Pez

From The Secret History of the Cedar Valley

PEZ...A History by TURBO

I want to start out by thanking Chuck Hoffman for the history of the "Exploding TV's" and "Fantasy Kitchen"; bands that I got my start in back in the early '90's in the Cedar Valley. Some slight corrections to his story, which I added to his page.

I think it all started back in the summer of 1992, but I could be wrong on that date. I started playing the guitar because I knew that there was no way I would be in a rock band playing the piano, and I/my folks didn’t have the money to buy a drum set. I started by playing on an old acoustic that my dad had and then a friend of my older sister gave me an old hot pink Kramer electric to play (only one pickup that I played through the Columbus High keyboard amp). A couple of friends of mine (Marc White and Abe Turner) introduced me to Jon Dennis who was a very well rounded musician, had played in bands before, and who might play with me someday.

Jon and I started jamming, and hooked up with a drummer from his class (Dave Dempster). The guy really was not that great (none of us were back then), but the experience was a lot of fun. Jon and I became good friends, and that friendship allowed us to continue playing together up to this day (when I am back in Iowa).

I don’t recall if this original lineup was ever officially called “Pez”, but we only did one gig with Dave (the Columbus High talent show). We were supposed to play two songs with him, but not only could he physically not play “Man in the Box”, but he started coming late to practice. An acquaintance of mine from grade school, Dane Downs, played the drums and once decided just to jam with us while we were waiting for Dave. It was decided that Dane would play “Man in the Box”, and Dave would play “Knockin’ on Heavens Door” (the G’n’R version, with Tim Cordes on keys and vocals).

The talent show was as good as can be expected from Columbus High (Jon had to change the lyrics in “Man in the Box” in order to get permission to sing), and Jon and I quickly dumped Dave. Dane was younger then Jon, and for some reason we didn’t pursue him as a full time drummer. Jon was going to join up with some old friends of his for a project that later was known as the “Exploding TV’s”. When their guitar player left the band, Jon asked me to stand in. They had a gig lined up at the Garden (Columbus High was not going to allow Jon and I play there, as they thought it was a bar on the Hill, huge scandal…). Josh Stewart joined us on the drums, and the project really was Chuck Hoffman’s vision. There were creative differences between everyone in the band, but never the less we did the show and not too badly (considering our level of experience). Chuck was dropped from the band, and Josh’s brother Jeremy joined the band.

Josh and Jeremy were both in a band called “Fantasy Kitchen” that had some popularity in Cedar Falls back in the day, and so they decided to bring their old singer out of the mothballs and have him join us. Although I think officially we were still the “Exploding TV’s” when we played at the Electro-Light Ballroom (Waterloo), we had agreed that basically the band was “Fantasy Kitchen”. The show was frightening, but we pulled it off. I still have video tapes of both shows and an audio tape of the show at the Garden. The guys from “Fantasy Kitchen” all smoked up before the show, and as I was then pretty hard-core straight-edge, I left the band after that show. Jon followed shortly after.

There was a brief period then, where I went off to UNI and Jon was still at Columbus that we didn’t hang out much. But by Christmas 1993/New Year 1994 Jon and I were talking about getting a band together with Dane.

“Pez” was officially born. We went through a few names, among them "T.H.U.G." and "Mr. Softee."

The original line-up included Jon, myself, Dane and Ben Siders (on rhythm guitar), who left Iowa for college early on and faded out of the picture. We originally practiced at Jon’s folk’s house in their basement until our playing (some think it was the fact that I would lay my half-stack at an angle, so I was playing at me rather then at my feet) caused a crack in their foundation. Although I was not a student at Columbus High anymore, the band director there (Mr. “C”) allowed us to practice there after school (I think we started practicing there in early 1995). I no longer remember why we picked “Pez” as a name…I think it had to do with the fact that the “e” in “Pez” is actually a schwa “e” sound, and for some reason we all thought that it would be funny to be in a band that reads as “PEZ”, but is said “P-SCHWA-Z”. We later just stuck with “PEZ”. To celebrate the candy, our amps would be covered in Pez dispensers.

Overall, I think “Pez” was a good band…we had a lot of originals, and a listener could hear how we all progressed as musicians and songwriters as we gained more experience. All of us wrote, and all of us contributed. I have never before or since been in a band that felt that “right”. Our sound was founded in the early 90’s grunge thing, with a splash of metal, but the songs we wrote ranged from melodic rock to edging on punk-ish (even having a song “The Happy Punk Song”). As time went on, our music got heavier and our sound tighter. We recorded one “studio” album, and played several gigs that were all successful. By the summer of 1995, it was all over. Dane was moving to New Mexico for a job (he had graduated from Columbus)…our last show was at Dave Cubic’s farm, one week before the infamous party/car wreck (we had been invited to play at that party, but I had already left for Bryn Mawr).

As an epilogue…in 2005 “Pez” got back together for a one-time show (sort of a 10 year reunion). I had been living in the DC area for about a year, and needed to get all my shit out of storage in Kansas so the timing was perfect. Jon and I located Dane via the Internet, and he come out with his band (“The Lunch Box Super-Heroes”). We played at the Reverb; it was wild playing all of those old songs again. Maybe we will do it again in 2015?

And as a footnote…when Dane left the band Jon and I kept playing together until 1998, when I moved to Kansas. We had several different drummers, and the band was renamed “Captain Zeke”, then “Zeke’s Revenge”, and God knows what else. Although we played many more shows with other drummers, some of them large shows, nothing ever matched the original “Pez” experience.