Pep Squad
Portland, Oregon7 reviews across 2 releases
Pep Squad was a Portland, Oregon, band formed in the early 1990s alternative scene. Its music joined breathy vocals to feedback-heavy guitars, simple rhythms, and pop-song structures, moving between jangling power pop and rougher, off-kilter rock. The 1998 debut No Doy! leaned toward Sonic Youth-style noise while keeping its melodies compact, and its darker production gave even playful songs a serious edge. By Yreka Bakery in 1999, the band had expanded its palette with new wave, punk, and disco, while retaining a guitar-driven sound and a taste for absurd subjects. Its lyrics could be deliberately slight or surreal: one song quoted Scripture, another celebrated professional wrestler The Fabulous Moolah, and another turned disco into a Christian alternative-rock setting. Humor remained part of the music rather than a separate novelty.
In 1999, Pep Squad delivered Yreka Bakery as a four-piece led by Bryan Everett and Kim Hoskins, with Bradley Swanson on bass and Evan Railton on drums. The band was touring in the Northwest and beyond, and its live identity included cheerleaders and other visual jokes without reducing the music to a gimmick. After Pep Squad, Everett, Swanson, and Railton were involved in The Company, whose self-titled album appeared in 2001 through BEC. The later group shifted toward Christian disco and retained several Pep Squad collaborators, but Pep Squad itself did not continue as the same recording project.
2 releases reviewed
No Doy!
