The old gang

Slowly but surely people keep finding this blog which is pretty gratifying. Every few months another old Tracterz fan shows up and a few days ago we had a comment from Dave Fee (somewhere way down on one of the older posts) which makes 3/5 of the last incarnation of the band, since Steve and Brad have both been in contact, too. A couple more and we can start advocating for a reunion show!

The Pretenders

I saw the Pretenders at First Avenue in Minneapolis last night and Chrissie Hynde was in fine voice and form, especially for someone who's 57. I have to admit, though, I did think about the Tracterz a number of times, especially during Message of Love and Thumbelina. They didn't play Middle of the Road for some reason, which was kind of disappointing.

A great NCNM photo

Just got this great photo from Jeff G. He said he contacted SD Public Broadcasting about putting the Tracterz's No cover No Minimum appearance up on their web site. They told him they didn't have the legal rights to do so but sent him this picture from the show instead. That's pretty cool on their part and on Jeff's for sending it along. Maybe I'll have to do some checking on who holds the rights to the video I see about getting a release. (You can click on the photo to see a bigger version.)

Old posts

Some of the older posts on this blog have gotten pushed off the page, but Tracterz fan Al added some comments about the early days of the band to one of them that I fear people could miss, so I encourage anyone who's interested to click on the "older posts" link at the bottom of this page. Or just click here to go directly to that specific post.

Finally! Some Tracterz music for you

I finally figured out a way to make some music available from this page. I think I have mentioned before that I have a recording of the Tracterz doing the "No Cover No Minimum" show (which is still around I recently discovered while back in SD). If you would like to listen to it you can go here and click on the down arrow next to the file to download it. There are two files with Tracterz in the title and they are parts 1 and 2 of the show. I have not tried downloading them myself so if you do grab them post a comment or send me an email to let me know if it worked for you and how the sound is. Now if I only had the video for that show!

Some pictures from '82

Wow, a big thanks to Chad Coppess who sent these pictures. He tells me two shots are in the Dakota Dome during an all-night danceathon sometime in the spring semester of the 1981-82 school year. All the others are from Jan. 29, 1982 at the Old Style basement in Vermillion. This is a year or so before I really started following the band so it's a very different look than I remember.

Finally, some pictures

A big thanks to Jeff who just sent me some old posters. The first of these I have, but the other two I don't even remember. Well, as I look at them the third rings a bell, but only vaguely. I don't recall the bass player's name in the second one but I do remember he left the band not too long after I became a fan. I don't think there was a connection.