ZIP TANG - The Band

Perry Merritt - vocals, guitar, synths
Fred Faller - drums
Andrew Bunk - bass, vocals
Former members:
Marcus Padgett - sax, keyboards, vocals
Richard Wolfe - bass, vocals

Zip Tang began as a conversation

between Perry Merritt and Rick Wolfe
at a local jam session in a suburb of Chicago, IL. in 2002. The idea was to start a fun little project covering some of their favorite artists' music - Steely Dan, Jeff Beck, Traffic, Yes, King Crimson, etc... The search began for a drummer and keyboard player, and Fred's audition locked in the core trio of the band then known as RPM. With no luck finding a keyboard player, Fred brought in his orchestral mate from the College Of DuPage big jazz band - Marcus Padgett - who played saxophone and a little keyboards.

Soon after, the band's name was changed to Zip Tang and the decision was made to start writing original material. The first album released in 2007 - Luminiferous Ether - gained some recognition with the track "Tower Of Tuna" and their interpretation of the "Tarkus" suite by ELP. The next album Pank was warmly welcomed by critics and was nominated for best progressive rock album by the "grass roots Grammys" organization Just Plain Folks in 2009. Great reviews continued with the two follow up releases Feed Our Heads and Das Reboot. In the summer of 2015 ZT v2.0 released their fifth collection of tunes Private Shangri-La.

In the summer of the pandemic - 2020, the sixth record and first concept album Cold Coming was released with their new bassist Andrew Bunk.