Straight From Yakima: Quartermile Pumpkin

Who are the members of Quartermile Pumpkin?

Jamie Jensen, drums

Scott Jefferson, bass, vocals

Rod Taylor, guitar, lead vocals

Joe Longo, guitar, vocals

It isn't easy being a good-time rock band in a small town.

All you ask for are a few decent venues to play in and people to groove to your beat.

But for Quartermile Pumpkin, a Yakima-based band now playing an increasing number of Seattle gigs, those things don't come easy. The band members' efforts to showcase their music had taken on a certain Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland tinge.

"We'd rent out halls and put on shows," Jefferson said. "It's very, very thankless being a musician in Yakima. Nobody appreciates you. It's hard to find places to play concerts. People think rock concerts are dangerous or could get violent."

But Quartermile Pumpkin persevered in organizing shows, building a musical following in Yakima by inviting and opening for such Seattle bands as The Posies and The Melvins. Along the way, it's gone through several names and incarnations.

About five years ago, the band began as a "punkish, angry, aggressive" group named Grind, Jefferson said. Jensen, Jefferson, Taylor and a succession of different guitarists played with the band through its incarnation as a heavy-metal group named Phallacy, and since last September, as Quartermile Pumpkin.

"Phallacy was something we weren't anymore - heavy metal," Jefferson said. "We were looking for a name and I overheard someone say `quarter-mile pumpkin.' It's a car-racing term. The name just sounds fun and colorful - like how we want to be."

As Phallacy, the group recorded several extended-play cassettes, a 7-inch vinyl record, a cassette single and a full-length album. Quartermile Pumpkin plans to record its first CD in March, with a tentative summer release.

The band's self-described "heavy-hooky-funky-chunky-groove rock" seems to be working. They've played several gigs in Seattle, most recently at the Off Ramp in December. Encouraged by their success, the band members are now planning to move to Seattle.

They'd provide a colorful contrast to the brooding, angry music that put Seattle on the 1990s hot-music map.

"We don't have the time to be angry at the world," Jefferson said. "There are plenty of other bands doing that."

"We just want people to rock as hard as we do on stage," Jensen said. Where to check out Quartermile Pumpkin: The band plays at the China Club Jan. 17 along with Meat Hook and The Cunninghams. The band plans to record a new CD in March. To get previous works, contact Marzy Music & Management, 292-4815.

Are you in a local band? If you'd like to be considered for Sound Check, send a cover letter telling us about your band and your upcoming gigs, the name and daytime phone number of your manager or contact person, a tape and a photo to Sound Check, c/o Janet I-Chin Tu, Seattle Times, PO Box 70, Seattle WA 98111.