Don't Believe A Word I Say Review: Green Monkey Records
"Dyer mined gold from that scene and built a label around it, coming up with more than a few beauties the present day world covets." Frank Gutch, Jr.
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Dagger Short Review: The Icons "Appointment with Destiny!"
"...sounds awesome (like the ripping “X-Ray”) and most of this falls into the latter category."
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Hippies Stole My Blog Review: The Green Pajamas "Green Pajama Country!"
"...a beautifully balanced album, Byrdsian in it's hooks but with a genuine identity" Rebecca
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Don't Believe A Word I Say Review: The Green Pajamas "Green Pajama Country!"
"This is no more country than is the Stones doing Wild Horses." Frank Gutch, Jr.
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Pop Matters Review: The Green Pajamas "Green Pajama Country!"
"They approach 'country music' as a state of mind, in that way presenting both an outsider’s view of the genre and a very personal take on what country music means." Dave Heaton
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Pop Matters Review: Sigourney Reverb "Bees In Your Bed Bad"
"Occasionally reminiscent of the snottiest Replacements records and/or an especially harrowing speed bender..."
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The Active Listener Review: The Green Pajamas "Complete Book of Hours"
"The Green Pajamas are consistently referred to as Seattle's most underrated and under-heard musical combo."
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Seattle Weekly Review: The Green Pajamas "Green Pajama Country!"
"...tackling 16 original country numbers that somehow leave their unique psychedelic spin intact." Julian Mullen
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A.V. Club interview with Stephen Tow
"AVC: Didn’t someone send in a fake press release about one of their members dying in order to get written about?
ST: That’s maybe my favorite story in the whole book. Tom Dyer, who started Green Monkey Records, had a band called The Icons. The music magazine was Rocket, and he’d send these press releases in and they’d ignore him. So he decided to create a fictional member of the band named Walter E. Gogh, a bass player, and sent out a press release saying Walter died in a car accident. So, the Rocket printed it the next month, and an outraged Walter E. Gogh wrote in and said, 'I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m not dead.' It was very Monty Python-esque."
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This Book's Music Review: The Icons "Appointment with Destiny!"
"A track like 'Dancin’ In The Jailhouse' may remind people of other bands like X or The Fleshtones."
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Luna Kafé Review: The Green Pajamas "Green Pajama Country!"
"I won't deny there are some fine moments..." Håvard Oppøyen
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Luna Kafé Review: Sigourney Reverb "Bees in your Bed Bad"
"...a most charming and unpretentious band." Distortion Welles
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Terrascope Interview: The Green Pajamas' Jeff Kelly
"Most of Pajama Country isn't too much of a stretch to our Northern Gothic stuff..." Jeff Kelly
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This is Book's Music Review: The Green Pajamas "Green Pajama Country!"
"Tom Petty, toad the wet sprocket, Neil Young, and Ben Folds would treat these songs with respect and make them feel as if they wrote it themselves."
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This is Book's Music Review: Sigourney Reverb "Bees in your Bed Bad"
"It’s something you’ll want to hear a lot of..."
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Dagger Short Reviews: Sigourney Reverb "Bees in your Bed Bad"
"This is occasionally hooky and raw with a good snotty attitude."
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Planet Trash Review: The Icons "Appointment with Destiny!"
"I've tried, really, but it is not me."
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Planet Trash Review: Sigourney Reverb "Bees in your Bed Bad"
"An unpretentious quartet that delivers with this debut record a pleasant punk pop CD."
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Rock and Reprise Review: The Green Pajamas "Green Pajama Country!"
"...a mixture of Americana and psych which sends shivers up my spine it's so good..." Frank O. Gutch Jr.
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Wires and Waves Review: The Green Pajamas "Green Pajama Country!"
"Songs like 'Dark Water (in the Wires)' and 'Last Night Was Like the End of the World' are already Green Pajamas classics in my estimation, and the rest of the album isn't far behind."
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Seattle Weekly Monthly Reverb Review: Sigourney Reverb "Bees in your Bed Bad"
"With one of the better celeb-derived band names, the Ballard band gets weird on a debut that's a little glam, a little garage, and a little great." JMG
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Blurt! Review: The Green Pajamas "Green Pajama Country!"
"... almost abandons stylistic affiliation altogether, recalling, if anything, the Rolling Stones' rootsy ballads." Michael Toland
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Ptolemaic Terrascope Review: The Green Pajamas "Green Pajama Country!"
"...another essential release from a band that’s made a career of them." Jeff Penczak
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Magnet Film at 11:00: The Green Pajamas Video "Pass Me Another Whiskey" featured
"(Green Pajama Country!)...cuts loose here with something closer to an American-gothic-style backwoods wail."
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The Big Takeover Review: The Icons "Appointment with Destiny"
"Older, wiser, still smartassed and still in love with catchy tunes...(The Icons) substitute brattiness for eccentricity, cheeky silliness for wizened wit." Michael Toland
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Erasing Clouds Review: The Green Pajamas "Red, Red Rose EP"
"This is heavy stuff, with the band playing heavy to match." Dave Heaton
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Rock and Reprise Review: The Icons "Appointment with Destiny"
"Their slam/bang guitar and pounding rhythms wake me up to why I loved The Wailers and The Sonics back in the day and why bands I never would have listened to in the Sixties (Iggy Pop, Dead Boys, Richard Hell & the Voidoids) later became solid favorites." Frank O. Gutch Jr.
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Music and Musicians Review: The Green Pajamas "Red, Red Rose EP"
"...they haven’t abandoned the MO they established nearly 25 years ago."
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The Big Takeover Review: The Hitmen "Smashface"
"...an infectious set of songs that will alternatively have you shaking your head and singing along."
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KUOW presents Tom Dyer: The Northwest Rocks
"Tom Dyer talked with KUOW's Jamala Henderson about why he loves the 1960s rock group, The Sonics, and why young people today should check it out."
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The Ripple Effect Review: The Green Pajamas "The Red, Red Rose" EP
"Jeff captures the power and sadness of the moment as sure as water crystallizes to ice."
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The Ripple Effect Review: The Hitmen "Smashface"
"...a true lost classic of peppy, driving, post-punk quirk rock."
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This is Books Music Review: The Hitmen "Smashface"
"...one of Seattle’s unknown masterpieces. Is it a masterpiece? If not, it’s at least a damn good album with memorable sounds and a fun energy that sounds unaffected."
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This is Books Music Review: The Green Pajamas "The Red, Red Rose" EP
"A very positive release from a remarkable band."
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PopMatters Review: The Green Pajamas "The Red, Red Rose" EP
"...unsaid and unspeakable anger, remorse and guilt pours out of his guitar. It’s beautiful, and it’s a shame it ever had to be written." Stephen Haag
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The Big Takeover Review: The Icons "Masters of Disaster"
"...there are lots of young musicians trying to capture this kind of guitar-driven spike-pop sound and not doing it nearly as well." Michael Toland
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Rock and Reprise Review: The Icons "Masters of Disaster"
"...these guys had to be a shitload of fun--- schizoid, irreverent and in-your-face..." Frank O. Gutch Jr.
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AmericanaUK Review: The Green Pajamas “The Complete Book of Hours”
"Green Pajamas may be one of the great lost treasures of the eighties." Paul Kerr
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The Ripple Effect: A Sunday Conversation with Green Monkey Records
"To put it bluntly, I expected one thing and got another thing entirely." An interview with GMR Prez Tom Dyer.
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WhisperinandHollerin Review: The Green Pajamas "The Red, Red Rose" EP
"...surely one of the year’s most necessary releases and one which deserves to be picked up on a much wider scale."
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The Ripple Effect Review: Jeff Kelly "Ash Wednesday Rain"
"Jeff's storytelling is more in the tradition of remarkable British songwriters like Ray Davies than most American writers. He comes across as a mix of Robin Hitchock and John Lennon." Racer
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Short Cut Sounds Review: The Green Pajamas "The Red, Red Rose" EP
"...a song that needed to be written." Luis Peixoto
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Cloud Speakers Review: The Green Pajamas "Complete Book of Hours"
"My Red Balloon is one of the stars of the plate, as well as the brutal swinging Big Surprise." Tim Fierant
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The Ripple Effect Review: The Life "Do It Again" single
"Just down-home, balls out fun."
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Terrascope Online Review: The Green Pajamas "The Red, Red Rose" EP
"Jeff Kelly wrote 'The Red, Red Rose' in order to express his sadness and frustration at the suicide of a schoolgirl." Phil McMullen
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Blurt Review: The Green Pajamas "The Red, Red Rose" EP
"The Red, Red Rose is prime Green PJs, mixing a folk melody with psychedelic rock and poetic lyrics that address Phoebe's tragedy from the point of view of those still grieving." Michael Toland
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This is Book's Music Review: The Icons "Masters of Disaster"
"Their sound was a mixture of new wave with a hint of gothic overtones, punk but not overly punk, but with an attitude and hint of sarcasm that has become one of the (NW) region’s greatest trademarks."
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This is Book's Music Review: The Green Pajamas "Complete Book of Hours"
"An undeniable classic."
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Blurt Review: The Green Pajamas "Complete Book of Hours"
"It's a seamless album throughout, from the spunky, brass-infused opener 'Paula' to the hypnotic textures of its brilliant closer, 'Time of Year.'" Lee Zimmerman
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The Ripple Effect Review: The Green Monkey Records Anthology "It Crawled From The Basement"
"Imagine my surprise when I found myself not only going back time and time again to the 2-disc anthology, but suddenly finding myself on ebay bidding outrageous $$$ to buy up any Green Monkey vinyl I could find. I was hooked." Racer
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whisperinandhollerin Review: The Green Pajamas "Complete Book of Hours"
"[Book of Hours is] more than worthy of its' comprehensive CD issue. It's a thrilling, psychedelic-tinged tome from start to finish and it should never be left to gather dust again." Tim Peacock
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The Big Takeover Review: The Green Pajamas "Complete Book of Hours"
"...it’s amazing how cuts like 'Paula,' 'Falling Through the Hole' (a tribute to Alice) and 'Under the Observatory' proudly display their flower power roots without sounding retro." Michael Toland
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Rock and Reprise Review: The Green Pajamas "Complete Book of Hours"
"There is no doubt in my mind that their recent and most excellent Poison In the Russian Room was one of the top albums released last year [2009], but how could an album [The Complete Book of Hours] recorded over twenty years ago--- twenty years!--- bump up against that kind of quality? I have no idea, but it does." Frank O. Gutch Jr.
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This Is Book's Music Review: Tom Dyer "Songs From Academia Vol.2: Instrumentals and Spoken Word, 1980-2008"
I’m thankful that this exists. I’m not sure having a world full of Tom Dyer copycats would be a good one, which is my way of saying he is one of a kind, representing what Seattle music is all about, period.
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The Big Takeover Review: Tom Dyer "Songs From Academia Vol. 1: Songs With Singing, 1981-2009" / "Songs From Academia Vol. 2: Instrumental and Spoken Word, 1980-2008"
Vol. 1 is pretty sweet, full of quirky rock/pop songs from a variety of projects – the band BEAUTIMUS deserves its own anthology. Vol. 2 is wordless more often than not, with a jazzy/folky/psychedelic/experimental smorgasbord of shapes, scents and colors, including an electronic interpretation of a painting. Not as accessible as Vol. 1, perhaps, but just as entertaining if you give it a chance.
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KEXP Review Revue: Green Monkey Party
One of my favorite discoveries of 2009 is Green Monkey Records, a small local label that first started putting out rock music in Seattle when Nirvana was just a gleam in Kurt Cobain’s eye... the discs are both chock full of treasures from the likes of Al Bloch, The Green Pajamas, Prudence Dredge, and of course Tom Dyer himself — among many others. If you consider yourself a maven of Seattle rock history, you should absolutely get your hands on a copy of this (or if nothing else, stream it from the GMR site).
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Blurt Review: Tom Dyer "Songs from Academia Vol.1"
Songs from Academia... is an intriguing listen, to say the least, the collection providing an intimate look at Dyer's free-wheeling, at times deeply experimental muse.
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Americana UK Review: The Green Monkey Record Anthology "It Crawled From the Basement"
Green Monkey Records was, and is, the labour of love of Tom Dyer, his Seattle label operated on a less than zero budget in the post punk-pre grunge days ...it’s a hard thing not to admire the sheer bloody minded, pig headed stubbornness, and gargantuan effort that must have gone into getting these recordings out there, both then and now. Not only that, there are also some good bands here, at the very least The Green Pajamas are worth further investigation.
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Americana UK Review: Tom Dyer "Songs from Academia Vol.1"
There's a little bit of everything rock, art rock and demi-punk that you can imagine, and a bit more. Such a scattergun of an album can only really hope to appeal to a Tom Dyer completist, and not being such a person there's barely half a dozen tracks here that I'd willingly listen to again...
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WhisperinAndHollerin Review: The Green Monkey Records Anthology "It Crawled From The Basement"
If you want to delve into Seattle's seethingly creative history in the days before Grunge put the city on the world map for good (and you should) I'd suggest you grab hold of a copy of a stunning 2CD collection called 'It Crawled From The Basement': a generous 47-track compendium gathering together many of the city's underground movers and shakers firing on all cylinders during a remarkable period circa 1983 to 1991.
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This Is Book's Music Review:Tom Dyer "Songs From Academia Vol.1: Songs with Singing, 1981-2009"
Songs is a personal diary of one man’s journey towards creating sounds which simply suited him, as most of these have not been heard by anyone but his closest friends. Some of them have not been heard by anyone but by its creator, so consider it a lucky chance to listen to the talent of someone who’s goal is to simply create for the sake of being creative.
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PopMatters Review: The Green Monkey Records Anthology "It Crawled From The Basement"
Over the eight years of GMR’s existence, founder Tom Dyer amassed a formidable stash of smart pop thrills. ... Ignore the best of this double dose of forty-seven pre-grunge charms at your aesthetic peril.
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The Denver Post: My Garage Band Rocked at Its 25-year Reunion
There I stood on the stage, microphone in hand, electric guitars buzzing around me and a girl in the audience reduced to tears.
My own personal Elvis moment soon was dashed after realizing the weeping girl was my 3-year-old daughter, who, I learned later, was not a fan of the sounds coming from the stage.
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Amazon Review: From the Basement, to Your Living Room...a Snapshot in Time
"Having lived through this vital & creative time of Seattle's music scene, this compilation is a must for anyone who is curious about what made it magic. This is a piece of that scene before the world saw the town as grunge. It's never sounded better!" Howie Wahlen
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HubPages Review: Monkey Man Tom Dyer Blows Dust From Seattle's Post-Punk, Pre-Grunge Vaults
If Dyer has been nothing else, he has always been about the music and the musicians. You can tell by reading his extensive history/track-by-track booklet inserted within. It's amazing reading and great music, even if you were not there. I missed a lot of it, but hearing the few songs I did catch and the many I did not reminds me that music is timeless, and when heard with historical perspective, a treasure.
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Damon Stewart's Garage Monkey Show on 104.9 FM: Stream Tom Dyer's August 25, 2009 interview
Hour 1
Hour 2
Click on Hour 1 or Hour 2 to listen! It's still available. Isn't the interweb wonderful?
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The Big Takeover Review: The Green Monkey Records Anthology "It Crawled From the Basement"
Dyer includes a few cuts from his own projects (and why not?), and they’re nearly all quite fine, from the straight pop of “I Call Your Name” to the geeky humor of “(Half the World is Made of) Women” to the avant jazz of the appropriately titled “Van Vliet Street.” It Crawled From the Basement is a substantial collection of music and a vision well worth the discovery.
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This Is Book's Music Review: The Green Monkey Records Anthology "It Crawled From The Basement"
Before mass media wanted to pigeonhole Seattle as having a “sound”, this was music from bands who only knew of one sound: the Puget one. Historical? Maybe, but it’s good times represented by good sounding music from an era that pushed others to get off their asses and rock out, before coffee and binary codes dominated our (un)consciousness.
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Rock & Reprise Review: "IT CRAWLED FROM THE BASEMENT" Green Monkey Records' attempt to set the record straight
If you were in Seattle when this was going on or have any interest at all in the scene at the time, this is a must to hear if not buy outright. Sure, the world could have lived without Green Monkey and their artists, but it would not have been the same. Not even close.
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The Denver Post: Now, the gig is grown-up life - By Jeremy P. Meyer
Long before I became a newspaper reporter with a mortgage, family and daily commute, I was a rock star. Well, a wannabe rock star singing in a mid-1980s neopsychedelic garage band with no fans.
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