Back in 1982, Pezband, a power pop band formed in Oak Park, Illinois, headed out to The Record Plant in Los Angeles to record some tracks with producer Paul Broucek. Guitar player and bassist Tommy Gawenda and Mike Gorman had recently left the group, and the band reformed as a trio with original bassist John Pazdan in tow. (Gorman was hired to replace Pazdan after he left to play in another Chicago band, Off Broadway; when Pazdan returned to Pezband, Gorman went on to play bass in—you guessed it—Off Broadway. Hence, Pazdan sometimes refers to the groups as “Off Pezway.”) 34 years later, Women & Politics is finally seeing the light of day thanks to Frodis Records and Seattle-based archival label Light In The Attic, and The A.V. Club has an exclusive stream of the four-song EP.
The record industry was changing in 1982: The power pop sound—which was cultish to begin with—fell out of style, and the four songs ended up sitting on a shelf until now. “We have been trying to get this recording out for forever,” Pezband drummer Mick Rain says. “There were always plans to make this our fourth LP. We recorded what we could and shopped it around.”
“Office Girl” features the dueling vocals from Betinis and Rain that were a Pezband signature, and “Waiting In Line” sounds like it could have been an outtake from the band’s 1978 LP Laughing In The Dark with its big rock sound and bigger harmonies. Meanwhile, “Line” features that “Pezband” sound that Rain describes as “The Monkees meets The Stooges.”