Happy Halloween! is finally here. The grand finale in Green Monkey Records’ series of early, damn-near-unreleased Green Pajamas material will be in fine stores and internets October 21. The original 8-song Happy Halloween! cassette was self-released by the band exactly thirty years ago this month, on October 20, 1984, a mere four months after the release of their psychedelic pop debut, the magnificent Summer of Lust. A stunning total of ten cassettes were made for the entire world. Those eight songs are featured here as the current tracks 4-11, in their original order. For this 2014 release we have added 13 mostly unreleased PJ’s songs recorded in an 8-month period between Lust and their first single, Kim the Waitress. A few, like Thinking Only of You (Lust Won’t Last) saw very limited release on obscure German comps and the like; they have been highly sought commodities among the Pajamas aficionados.
This collection of obscurities was curated by Pajama Joe Ross, keeper of the band’s secret history. Only Joe would have known of never-performed gems like The Hate Song and She’s So Weird. For those looking for high fidelity, you won’t find it here. These songs were recorded sometimes on 4-track, sometimes right to cassette tape. They were mastered from thirty- year old cassettes. What you will find is (mainly) two West Seattle lads Jeff Kelly and Joe Ross setting the crucible of creativity on fire with all due haste. You will find a great bunch of songs that are already accelerating away from the psychedelic label they got with Summer. of Lust. By the end of these recordings, they are becoming the Kim the Waitress band, with Steven Lawrence and Karl Wilhelm joined as members.
We will be releasing a video for Thinking Only of You (Lust Won’t Last) with footage captured at Seattle’s legendary Gorilla Gardens in 1985.
Jeff Kelly and The Green Pajamas are Seattle’s most excellent conundrum; a band who have made over 30 albums in the last 30 years – a consistently intriguing body of work and yet they remain largely unknown. This is their second album. They perform in public occasionally.