Life is Doom Love is Drone: Zombie Joe 1996-2007

Zombie Joe 1996-2007

Zombie Joe

Cornelius Ochs - vocals/words, Hans Scheffler - Guitar, Tobias Lehmann - Bass, Carsten Rothweiler - Drums

1996 - Zombie Joe was formed in Halle/Saale. Citing influences such as The Doors, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, INXS, and Tom Waits.

From: "Backstage 7"

"Zombie Joe are the discovery of the F6 Music Award 1999. Already the next best act in their hometown, the Hallens around the exceptionally charismatic "Ochs" in an emotional fight coordination ultimately fell just short and landed in 2nd place. Since that day, Zombie Joe was on everybody's lips.

1997 and a band from Saxony Anhalt are the favorites of the final 2. Zombie Joe has been out in front ever since contracting with Franz Plasa, the top German producer of the last few years, who's roster contains acts like: Selig, Echt, and Fury in the Slaughterhouse.

Zombie Joe stand for a furious change of brachial hardness and virtuoso harmonies. Taking songs supported by worn sounds, hard grooves and reef guitars are marked by schizophrenia between beauty and distortion. Zombie Joe symbolize the fascination of the morbid and ugly. An aesthetic of the provocation of passion and contradiction emerges.

Conceived in an elaborate stage show, performed by a perfect band and presented by a singer that can not only live the hunt between the boundaries of human emotions, but also show them in an incomparable way, that a Zombie Joe concert becomes an event that viewers hold a long time in their breath."

Zombie Joe Timeline of events

* Beginning of 1997 - Winner of the Kickstarter Festival of New Comers, followed by production

in the Summe of '97 resulting in 3 songs on the Kickstart Sampler.

* On the official "Nachwuchsact" - sampler of the Stadthalle

* December '97 at the festival - Sampler "The Great REIZ" - Leipzig

* February '98 production &... from three songs for a "Dessau Sampler"

* July '98 production "Die Mondin"

* 1998 the band self released an ep titled: "Die Mondin" and consisted of five tracks and three originals: "Die Mondin" ("The Moon"), "Fuerfresser" ("firefighter"), and "Kali ma patada" as well as a radio edit of "Die Mondin", and and edited version of "Fuerfresser."

* April '99 winner of the F6 Music Award in Saxony

- 2nd place bem F6 Music Award final exit.
(Read about the F6 HERE)

* 2 songs: "Die Mondin" and "Sukkubus" both appeared on the "F6 Music Awards Finale 1999" promo, from BMG Berlin. The bands success at the competition resulted in them garnering the attention of producer Franz Plasa.

* Since Dec. '99 Artist's contract with Franz Plasa

* Production of promo CD "Do Not Wake Me Up" at Franz Plasa

Only 200 copies

* 2000 - Another self released ep surfaced called: "Weck Mich Nicht Auf" ("Do Not Wake Me Up") and contained 4 songs: "Vulva", "Kadath", Rumpf" & "Sukkubus" and is noted as being produced by Franz Plasa.

* March 2000: Takeover Agreement with Laughing Horse / Edel

* Album Production at Franz Plasa June/July 2000

* 2001 - Zombie Joe released their first official single: "Sukkubus" featuring 3 songs: "Sukkubus", "Ligeia", & Rumpf" and was released by Laughing Horse Music, Produced by Franz Plasa. The band ended up touring with bands such as Marilyn Manson, Subway to Sally, & The Happy.

* 2002 The band released their first full length "Vegas." Produced by Franz Plasa on Safety Records.

In an interview with Gothicworld, Conny Ochs said the following about the release: "The situation was such that we had material for three or four albums, from all of them, Franz found the songs that now make up 'Vegas.' It was clear to us that without the producers, we would have just put the songs on CD. To win Franz for the project was very good luck. On one hand, he has let us play our songs as we are used to, on the other, he has played with us and showed us completely new possibilities in terms of sounds. Experiments which we never would have allowed without him. Never the less, we feel it is 100% Zombie Joe."

* 2002 - An enhanced CD single was released from Vegas: "Wunder", which included the version from "Vegas" along with two alternate mixes of the song, plus a video.

* 2002 - That same year "Wunder" also appeared on the "Zillo Festival Sampler" compilation CD, as well as having the song "Vegas" featured on a CD sampler compilation "Zilloscope: New Sights and Sounds" given away with the 1/08/02 issue of Zillo Magazine. (the band was mis-titled as "Zobie Joe")

* 2003 - The following year, with the help of Hans-Ekardt Wenzel, the band released a tribute to Woody Guthrie under the alias "Z-Joe & the Dustbowlers" and released the album: "A Woody Zombie Hooteneny", which featured Woody's lyrics put to music written by the band.

*2005 - The song: "Nachtfalter" appears on a sampler CD from the Reiz Line label (Reiz Line No. 001) titled: "Reflexzentrum Im Zentralnervensystem" featuring 17 bands from the Leipzig area.

* 2005 Zombie Joe released their final CD: "Schlachthaus Baby!" on Safety Records.

* 2005 "Mit Dem Kopf Zuerst" is only one of the singles to come from "Schlachthaus Baby!" This single includes an acoustic version and "Dischordia Mexico" + Videos.

* The other single to come from the album was "Moloko Milchbar" which included the non-album track "Mama", a song called "Moon Garden Love", a Man-Next-Door Mix of "Moloko Milchbar" and the song's video.