PETTING ZOO

Who were these guys? I can tell you that a web search for "Petting Zoo" doesn't return useful results, unless you're looking for petting zoos. But I doubt search engines occurred to them, or anyone, in 1986. In any event, Seth Sokol (also of Outdoor Minor), David Wheeler, Mike Konopko, Brian London, and Mark Zegarelli were Petting Zoo, and I have very little recollection of them. In fact, I remember exactly one show, probably a WRSU benefit, where they covered Brian Eno's "Golden Hours" at a considerably louder volume than the original. It was pretty fine. When I came across three of their tracks on ourstage.com, I was pleased to find the music (which sounds like it was ripped from a low-noise C90 cassette) was much as I thought I remembered it: the spindly and punky sound heard in NYC clubs in the early 1980s, or anything from Rough Trade's Wanna Buy A Bridge? Or in the case of "Say So," anything slow from Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures.

Petting Zoo flyers were suitably minimal and primitive. Also a little creepy, which doesn't quite fit their sound, but you can't expect every detail to support your narrative. Brand savvy, their also-primitive logo follows from flyer to flyer. Note the top left flyer is dated even for the 1980s, what with the RUsty Screw Pub still in existence. Eventually it occurred to the Rutgers administration that having a bar in the Student Center wasn't a particularly sound idea.

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