Album: s/t
Year: 1977
Style: Power Pop
Similar Bands: Squeeze, Cheap Trick, Badfinger, The Records, Fountains of Wayne, Shoes, Beatles, Raspberries
"One-Word" Review: Sleek hook filled catchy pop
Based Out Of: Oak Park, IL
Label: Passport Records, ABC records,
Cover, Record
Record, Back
Pezband (1977)- Baby It's Cold Outside 2:49
- Tracer 2:51
- Princess Mary 2:25
- Runaway 3:45
- Gas Grill 2:33
- When I'm Down 2:02
- It's Only a Girl 1:56 /
- Please Be Somewhere Tonight 3:04
- Let's Dance! 2:34
- It Was Alright 2:30
- Hold On 2:58
- Close your Eyes 5:33
Members & Other Bands:
- Mick Rain - Drums, Percussion, Vox
- Mike Gorman - Bass, Vox (Black & Blonde, Off Broadway, EIEIO, The Kraze, Second Sufis, Boy George, Matt Bennett )
- Tommy Gauvenda - Guitars (Tamo Show, Claire, Siren,
- Mimi Betinis - Lead Vox, Guitar, Piano (Black & Blonde, Off Broadway, Studebaker John & the Hawks, )
- Stephan Galfas - Producer, Engineer
- Peter Sobel - Production Coordinator
- Jim Bonnefond - Asst. Engineer
- Joe Intile III - Asst. Engineer
- Charles Conrad - Asst. Engineer
- Cliff Hodson - Asst. Engineer
- George Marino - Mastering
- Clarence Clemmons - Sax (E-Street Band, Artists United Agaist Apartheid, Red Bank Rockers, Bruce Springsteen, Jersey Arts for Mankind, Ringo Starr & All Starr Band, Steve Smith & the Nakeds, Temple of Soul, Browns All-Star Band, Louisiana Gator Boys, more)
- John Payne - Sax (Louis Levin, Van Morrison, Milkwood, Bonnie Raitt, The Siegel Schwall Band, Andy Pratt, Fanny, Niki Aukema, Water Into Wine Band, Travis Shook & the Club Wow, Johnny Shines, David Bromberg, Tom Mitchell, Don Ebbett, Martha Velez, Rosalie Sorrels, Peter C Johnson, Tom Church, Noel Paul Stookey, Martin Gross Wendt, Robert Ellis Orrall, Bill Quateman, Halleluja the Hills, Canned Boogers)
- Randy Brecker - Trumpet (Andy LaVerne, Art Blakey, Black Light Orch, Blood Sweat & Tears, Bob Mintzer, Child is Father to the Men, Chroma, CTI All Stars, Dalia Faitelson, Das Pferd, Dizzy Gillespie, Don Groinick, Duke Pearson, Farberius, GRP All Stars, Hal Galper, Harlem River Drive, Jaco Pastorius, Kerry Strayer, Loren Schoenberg, Man Doki Soulmates, Marc Copland, Mike Mainieri, Milky Way, Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty, NY All Stars, Pond Life, Renolds Jazz Orch, Roif Kuhn, Ron McClure, Brecker BrosDavid Liebman, Domenic Troiano, Eleventh House, Fisher Fidelity Standard Rock Band, George Gruntz, Horace Silver, Jack Wilkins, Jamie Baum, Jazz Composers Orch, White Elephant, Woody Witt so much more)
- Alan Rubin - Trumpet (Black Light Orch, Newport Youth Band, Blues Brothers Band, Mike Gibbs, RCO All-Stars, SNL Band, The Tick Horns, Blood Sweat & Tears, Fat City, Duke Ellington, more)
- Larry Fast - Synth (Synergy, Fire INC., Tony Levin Band, Deodato, Sylvia, Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, Stephen Dees, Martha Velez, Nektar, Intergalactic Touring Band, Peter Gabriel, Stormin' Norman & Suzy, Odyssey, American Standard Band, Tommy James, Hall & Oats, Kate Bush, Boz Scaggs, Meatloaf, Foreigner, Air Supply, John Denver, Bonnie TylerJoan Armatrading, Barbara Streisand, Rick Springfield, Serge Gainsbourg more)
- Jay Warneke - Road Crew
- Jeff Roeschlein - Road Crew
- John Gillespie - Art Direction
- William Sosin - Photography
- Guido Scarato - Design
- Omega Graphics - Design
- Michael J Lembo - Mgmt
Album Review: The album is straight up guitar & harmony powerpop- and with a start in 1971, Pezband was one of the first ever bands to be marketed as powerpop. The vocals sound somewhere between the Beatles and Squeeze (esp Let's Dance!): two great bookends. The songs are well structured, simple, catchy and infectious. Its very difficult to pick a stand out track as they all have similarly impressive hooks. They truly were one of the amazingly productive and astonishing bands that should have been much bigger than they were, most likely victims to the time: disco and punk, and being on a struggling soon-to-be bankrupt independent record label that was hemorrhaging $$$ and had no financial system in place to promote the band. At the same time, other bands like Cheap Trick were filling the holes where they would have also fit. And with a killer live act underrepresented on record, audiences didn't have the awareness needed to make the band a household name. All three of their albums have recently been released on CD (Air Mail Recordings / Not Lame), remastered and remixed their third, Cover to Cover last year (2019). And fun fact, Pezband has no actual meaning aside from the candy: singer Betinis just liked the way the letters looked together artistically.
Stand Out Track: Gas Grill, Please Be Somewhere Tonight
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