Customer Reviews

Zoo Hypothesis

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This band has a few really good albums under their belt and is constantly dealing with Mr. Bungle and Faith No More comparisons, and that is a fine comparison to live down( and well founded since Trey from bungle produced one of the old albums ), but I think with this album they finally surpassed the comparisons and grew into their own splendid being. Some amazing pop songs on here as well as some downright heavy moments, highly schizophrenic stuff. In my humble opinion one of the 5 best bands active and touring today. Buy this album.

Zoo Hypothesis is another one of those Tub Ring albums that is incredible from start to finish. You'll continually discover new layers within Tub Ring's intricate music. An infectious release that you'll keep in your CD player until you're singing every line and humming every note. Lyrics are brilliant and the artwork superb! Emerging favourites are: "Tiny, Little", "I Could Never Fall In Love With You", "Raindrops", "Return To Me", and "Vehicle".

This album is great. Sinse buying it..It has rarely left my cd player. It's also completely different from their other records. It sounds like fast aggresive punk/old school industrial fused with christmas jingles..among other things. The singer has an amazing singing voice. Very catchy, memorable tunes..but not cheesy.
And no. They sound nothing like Mr. Bungle.. maybe on the album Drake Equation (produced by the guitarist of Bungle) but not this cd. Very unique sound.
Buy this disk - these guys aren't little corporate (...) support them.

On with their tradition of doing something different these guys are back in full force with Zoo Hypothesis, their 3rd album. 16 songs at under 40 minutes this album covers alot of ground and is very interesting to say the least. Fans of Mr. Bungle,SOAD,DFD and MSI will enjoy this gem. I also highly recommend their two previous albums as well. This music is off the mainstream path. WAY OFF............

My four-star rating is only in light of my familiarity with Tub Ring's full body of work--they'd be hard-pressed to live up to Drake Equation. In comparison to most of what's out there, this is definitely a five-star album.

They manage to consistenly tread new ground while still retaining their signature sound, and manage to retain a great sense of fun while expounding lyrically (and wittily) on aspects of math, science, and the slow computerization of the world, as evidenced by lines like "There was a time when/It was just you and me/Until they came and/Made us all obsolete...Proof of life is carbon/I am everything you're not". And as usual they run a gamut of styles, from the noir-swingy sound of "I Could Never Fall In Love With You" to the far-east-calm-blasted-into-screaming-rock of "Habitat". If you're looking for something different and still listenable and able to be sung along to--these guys, while crazy, are still classifiable as radio-friendly--this is what you're looking for.

It carries its similarities, I admit. The music has a few moments, usually between verses, where the beat will drop and some new groove will surface (Golem II-esque). There are also some interesting sound effects that I wouldn't put past Mike Patton to use (although they're not as consistently bizarre). There's a part at the end of The Promise Keeper in which each word of a phrase is sampled in a different voice, calling to mind memories of our old friend Stubb a Dub. It's all coincidence though. Tub Ring employs some of the same tricks as Bungle, and has some of the same vibe at times (the synth-funk thing, the dark surf-music, or whimsical bell sounds), but that's as deep as it goes.

I could write about many more differences. Namely: the feel of the music as a whole. It's not ironic. It doesn't have a sense of humor. When I listen to Mr. Bungle, I sometimes have to laugh, because it's just that fantastic/ridiculous/clever (and it knows it is). But I wouldn't laugh while listening to Tub Ring. That's the biggest difference. Another difference: there aren't any experiments with song structure. Another: the songs tend to default to a specific singing style and straightforward, 4/4 rhythm much more often than Bungle would ever consider.

THIS IS NOT TO SAY ZOO HYPOTHESIS IS A BAD ALBUM. It's actually a very good album, and the part of me that long ago listened to punk music is thoroughly satiated by this admittedly more respectable outlet for that sort of aggression. The lyrics are also well-written, as another post said (I find "tiny,little" to be a bit profound for its simplicity).

Anyway guys, just wanted to throw that out there. It's not exactly like Mr. Bungle, and I can imagine a good number of Mr. Bungle fans not necessarily digging this one. I, however, do, and there's some A-alright music to be found.

This band doesnt quit. They are nice guys to talk to and awesome to see live. Very energetic, quirky and heavy as hell live. Their tour with Bad Acid Trip and Dog Fashion Disco was so much fun...we all got to hang with the bands and talk and get stuff signed....Tub Ring is a bad ass band that exemplifies one of the best aspects of underground music...always original. This cd is short as hell but hey, thats Tub Ring...they get their songs across in a timely punk rock fashion. This album is their heaviest and shows almost how much more heavy they are live....b/c they are ten times heavier and faster live. bad ass