Mama Zu Release New Single 'Make A Joke'

Linwood Regensburg shares, “Make a Joke,” another tease of the forthcoming album Quilt Floor from Mama Zu. 

Scheduled to be released on February 23 via Thirty Tigers, the LP represents the collaborative effort between Linwood and Jessi Zazu, the late frontwoman of Those Darlins, who tragically passed away from cancer. The album serves as a poignant culmination of their musical journey together. 

Of today's song Regensburg, who was the drummer in Those Darlins, says, “The beginning demo of this song was sent to me via email from Jessi along with this message: ‘This song is for people who make discriminatory jokes about women who ‘don't think they're part of the problem.' They might not actually harm women physically, but its still perpetuating rape culture and keeping alive this idea that it's okay to talk or treat women as if they are items to be had.' Also...shout out to the infinite influence of Kathleen Hanna and the Minutemen. Punk rock can change our lives.”

Linwood previously shared “Safe Place To Stay” which was included on Spotify's “Fresh Finds” and “Indie Fresh Finds” playlists and iIn late 2023 he revealed the first glimpse of Quilt Floor via “Lip” 

The genesis of Mama Zu came as Those Darlins were deciding to disband. Work on the album started in early 2017 and it was around that same time Zazu was given her cancer diagnosis. The duo forged ahead in fits and spurts, and by late summer, the pair had recorded and mixed an album to near-completion. Tragically, though, final work on the album was halted when Zazu passed away that September at the age of 28. The unfinished album was put back on the shelf.

“After she died, I didn't want to touch it,” Regensburg says. “I didn't want to play the songs or listen to the songs, let alone finish them. It just seemed like such a daunting task with a lot of layers—there was a lot of work left to do, but then there was also this exhausting underlying emotional component that pops in and hangs around the moment I'd open a session.”

Years passed. Distance grew. Healing began. By 2020, Regensburg felt ready to finish what they had started, he says, “both for her sake and for my own sanity level. I was the only person left with this project.” Working on their songs again was therapeutic, even if doing so brought on a new set of challenges as he both polished nearly-finished tracks and rebuilt songs out of disparate parts, from the drum track on an older, alternate recording to a simple phone demo.

“It was a way of spending time with her, and kind of the only capacity in which I could,” he said. “But then, I was also left with a lot of creative choices without her. Even though I had played most of the instruments, it had still been a totally collaborative thing; if there was a part I played that she didn't like, she was clear about that. If someone's gone, you can still talk to them, but you can only assume what their feedback might be. So I was stuck with a lot of musical choices that I'd be working under the context of, "I hope you like what I did here.” 

On the LP the duo stitch together a sonic tapestry of punchy tracks that resist categorizing in any specific genre. The pair deftly flit from shimmery shoegaze to hooky power pop, riot grrrl-tinged punk to ‘60s psychedelic. Working without parameters and without outside expectations led them to create an album that lives up to its mix-tape moniker: eleven distinct tracks that are entire universes on their own, but never disjointed. Together, they seamlessly form a robust whole, a representation of someone who has no limits on what kind of records can line their shelves. 

A portion of the proceeds will benefit Jessi Zazu, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to continuing Jessi's work in the arts & humanities, social justice, and women's health. Pre-order Quilt Floor here.

Check out the new single here:

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