Prospective Records

Fauna

Peter VonGrossmann and Zachary Vex (aka Tommy Roberts until 1990) met in 1971 and began informally working on music together in 1976. They lived together at Pete's mom's house during 1981 and eventually formed a band in 1985, Tommy and the Life, which released two singles (Angel/Born American and Horses) and a cassette album. That band mutated several times as Zeppelin became more of an influence on the sound and Todd joined the project, Les Paulsy (rip Les) being the final straight rock version of the band. As My Bloody Valentine's influence on Zack's writing took over, the project was renamed Dazed and, due to a name conflict, the band was renamed Fauna. Pete's preference was Medicine, unaware that the year before Brad Laner had formed an MBV-influenced band by that name. The core members Zack (Tommy), Pete and Todd worked together with Jerry Lefkowitz and Krystal MacKay to record and release two albums, Everafter in 1992 and Feral in September of 1993. Shortly thereafter, madness and volatility drove the core group apart and Fauna's bass and drum duties were taken over by Luca Gunther and Linda Pitmon with Jerry joining in, resulting in three singles: the unreleased covers "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and "Five Years" and the single "Ultraviolent" appearing on the 1996 compilation "Stress Release". Fauna ceased playing until reforming in early 2010, practicing twice weekly deep in the bowels of ZVEX Effects world domination headquarters in preparation for their 17-year core-member reunion gig at Sauce (Lyndale and Lake) on June 11, 2010 with Strange Lights and Two Harbors.

- from the First Avenue web site

Feral's sound is a lot more unique than it might seem at first listen. It could be easily pigeonholed into the wave of dreamy, shoegazing-influenced rock that swept over American indie in the early and mid-'90s, but the album also sports an experimentally chopped-up quality that's highly similar to that of the Swirlies, and a Lilys-style flair for '60s pop construction that replaces some of the more conventional dream pop tones.

- from a review by Nitsuh Abebe at AllMusic