I have heard quite a lot of Jerry Kingls music in recent years, but this is a blast from the past, quite literally. Zany Starblaster were a Wisconsin Rapids band that performed locally and elsewhere in the mid-west during the years of 1978 through 1980. Members included Jerry King, Michael Kinney, Steve Kinney, Rick Aron, Jim Kuhfuss, and Jack Faville. The music on this album has been stored on a reel-to-reel tape for 40 years, and it is only now been made available. Jeff Fisher was an early member before the name changed to Zany Starblaster and he appears on two songs on this album as well. Jerry kindly sent me the CD, which includes a 12 page booklet detailing the complete history of the band which was based around him and his childhood friend Michael Kinney, which is just fascinating and details the trials and tribulations of a first band trying to get somewhere.
What we have here are four studio songs and one live, total running time of about 25 minutes, and while they are very much of their time this actually a really nice set. Given I think of Jerry experimenting with different forms of music it is quite strange to hear him performing with a more straight-ahead band who started life as a covers band, and there is no doubt that has influenced their own playing given they had to learn the rock hits of the day. Their own material was slotted into their sets alongside the hits, and one can certainly hear why one booking agent referenced them as “the next Cheap Trick” as they have that same power pop/hook laden rock which is innately American and a load of fun. When this arrived I thought it would be some sort of novelty band given the name so played it out of curiosity but kept listening to it as this is a load of fun.
It is no longer possible to buy the CD, but this is available on Bandcamp and Jerry has decided to make this “name your price” so why not check them out? This is a wonderful romp and one I really enjoyed playing.
Rating: 8/10
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