It's New to Me: Indian Winter by the Green Pajamas (1997)

Detail of a photo titled "New Trier High School" by Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1950

So I wrote about the new Green Pajamas record a couple months ago. I stand by my opinion that it's in their top tier of albums, but something about it is just so "mature" sounding. This makes sense considering that the band didn't start recording on a consistent basis until 1997 - at that time, the band had been together for thirteen years, including a several multiple-year hiatuses. A key part of their resurrection in that year may have been the release of Indian Winter, a collection of their non-album singles and other tracks from the band's intermittent incarnations of the '80s and early '90s. The collection starts with the band's first single, the immortal "Kim the Waitress", a college radio hit at the time that became a minor hit again when Material Issue recorded it in 1994. "Kim the Waitress" and the other early singles found on Indian Winter demonstrate that the Green Pajamas emerged from the womb more or less fully formed with an arsenal of musical ideas.

Granted, their biggest idea was to make psychedelic rock - not too original. But they have a recognizable approach to the genre, with a folky poetic bent and Jeff Kelly's excellent vocals. At six minutes plus, "Kim the Waitress" is an unlikely hit, and some of the other early tracks on Indian Winter are definite should-have-been-hits. "Peppermint Stick" does the dirty/innocent thing will with a bubblegum bounce, "If I Lived in a Picture" jangles nicely and has a nice yearning lyric, and "My Photographs" is great acid-folk-pop. The key to these early tracks is the youthful energy and enthusiasm that really comes through, putting them in a different category from latter-day Green Pajamas albums. One of my favorite songs is the sole contribution on the collection from band co-founder Joe Ross, who was the original driving force in getting Kelly to record in a band. "I Remember Love" is a simple sing-along pop number with some psychedelic touches, including a fun bridge with swirling vocals that drops right back into the chorus.

It would be nice to see all the early Green Pajamas recordings back in print - some of the songs were only ever issued on cassette, but the Indian Winter collection is a good start.

"I Remember Love" by the Green Pajamas