The Guest List: Zillas on Acid feed us 10 animal jams suitable for mammals, reptiles, insects & everyone else

It’s not often these days you have artists holding residencies, well, say for more than a couple of months. But those few who do end up honing their craft to unfathomable depths of knowledge and style.

For Thomas Roland and James Weissinger aka Zillas on Acid, it’s only been for the last couple of years that we’re hearing sounds from the studio productions — and this comes after over a decade into their 15-year long residency at Philadelphia’s perpetual nightlife institution MAKING TIME.

For Zillas on Acid, the music they showcase can be boiled down to being raw, mischievous and twisted, drifting effortlessly between electro, techno and house sensibilities. It’s dance music with an uncompromising punk attitude.

Their most recent release on outernational Canadian label Multi Culti’s latest quarterly 12” vinyl series Solice I. They join Manfredas, Tyu and Red Axes on the 4-track EP with ‘Live from The Reptile House’— a chuggy, drum-laced tripper with enough spookiness to shake your spine. Check out ‘Live from The Reptile House’ here.

To celebrate the single and EP on Multi Culti, Thomas and James decided to drop in on Mixmag Asia’s Guest List with a playlist they consider suitable for animals and more.

“To complement our recent release 'Live from the Reptile House' on the Multi-Culti Solstice I 12”, we dug deep into the Zillas on Acid record bin to find some other zoologically-inclined tunes. Taken primarily from the long 80s, these songs are less dancefloor fillers, but nonetheless sonic killers: ten animal jams suitable for mammals, reptiles, insects, and everyone else.”

This song is like Zillas fan-fiction… acid-y squelches, minimal hand percussion, someone talking about crazy shit on top. He’s just the absolute best.

We originally were a quartet, and Ween is OG Zilla KT’s favourite band. We’re still considering throwing a “No Hallo, Just Ween” party one of these Halloween’s… if you haven’t already, schedule yourself soon for a Ween deep dive.

Lora Logic’s post-X-Ray Spex output was a transformative discovery for a teenage Jameszilla. All her stuff is recommended 900%, especially the Pedigree Charm LP.

Turtles have short legs, not for walking. Not much else needs to be said.

A favourite first song of the night. Someone make 10,000 more songs like this.

Colourbox’s skanking sampladelic sound is an important part of the Zilla DNA double helix. Yeah yeah the This Mortal Coil cover is great, but this version is still tops for us.

Bone sweet bone / Money’s never wrong croon the boys from Akron on this early early jam that’s the animal precursor to 'Freedom of Choice.'

The B-side to 'Love is a Stranger'. Love the HITS but slow-motion sleeper agents like this one and 'I Did It Just the Same' are where it’s at…

XTC 'English Settlement' deep cut what shoulda been a single. If 'King For a Day' is their version of 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World', this might be the closest thing to their song 'This Charming Man'.

Family Fodder, loveable and weird. And, Dinosaur Sex was how Zillas on Acid were made.

;)