In the beginning, we had no knowledge of each other's existence. However, when Tyler and Andy met in first grade at John Lyman School, they knew there was something special about their meeting. It may have been the fact that Andy thought Tyler's name was "Tydler," or maybe Andy's refusal to ever comb his hair, but it was special. Jake appeared on the scene, lonely and in desperate need of chocolate, in third grade, followed by Jim, the master of logo-writer, in fourth grade.
Our first major problems arose when Jim was placed in a different class than the rest of us in fifth grade through eighth grade. These were four years of pain, anguish, and bad school lunches. However, the situation improved during our freshman year at Coginchaug Regional High School, when Andy and Tyler both picked up their first guitars and both fell in love with the instrument. In May of 1994, we all finally got together and played our hearts out. The Killer Pollies were born!
More problems arose at this point. A large-scale conflict occurred, featuring Andy vs. Jim and Tyler. The two opposing forces simply could not agree on the name for their new band. Jim and Tyler insisted that The Killer Pollies was a great name that would go down in history as a name to remember. Andy, however, could not stand this name, and he desired to call the band Pickle instead. The two sides could not agree at all. Finally, an outsider, Jake, resolved the conflict with the perfect compromise of:
and it was good.
We practiced in a hot room above Jake's garage for a while before moving to Tyler's basement. We played our songs for friends and even played a few songs at a school dance during our sophomore year. We continued this low key stuff until our big show with Token, another really cool band, on October 7, 1995, set up by our friend Jackie Collier. We picked up a few gigs over the summer of '96 with Milkweed Dirge et al., but the onset of our senior year at Coginchaug made gigs more difficult. In December '96, we made our first good recording at Coutsouridis studios in Middletown, CT. We concluded our fun by adding Ryan Mackey on vocals, and then playing at numerous graduation parties. Our final performance was at Andy's graduation party, which people left early because of someone named "God." So it goes.
Currently, we are recovering from our second fabulous recording session at Coutsouridis Studios in Middletown, CT. We worked for many hours to record "Safety," our latest and last song, for your listening pleasure. And now that all is said and done, we prepare to go our separate ways. Jim is in Boulder, Colorado, establishing himself as a resident. Tyler is attending Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. Andy is preparing for a future at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Jake an Ryan will remain in Durham for the time being. Despite the absence of the band itself, we hope that our music and our friendships will live on on this web site. We hope to reunite at some point... so don't let your guard down!
This page ©1996 Pickled Pollies