micronotz

Looking Back #1: Truck Stop Love / Action Man 7″ Split

Something I’ve been meaning to get around to since the conception of this blog is to give more attention to that which was released years ago. To date, I’ve focused much of my efforts on covering current music, while at most giving a passing mention to the bands that pre-date those to which I refer. From this point forward, the Looking Back posts will cover releases from bands that have become otherwise forgotten, or at the very least overlooked in the sea of currently active bands in the Kansas City and Lawrence areas. I will try my best to include a scan or decent photo of the front/back cover of the releases, as well as my own personal rip of the album in question. Of course this will not always be possible, but we will deal with that when the problem arises. First up:

Band(s): Truck Stop Love & Action Man
Album: Split 7″
Label: Spot Records
Release Year: 1996
Track Listing:
Side A: Truck Stop Love – Nothing Left to Start
Side B: Action Man – Pool or Pond?

It looks like 1996 was a pretty good year for the bands involved, though nowhere near as busy as the year prior for Manhattan’s Truck Stop Love. In 1995, the band released their well-received country, rock, and punk-tinged debut full-length How I Spent My Summer Vacation, as well as the often overlooked Fuentez the Killer EP that contained a cover of Tom Petty’s “Listen to Her Heart.” In the year of this release, Lawrence three-piece Action Man made their debut with Adventures in Boredom on both compact disc and 10″ vinyl. The two crossed paths with this split, and it also served as one of the last releases from either band.

At the link provided, you can find one track from each band recorded when they were essentially in their prime, or at the origins of their eventual demise depending on how you view their timelines. “Nothing Left to Start” clocks in at three minutes, and is a slower-paced but no less riff-heavy offering than much of their material to date, while the three-and-a-half minute “Pool or Pond?” showcases what was to become Chris Tolle’s signature style that made his next band The Creature Comforts such a locally loved act. Both songs are exclusive to this release.

Download here: http://www.mediafire.com/?6whs9vwhs44dis5

—————

For those of you expecting one of my history lessons in this post, I will not leave you wanting. Truck Stop Love on this recording was headed up by Rich Yarges and Jim Crego (of TV Fifty, who replaced Matt Mozier — later of Arthur Dodge and the Horsefeathers). Yarges and Crego both went on to live in the greater Minneapolis area, which makes sense given their affinity with bands from that area in their songwriting. The rhythm section of the band was given its strength from Brad Huhmann, who went on to play in Onward Crispin Glover and Lushbox shortly after the band parted ways, and who more recently can be seen in Red Kate and Knife Crime.

Drummer Eric Melin, formerly of the Moving Van Goghs, saw success once TSL split with Ultimate Fakebook, and is now in The Dead Girls. Fakebook recorded a cover of Truck Stop’s song that you see listed in this post, and it appeared on the band’s 1999 split with The Stereo (which you can find at a blog worth reading here). TSL played a reunion show about eight years ago, but it will likely never happen again for various reasons, not the least of which being that the members don’t even live in the same climate these days.

Before Action Man became known for their poppy, Chris Tolle-supplied power chords, there was a short-lived band called Five-0, with AM’s Steve Buren and Randy Fitzgerald (of Dave Dale’s post-Micronotz jaunt Joe Worker) playing in a three-piece with John Harper (originally of the Micronotz, later of other mainstays such as The Kelly Girls, with Fitzgerald and Dale). Buren also played with Randy’s brother Ron in classic Lawrence punk bands Brompton’s Cocktail and The Hayseeds (the latter was an additional Harper band).

As I’ve already detailed in a paragraph here, Tolle has been known in chronological order as being a part of Rise, AM, The Creature Comforts, The Belles, Olympic Size, Early Reflections, and most recently has been self-releasing some recordings under his own name. Five-0 more or less morphed into what was to become Action Man, and rumor has it that Harper was initially game for the band, but decided to bow out after a handful of practice sessions, never having recorded or performed live with the trio. Upon Action Man parting ways, Tolle started the Creature Comforts with J.D. Warnock (with whom he played in Rise), who also filled in as a second guitarist for some later Fakebook recordings and live performances.

—————

Disclaimer: the album included in this post was attained and ripped by the author, and all pictures or scans present were taken by author unless noted. Should a party involved in the release of the album feel their work is not fitting of digital documentation and prefers it not be freely traded among those without access to the physical product, the author will comply in the removal of the link with little question. Thank you for reading.

New Pedaljets album to be released soon

A reformed Pedaljets will be releasing their first studio album of what I assume to be brand new songs in more than two decades before the end of the year. From their first demo cassette in 1986 (which you can download thanks to a devoted fan here) through the band’s debut full length Today, Today in 1988 and the 1990 eponymous follow-up, the band’s sound matured from an artfully craggy but completely shameless take on the idolized Minneapolis punk of that era to one of their own, while still retaining an undeniable pull toward a Mould/Westerberg approach to writing. A break up occurred on the verge of breaking out (even after a stint opening for Hüsker Dü), and left the band all but forgotten outside of the area within a few years.

Followers of Lawrence music history will note that PJ was not the only time much of the lineup had played together. In 1985, there was the Von Bulows, a summer fling fronted by Lori Wray and backed by the entire lineup of the Jets at that time (Mike Allmayer, Rob Morrow, Matt Kesler, and Scott Mize) and was ’80s pop in the best, most danceable way. Though they recorded a handful of tracks, their only attainable output looks to be a contribution on the third installation of the Fresh Sounds From Middle America compilation series.

In the late ’80s, Allmayer, Morrow and Kesler played in The Catherines with Ala Mandelbaum (later of the dreampop bands Smitten and Boudoir), and released only enough material to populate a rather hard to find demo cassette. A few years after the Jets disbanded, Allmayer and Morrow (along with one-time Jet, Mark Reynolds) played together in the much more aggressive Grither, releasing a number of EPs, and a CD on MCA Records in the process. Allmayer fronted a project as equally short-lived as the Bulows in the late ’90s, under the name Missile My Doll. A single demo was released before the name all but vanished from existence.

Fast forward to 2007, and the core lineup was thrilled to get a chance to come back together and completely re-mix the sophomore Pedaljets album, laying to rest a master they were finally happy with. The resulting re-imagining was given a proper CD release on the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it OxBlood Records (a promising combination of efforts between local DJ/music snob Robert Moore and Frogpond‘s Megan Hamilton) and the band played a few shows that summer in support.

I can’t recall hearing any new Pedaljets songs at their recent shows, but then I haven’t gotten a chance to catch them live since they played with the Micronotz in Lawrence last fall. The details, and even the artwork of the new album have been kept mostly under wraps, and a tour in support of the new album is highly unlikely, but a record release show is imminent. Kesler has been performing bass duties at all of the recent ‘Notz shows (a position once held by the locally iconic and sadly departed David Dale), so one can hope a new release may be in store from them as well. As anyone who has seen them recently knows, Jay Hauptli sure as hell still has the throat for it.