In the 13th gigennium of cosmic expansion, minerals fired from the deaths of immense astrological engines of atomic fusion have coalesced, bubbled up, been digested and excreted innumerable times by increasingly complex lifeforms, fused as spermatazoon and ovum in passionate ballets of furious congress, producing beings who in turn survived and thrived by ingesting and metabolizing these same ancient minerals in all states of complexity, from rock to infant and most likely excrement, because nobody washes their hands. Primordial explosions formed rocks that learned to speak and to write, to dance, mine phosphates, destroy, love, eat rotten fruit to get drunk and eventually refine that process into the production of churro flavored vodka (look it up, it’s real). All this thrives due to the radiation blocking fields produced by a molten core made of speakers and guitar strings. No, really. Steel wound with nickel, magnets, vibrations. It’s all the same shit. We had no choice. A cup thrown in the ocean contains the ocean while the ocean contains the cup. We are JJUUJJUU and so is you.

More specifically, JJUUJJUU is a rotating ensemble of domestic & international collaborators, wrangled by Los Angeles based musician, Phil Pirrone. He began his career as a touring musician at the age of 15, playing bass. In 2011, Pirrone borrowed an SG and a DL4 and began his exploration of recording looped based music. He later brought song ideas to life with the rhythmic companion of friend and then collaborator, Andrew Clinco (aka Drab Majesty mastermind Deb Demure). Around the same time Pirrone launched the Moon Block Party and Desert Daze festivals, and Space Agency Booking. By then, a veteran of multiple bands and several years of touring, he shifted much of his attention and vision to organizing festivals around Southern California and booking North American tours for an artist roster that includes SUUNS, Acid Mothers Temple, Ulrika Spacek, Follakzoid, L.A. Witch, Holy Wave, Imarhan, Khun Narin, and more.

JJUUJJUU’s debut release, the FRST EP, recorded at Thee Mens Warehouse by Orange County psych experimentalists Lucas Drake & Manny Lopez of Dahga Bloom, was released in 2013 on NYC label, Beyond Beyond is Beyond. The EP, and a subsequent stand alone single, “Bleck,” began to build excitement about the project, garnering attention from outlets like Noisey, LA Weekly, Paste and Impose, and multiple appearances on Last Call with Carson Daly. Throughout this period the lineup and instrumentation of JJUUJJUU moved in step with the project’s ethos of ephemera and flux. JJUUJJUU continued to tour the US in several different configurations with Pirrone at their center, sharing stages with Tortoise, Allah-Las, Temples, Tinariwen, Night Beats, Les Claypool, Songhoy Blues, and others.

Over the last several years, Pirrone recorded in various spaces around California, with “an array of buddies” to document the songs that would make up JJUUJJUU’s debut LP, Zionic Mud. Sessions included collaborations with Vinyl Williams, Jeffertitti and Mason Rothschild of Fever the Ghost, and the album’s release will be accompanied by a companion release featuring alternate versions of the album’s tracks remixed or reimagined by many of the band’s notable supporters, including J Mascis, METZ, Jennylee of Warpaint, Liars, and Autolux. The album will be released on Dine Alone Records on April 13th.