The Pulsars was a new wave/

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...

band from

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, led by

Dave Trumfio David Trumfio (born August 16, 1968) is an American record producer, mixer, engineer and musician, best known for his production work with artists such as Wilco and his recordings with his own band The Pulsars. Production work Trumfio grew u ...

and his brother, Harry Trumfio. They signed to

Herb Alpert Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s. During the same decade, he co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss. Alpert has recorded 28 albums that have landed on the ...

and Jerry Moss's

Almo Sounds Almo Sounds was a record label which was started in 1994 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss after they sold A&M Records to PolyGram. The intent for the label was to recreate the initial concept of A&M Records as a small, "boutique" label. The label ...

label and recorded two albums in the mid-1990s, one of which was released and another that has yet to be released.

History

The band comprised the brothers Dave and Harry Trumfio, with Harry on drums and Dave producing, singing and playing all of the other instruments.Molanphy, Chris (1997)
Pulsars / Pulsars
, ''

CMJ New Music Monthly CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

'', May 1997, p.12 The brothers had played together in bands since they were at school, and recorded at home. Trumfio named his synthesizers and electronic gear 'Theodore 9000', which he described as "the third member of our band", and the brothers considered 'T9000' as the name of the band before deciding on the Pulsars.Strauss, Neil (1997)
Nerdy White Boys
, '' SPIN'', May 1997, p. 28-9, retrieved 2012-01-08 Dave Trumfio had previously played in Ashtray Boy and

the Mekons The Mekons are a British band formed in the late 1970s as an art collective. They are one of the longest-running and most prolific of the first-wave British punk rock bands. The band's style has evolved over time to incorporate aspects of ...

.Anderson, Lydia (1996)
The Pulsars
, ''

'', November 1996, retrieved 2012-01-08 The Pulsars' first release was the ''Teenage Nites'' EP, on the Sweet Pea label in 1995. They were then signed to Almo Sounds in a 2.5 million, three-album deal,Kening, Dan (1996)
Rising stars The Trumfio brothers are ready to shine with a record deal and an upcoming Pulsars' album
, ''

Daily Herald (Arlington Heights) The ''Daily Herald'' is a daily newspaper based in Arlington Heights, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. The newspaper is distributed in the northern, northwestern and western suburbs of Chicago. It is the namesake of the Daily Herald Media Group, a ...

'', November 29, 1996,Kot, Greg (1996)
Pulsars' Star Just Beginning To Sparkle
, ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'', December 3, 1996, retrieved 2012-01-08 with their first release for the label being the five-track ''Submission to the Master'' EP, on which label-boss Alpert contributed

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

. The band's self-titled debut album was released on Almo Sounds in 1997, and was described as "an album that's in the moment, behind the times, and looking to the future", with influences from the early 1980s. However, critic Ritchie Unterberger viewed the band's sound as "considerably more enjoyable and warm" than their 1970s and 1980s influences, describing the album as "pleasant, catchy retro-new wave". '' SPIN''s Eric Weisbard described the album's songs as "amazingly confident, catchy anthems".Weisbard, Eric (1997)
Pulsars ''Pulsars''
, '' SPIN'', April 1997, p.155-6, retrieved 2012-01-08 In the view of ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...

'' writer Ira Robbins: Several of the band's lyrics dealt with futuristic topics such as robots, spaceships, and aliens. The debut album included "Tunnel Song", which was described as "a romantic ballad about the great highway tunnels of America", and "My Pet Robot", a love song to Theodore 9000. The band's sound has been described as "a schizoid patchwork of synth-pop, new wave and R&B". The band was compared with

Pixies A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas aro ...

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

writer Nitsuh Abebe,Abebe, Nitsuh
''Submission to the Masters'' Review
,

, retrieved 2012-01-08 and was likened to

the Cars The Cars were an American rock band formed in Boston in 1976. Emerging from the new wave scene in the late 1970s, they consisted of Ric Ocasek ( rhythm guitar), Benjamin Orr (bass guitar), Elliot Easton (lead guitar), Greg Hawkes ( keyboard ...

and

the Cure The Cure are an English rock band formed in 1978 in Crawley, West Sussex. Throughout numerous lineup changes since the band's formation, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter Robert Smith has remained the only constant member. The band's ...

by ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...

s Edna Gundersen.Gundersen, Edna (1997) "Pulsars' spaced-out debut; Fleming's expansive Schubert", ''

'', April 15, 1997, P. 4D (''LIFE'' section) The band's live shows included dub interludes. The band was described as "Chicago's pre-eminent new wave revival band" by the '' Chicago Reader'',Unterberger, Ritchie (1999) ''Music USA: The Rough Guide'',

Rough Guides Rough Guides Ltd is a British travel guide book and reference publisher, which has been owned by APA Publications since November 2017. In addition to publishing guidebooks, the company also provides a tailor-made trips service based on custome ...

, , p. 272-3 and "profoundly great" by ''Trouser Press''. The band split up before their second album was completed, with Dave Trumfio become increasingly busy with production work, but reunited for a one-off performance in 2009 at the Bell House in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

.Pearis, Bill (2009)
Pulsars reuniting for one Brooklyn show w/ Field Music, Wye Oak & "Rumours" (++ other tour dates & stuff)
, brooklynvegan.com, November 13, 2009, retrieved 2012-01-08 The brothers reportedly had plans to complete the second Pulsars album, and were working again under the name Our Future. On April 1, 2021, the Pulsars'

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

accounts announced the release of ''Lost Transmissions'', a 15 track collection of rare and unreleased songs, available for pre-order through

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

. It was released on August 1.

Members

– vocals, guitar, keyboards, programming *Harry Trumfio – drums, keyboards, programming, backing vocals

Discography

Albums

Singles/EPs

References

External links

* The Pulsars at AllMusic.combr>The Pulsars MyspaceReview of the Pulsars' ''Submission to the Master''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pulsars, The Musical groups established in 1994 Musical groups disestablished in 2000 American new wave musical groups Musical groups from Chicago Musical groups from Los Angeles