Check Out How Awesome Zs' New Lineup Is

It's election season, so let's be clear here: if we had to vote any band to lead our society into the future, it would be Zs. Here at Noisey, we've got a serious band crush on this amorphous, constantly-evolving experi-skronk act. And that's why we want them to lead this great nation: they keep their heads on a swivel at all times.

It's that ability to shift and change that's defined the band over the past twelve years. The only constant member has been Sam Hillmer, a bearded weirdo who's responsible for the Representing NYC music series, and is currently heading up the You Are Here Festival, a traveling performance series with stops in New York, Berlin, Tokyo, and soon to be Detroit.

Zs just sent us a video of their live debut, which happened late August at 285 Kent in Brooklyn. Check it out:

The current lineup finds Ben Greenberg and Ian Antonio replaced by downtown composer Patrick Higgins (who you might know from his old proggy jam band Animal) and Greg Fox (who you might have seen drumming for Liturgy, Guardian Alien, Dan Deacon, and a shit ton of other top-notch talent).

This new lineup comes with a shift in sonic texture--Zs used to traffic in mind-meltingly complex avant-chamber music, with the members of the band paging through reams of sheet music onstage. Now they're a sleek groove-based act, with hints of techno and dub emerging from their layered cyclic haze.

Watch the video above, and be sure to order Score, their recently-released four-disc box set of never released and out of print stuff from their first five years. You can pick that up right here.

Zs Fall Tour Dates

11/25/2012 NYC - Bowery Electric
11/26/2012 Baltimore, MD - Floristree
11/27/2012 Washington, DC - Union Hall
11/29/2012 Oberlin, OH - The Chapel
11/30/2012 Oberlin OH - Master Class @ The Kohl Building
11/30/2012 Oberlin, OH - House Show
12/2/2012 Toronto, ON - Double Double Land
12/3/2012 Montreal, QC - Casa Del Popolo
12/4/2012 Kingston, NY - BSP
12/5/2012 Boston - Non-Event
12/9/2012 Allston, MA - Problem House (side projects)*
12/14/2012 Baltimore, MD - Red Room

@b_shap