyes and such Flickr sets as er… this one.

I think you’d be hard pressed to deny that there are Depeche Modey elements in there. Like the baritone Greg Carlin as Dave Gahan in those opening bars- yes? And there’s no disrespect there, because there are very few bands that can reasonably be compared to those sort of heights.

Great stuff from a band that I was worried had lost their way a bit.