Tuesday, September 2, 2014

The Pedaljets Today Today Twilight Records 1988

The Pedaljets Today Today Twilight Records 1988 CAT#TR017 Promo Copy

Man, fantastic band with a fantastic record.  I revisited this after listening to the most recent Pedaljets release and am really surprised this LP never found it's way into my personal rotation at any given time.  I remember it being a lot more angry, but it's pure pop.  All solid, crunchy, 80's punk...very similar to the scene that was happening in Minnesota with the Replacements and Husker Du.

I mean seriously, if you want all the emotion and hooks of the Replacements, but would rather have the tightly wound pop-punk of Husker Du as the back drop, this is your album.  The Mats got a little too sloppy, the Husker Du got a bit too wound up, this is a perfect compromise.  So much so, it's kind of the Pedaljets' downfall as it became too easy to say they were riding coattails.

Reading the promo material that I got along with the record, it indicates the history of the band dates back to 1983 when founder, Mike Allmayer, was a DJ at the legendary KJHK 90.7 at Kansas University calling out for musicians with the same interests.  Once he was able to establish the band, it appears they relocated to KC gigging locally, then after the release of 7" in 1987, they started to tour nationally.

This album, for obvious reasons and warranted comparisons, got them zine famous (the next LP would be as close as the band got to a "breakthrough").  All the cool kids were digging on it and band was touring nationally, gigging with previously mentioned Minnesota scensters.  It's a fantastic album, unfortunately, it doesn't get the kind of later-day, underground, punk rock praises as other locals like the Embarrassment or the Micronotz, but it's certainly deserving of it.

No comments:

Post a Comment