Biography
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Years Active
1977 – 1980 (3 years)
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Founded In
Sacramento, Sacramento County, California, United States
Although the Twinkeyz played less than ten live shows and only made a few singles and one obscure, Holland-only album, they were a significant link between American punk/new wave and the birth of the California paisley underground. Formed in Davis, California in 1977, the main creative mover in the band was songwriter Donnie Jupiter, who stayed with the group through various personnel changes. While the Twinkeyz were an early exponent of the American D.I.Y. new wave, putting out three singles on their own labels in 1977 and 1978, they also retained obvious influences from '60s psychedelia, Stones-ish rock, and the Velvet Underground. The band sometimes sounded like a much lighter variation of Lou Reed's ethos, in fact, with a generous sprinkling of science fiction-ish lyrics and nods to pop culture. Jupiter's fairly straight-ahead rock tunes were garnished by burbling psychedelic guitars and synths that seemed to be trying to emulate the Mellotron bursts on '60s albums like the Rolling Stones' Satanic Majesties Request. the Twinkeyz only made three singles, and their 1979 album, Alpha Jerk, was only released in a press run of 1800 copies in Holland, but in their short time they were an influence on musicians in the Davis area that later went on to play in the Dream Syndicate, Game Theory, and True West. Everything from their LP and singles, as well as some previously unreleased live and studio tracks, was reissued on the Aliens in Our Midst compilation in 1998.
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