PEZBAND Live At The Big Kumquat 1979 POWER POP LEGENDS on their home turf!

 

PEZBAND Live At The Big Kumquat 1979 

This HOMEMADE LIVE album by power pop legends PEZBAND was sourced from an imperfect YouTube video that I fixed & edited into tracks.  I’ve done nothing else to it sonically, as it’s a wonderful document of a working band cranking out another great show in a long line of great shows.  The set list is solid, as is the sound, & the playing.  It was recorded near where the band formed, in Oak Park IL.

PEZBAND were still commercially viable in 1979, but their association with NJ’s Passport Records was nearing its end.  The label (formed by JEM & SIRE Records) went under completely in 1988.  

They rose to prominence again due to the resurgence of power pop that came from the INTERNATIONAL POP OVERTHROW weekenders & attendant albums, & RHINO’s wonderful DIY: Come Out & Play-American Power Pop 1975-1978 compilation (that included two of their songs; Stop! Wait A Minute, & Baby, It's Cold Outside).  They say the cream always rises to the top, but no one said it would be in such a tall bucket!  

Here’s more on the group from the band’s bio:  Pezband has shared the stage with Blondie, Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp, The Ramones, KISS, Cheap Trick, The Police, AC/DC, & Wishbone Ash, among others.  Pezband’s sound recalls classic British Invasion era bands like the Beatles, The Who, Jeff Beck, Yardbirds, and Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac fused with a New Wave sensibility (Cars, Jam, Blondie, Knack).

At the time of this energetic club date, PEZBAND consisted of Mimi Betinis on guitar, lead vocals, Tommy Gawenda on guitar, Mike Gorman on bass, vocals & Mick Rain on drums, vocals.  Betinis’ vocals are almost without echo, & he really delivers, as does guitarist Gawenda who I’d say is from the “close enough for rock & roll school” of guitar playing.  His enthusiasm, fantastic tone, and tasteful volume drives the band.  He plays with complete confidence—as if every bum note he hits is exactly what he intended to play.  I’d say he’s the reason Richard Cromelin of The LA Times described their music as combining “melodic pop, reflecting the McCartney side of the Beatles, with a hard, controlled attack powered by solid chording and squealing Who-like overtones.

All Music Guide’s John Dougan wrote: “Pezband play power-pop with a minimum of bullshit, and a maximum of exuberance and energy. With such great, great songs, Pezband should be huge.”

I couldn’t agree more.  They are one of my favorites, right alongside The Spongetones, The Nerves, The Paul Collins Beat, The Plimsouls, & The Smithereens.