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Before the power-pop movement kicked into high-gear with the success of 1979’s Get The Knack and Cheap Trick’s Live at Budokan—pioneering Chicago-based group, Pezband, had already blazed a three-year trail of hard-edged, hook-laden and harmony-drenched pop-rock on three critically-acclaimed albums and two ferocious live EPs.

Unfortunately, Pezband was caught in-between the power-pop boom of the early '70s—when Badfinger and The Raspberries were churning out hit singles—and the resurgence in the very-late '70s, when The Knack and Cheap Trick had singles success. Had Pezband debuted a few years earlier or later, they certainly would have found a larger audience.

Further, the group’s choice of record company probably hurt their chances—as the label lacked the promotional resources to break the band (or any of their acts for that matter).

Though Pezband’s “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” and “Stop! Wait a Minute,” are staples of every “best-of power-pop” compilation—it took Japanese label Air Mail Recordings to release the long out-of print catalog of 50 Pezband tracks on three CDs in 2005. In the United States, pop-savvy Not Lame Records is the catalog's online distributor.

Promising debut

As with their pure-pop forbears, Badfinger, Big Star and The Raspberries—Pezband was to befall a similar fate, only more so. A promising launch with tons of buzz, magnanimous reviews from rock critics, and gigs opening for the mega-bands of the day—simply did not equate to radio play and record sales.

While their home-state peers, Cheap Trick, figured a way out of the pop-rock box (and the restrictive “power-pop” tag) by transforming themselves into in arena rock outfit—Pezband stuck to what they knew best, British Invasion-style pop-rock, and never strayed the course. But in the end, it was the band’s Waterloo.

Cheap Trick’s Rick Neilsen has not gone on-record as saying the group had an influence on his band’s future musical direction, but he did follow Pezband’s career, and even attended Pezband’s early club dates. Also, Cheap Trick’s bass player, Tom Peterson, formed an almost-band in the ‘80s and asked Pezband’s Mimi Betinis to be its frontman.

Meet The Pezband

Despite their perpetual nearly-famous status—-from 1977 through 1979—-Pezband made records as catchy and ebullient as their heroes, the mid-period Beatles—and were as driving and soulful a live-act as the Jeff Beck-era Yardbirds. The band’s three studio albums: Pezband, Laughing in the Dark and Cover to Cover attest to that—as do their two live EPs: Two Old Two Soon and Thirty Seconds Over Schaumburg.

Read more at Wikipedia.org