Press Yourself: Scraps of praise

The whole point of flyers, posters, merch items, and publicity photos is to attract attention to yourself and/or your event. We at Decider go through dozens of these things a week, and it's true that some are better than others. In Press Yourself, we reward clever, gimmicky, and/or offensive promotional tactics by highlighting them.

There is some kind of vortex in the fabric of the universe that inexorably draws me to lots and lots of Zebras shows, so I'm acquainted. But for those who need extra assurance that Madison's twitchy, chromatic-scale-obsessed rockers aren't just wackos who walked off a community-service detail one day and stumbled upon some instruments, they've begun offering a form of assurance. The kind of assurance that says, "Hey, people you have heard of have heard of us!" At recent shows (and probably the one they're playing Saturday at The Frequency), their merch table has featured a little card with two "Real Quotes About Zebras" on it. The first is one that guitarist-vocalist Vincent Presley received from former Dead Kennedy Jello Biafra, who checked out Zebras' music but had to inform the band that his Alternative Tentacles label just isn't taking on new bands right now. The second is from Hank Williams III—whom Presley has opened for as part of another Madison band, Those Poor Bastards—who was apparently thrown by Presley's high, screechy vocal delivery. The message is clear: If mister "put the cunt back in country" can be a tad unsettled by Zebras, then so can you.