Progressive Rock Music - Progressive Rock Discography, Albums and Reviews

Zerfas - Zerfas 1973

on Saturday, January 18, 2014 | 0 Comment

Brothers Dave and Herman Zerfas started their professional recording career as members of the Indiana-based band Jubal. By 1973 the band had morphed into Zerfas, in the process recording an album. Produced by Whittemore, Jr. with four of the five members contributing material, the album's gained a Beatlesque reputation over the years. Six of the eight tracks were exceptionally good. With a dazzling fuzz guitar and inspired lead vocal from bassist Mark Tribby (who was supposedly reluctant to sing lead) 'The Sweetest Part' demonstrated the band were equally comfortable working in a country-rock arena. Apparently written during their Jabul days, 'I Don't Understand' started out with a slice of studio insanity before switching over to a pretty, if stark Badfinger/Emmitt Rhodes/McCartney-styled ballad. The song was also worth hearing for what may have been the album's best guitar solo. With a killer melody, glistening group harmonies and a touch of studio experimentation the side one closer 'I Need It Higher' found the band taking a stab at a more commercial sound. Best of all was 'The Piper' which actually managed to mix pop, rock, psych, and progressive moves into a wonderful slice of music. That left one track up in the air (the experimental 'Fool's Parade' - complete with 'mushroom soup' belches) and two tracks that were marginal - 'Stoney Wellitz' which sported a bouncy melody, but was plagued by a cheesy synthesizer and an irritatingly whiny lead vocal. In 1975 the Zerfas brothers resurrected Jubal, keeping the nameplate (The Jubal Band) alive via a heavy Southeast touring schedule through 1983. Based on information from Whittemore's entertaining 700 West website the band also recorded quite a bit of post-LP material including a club demo of then-popular hits and at least one album's worth of new material for an album that was suppose to be entitled "Winds of Change". Additional demo tapes were apparently lost when the Atlanta, Georgia studio they working in caught fire. The album's been reissued a couple of times. In 1999 the European Atlas label released a bootleg copy of the LP (Atlas catalog number 730 710 16). In 2004 Radioactive reissued the album in vinyl (Radioactive catalog RRLP050) and CD formats (catalog RRCD050). From a technical standpoint the Radioactive reissues are of mediocre quality.

Line-up / Musicians

Dave Zerfas/drums,percussion,vocals

Herman Zerfas/keyboards,vocals

Mark Tribby/bass, guitars,vocals

Steve Newbold/bass,guitars

Discography

Zerfas 1973