Green Monkey Records / Artist
The Icons
Fact: The Icons = TOTAL ROCK ACTION! On their second release in 25 years, these Seattle Underground Rock Gods slap together an irreverent pile of noisy guitar songs filled with brain-sucking hooks in the tradition of the Pacific Northwest. As raw as The Clash, as stupid as the New York Dolls and as intellectually stimulating as Lou Reed on a really bad day, this ain’t for the faint of heart. Guest superstars include Jeff Kelly of the Green Pajamas, multi-instrumentalist indie-star Amy Denio and Glenn Slater from the Walkabouts.
With 16 full and complete songs, Appointment with Destiny! delivers the mighty rock and tuneful thrashing you should always expect from these four misguided post-moderns. Have mercy.
Their obscure classic Masters of Disaster was posthumously and minimally released on cassette in 1986 – it was finally time to give it a proper release.
Masters of Disaster features 14 tracks of 100% pure and manly rock – the original nine track album plus a recently discovered and finished version of “(Half the World is Made of) Women” as well as other obscurities. All tracks were remixed from the original 1983 master tapes.
The Icons are all grownups with jobs. They are doing this for the exact same reason as they did the first time; to make a beautiful racket and to believe for one sweet, delusional moment that music matters more than anything else. But with the release of Destiny!, they are finally on the verge of fame and fortune … Appointment with Destiny! is the Sgt. Pepper’s of the 21st Century. They are the walrus.
The Icons are: pretty boys Tom Dyer – Guitar, Vocals and Steve Trettevik – Guitar, Vocals – plus Hades’ own rhythm section, James Gascoigne on drums and Rick Yust on bass and vocals
Appointment with Destiny!
Bonus tracks: “No Hammer” & “Carousel” with the full album download. The Official Story! It is their second record in twenty five years. They don’t necessarily like to rush things. Recorded and mixed over the course of a year at Icons Underground World Headquarters in Seattle, Destiny is built around the songwriting prolificacy and prowess of singing guitarists Tom Dyer and Steve Trettevik simultaneously featuring Hades’ own rhythm section, James Gascoigne on drums and Rick Yust on bass and vocals. Destiny also includes Rick’s compositional debut on the dreamlike nightmare that is Made by Parker Posey. Add in Green Pajama Jeff Kelly’s Dancin’ in the Jailhouse and you’ve got sixteen brutally fresh, intoxicating songs. Appointment With Destiny! delivers with a delicate punch the pain and joy of what it is to be human today … well, perhaps not. But it is packed with tuneful thrashing, songs of Love and Unrequited Love, songs of Life and songs of Death, songs of Space Aliens and songs of the Medical Profession—the true Heart and Soul of four misguided post-modern troubadours. Have mercy. How did we come to this spectacular and fateful day? The story goes like this. The Icons fired up in 1983. Tom finished his Seattle art/punk band The Adults. In his four-track studio, he and Steve started recording various dopey studio projects like Stevie Nations & the United States, the Rude Dudes, Sherry & the Mudmen, and Group Sex. Classy stuff. It was time for a real band. Tom said to Steve, “get the name right – the rest is easy.” The Icons was the name and The Icons was the deal. Drummer Tim Nelson (R.I.P.) was next lured into the pack. Truth – Rick was seduced to join the band by perfectly grilled meat. Who could resist? And there were four Icons. It was good. The Icons rehearsed like maniacs and recorded, a lot. Tape was running, a lot. The band was soon playing for the people semi-regularly around town. These were heady times, with all the playing for the people, and it was good, damn good. But there was soon trouble in paradise. Tim found himself conflicted between his Iconship and some higher calling. Tim was out. Way out. The Icons invited the Queen Annes’ James Gascoigne to pound skins. James and the band agreed to terms and there was food and merry drink, and more drink, for all. Fame and fortune escaped this fantastic foursome. However, neither fame nor fortune were the goal, the intention. Playing the music for the people was the calling. And the noise, it was always the noise. By 1986, the Mission was accomplished. The Masters of Disaster came forth on cassette The Icons were no more. And it was good. Silence until 2003 – then, suddenly, a 4 minute film The Icons – Proof That They Rocked is shot in 48 hours by Jen Peel and crew for the Seattle International Film Festival Fly Film. Tom flies in from Boston and by dumb luck sees it on TV from a hotel room at the Hilton. It can still be seen on Channel 9 PBS in Seattle from time to time. The film confirms their growing obscurity. Next stop – the summer of 2009. The Icons were called forth to do a Green Monkey Records reunion show. The Icons rocked the house. It was fun. It was loud. It was just too good. What was left to do? Bake the multi-track tapes from the Masters of Disaster. Remix it. Add some stuff. Put it out. Done. Make their second record? It was time. 2010, they recorded drums and stuff with Conrad Uno. They got Amy Denio to play squeezebox and saxophone. They got her associate from AMA Madeleine Sosin to play violin. They got Jeff Kelly of the PJs to play organ on songs. They got Glen Slater of The Walkabouts to play organ on songs. Who doesn’t like organ? Mix, mix, mix. Done. Destiny is the fruit of their new calling. But that is just the beginning. The Icons will not be denied twice. This time The Icons are bigger and better and prettier than ever. This time the calling is fame, glory and riches beyond all imagination. And that dear reader, concludes our tale. We all have a part to play in this story. Answer the call and do your part. Be part of real history. Sell your soul if you must. Your Appointment with Destiny awaits!
- You’re The One
- X-Ray
- Fool Me Once
- Dancin’ In The Jailhouse
- The Glory Of Love
- You Never Have Time
- Green Means Go!
- Made By Parker Posey
- Warm And Tender
- You Need Love
- Twenty-Five
- Let It Go
- Falling
- St. Charles
Masters of Disaster
One day we got this crazy idea that we should have a real band and play live. I told Steve that if we came up with the right band name, the rest would fall into place. The next day The Icons appeared in my brain and we were off. Rick the bass player worked with my wife making pottery and was lured into the band with a New York steak (medium rare). Tim played drums for a studio client of mine, occasionally referred to as The Cosmic Tunas. We just figured we’d steal him and did. We were off and running for a three year stab at glory. td
- Love So Near
- Little Sally Walker
- Write Back To Me
- The Hunger
- Girl
- (Half The World Is Made Of) Women
- Give Me All Your Love
- Double-O-Zero
- Work Ethic Rock
- Beach Party
- We’re So Bad
- Howlin’ At The Moon
- Voodoo Villain
The Icons:
Tom Dyer – Guitar, Vocals, Keyboards
Steve Trettevik – Guitar, Vocals, Keyboards
Rick Yust – Bass, Vocals
Tim Nelson – Drums, Vocals
James Gascoigne – Drums (“Write Back to Me,” “Howlin’ at the Moon”)
On bonus track, “I Call Your Name”:
Tom Dyer – Vocals, Lead Guitar
Jeff Kelly – Guitar, Keyboards
Rick Yust – Bass
Peter Barnes – Drums
Produced by Tom Dyer
“I Call Your Name” produced by Tom Dyer & Jeff Kelly
Cover by Tom Dyer
Recorded on 8 track in 1983/84 at TDS Productions by Tom Dyer and Keith Livingston with an assist from Peter Barnes, except “Voodoo Villain” recorded on 4 track in 1982 and “Howlin’ at the Moon” recorded live at the fabulous Rainbow Tavern sometime in 1985, engineer unknown.
Mixed and Mastered by Tom Dyer at TDS Productions 2010. Digital transfer for mixdown thanks to Conrad Uno at Egg, the owner of ancient tape decks. Additional keyboards in 2010 on “Women,” “The Hunger” and “Work Ethic Rock” by Glen Slater. The Icons wish to thank: Vicki, Sheri, Sistie and Ann, who put up with their mess back in the day; Keith who was our long time sound guy and, most of all, their friends and fans who stuck with them through thick and thicker.
Extra bonus with the album download:
Videos for “We’re so Bad,” & “Double-O-Zero” by Howie Wahlen in 2010.
Jun 15, 2011
press quote
“Their slam/bang guitar and pounding rhythms wake me up to why I loved The Wailers and The Sonics back in the day”
“Their slam/bang guitar and pounding rhythms wake me up to why I loved The Wailers and The Sonics back in the day and why bands I never would have listened to in the Sixties (Iggy Pop, Dead Boys, Richard Hell & the Voidoids) later became solid favorites.” Rock and Reprise Review: The Icons “Appointment with Destiny” http://www.rockandreprise.net/iconsdestiny.html REVIEW THIS IS BOOK”S MUSICREVIEW: The Icons’ “Appointment With Destiny!”
Posted on June 19, 2011
The Icons are a project from Seattle featuring Tom Dyer, James Gascoigne, Rick Yust, and Steve Trettevik recording the kind of ruthless pop/punk that sounds good now as it originally did in the 1980’s.Appointment With Destiny! (Green Monkey) will be celebrated by Seattleites who remember when the Seattle music scene sounded like this. These guys may be older than the first time they were around, but it and they still sound really good. While some of Seattle bands from the era sounded different from one another, you can listen to Mudhoney, Green River, The U-Men, The Fastbacks, and then this album and realize that they were all striving for something. Maybe back then they weren’t about claiming “authenticity”, but it feels and sounds real, that kind of gutsy aggressive rock that is immediate but also something that’s worthy for tomorrow. A track like “Dancin’ In The Jailhouse” may remind people of other bands like X or The Fleshtones, bands who weren’t afraid of distortion or feedback and if it was there, they’d make more music around and within it.
REVIEW: The Icons’ “Masters Of Disaster”
Posted on July 26, 2010
The Icons were a Seattle band most people outside of the Pacific Northwest have not heard of. but you may have heard of them if you were a part of the music scene in the early/mid-80’s. Keyword is *may* because they were obscure, but they did make an impact on those who attended their shows.
Masters Of Disaster (Green Monkey) is an album that represents the Seattle sound circa 1985, and I don’t mean a body of water either. Their sound was a mixture of new wave with a hint of gothic overtones, punk but not overly punk, but with an attitude and hint of sarcasm that has become one of the region’s greatest trademarks. The music may have sounded rough but lyrics to songs like “I Call Your Name”, “Work Ethic Rock”, and “Give Me All Your Love” show a sense of caring that could’ve made The Icons into a decent pop band, if they collectively wanted to go down that route. They did not, but it is an interesting flashback to a scene who were willing to try out anything and everything without a bankable template to work off of, especially at a time when templates were what other music communities spoke of.
REVIEW THE BIG TAKEOVER
The Icons – Masters of Disaster (Green Monkey)
4 November 2010 by Michael Toland One of the advantages to owning a label is the opportunity to release your own projects. While the Green Pajamas may be the flagship band for Green Monkey Records, the Icons, label owner Tom Dyers‘ group, could have easily laid claim to the title if the band had released Masters of Disaster in the mid-80s when it was recorded. Dyers and co-frontman Steve Trettevik pen tight, funny rockers like “Beach Party,” “We’re So Bad” and “(Half the World is Made of) Women,” letting hooks and raised-eyebrow lyrics tell the story. Following cut after cut of urgent, melodic postpunk, Dyer ends the record with the delightful “I Call Your Name,” a winsome pop tune co-produced by the Green PJs’ Jeff Kelly. Left unfinished until the last couple of years, the tracks sound perfectly fine, even contemporary – there are lots of young musicians trying to capture this kind of guitar-driven spike-pop sound and not doing it nearly as well. With Dyer reactivating the Icons, at least as a recording unit, now is the time to give these Masters of Disaster their long overdue props. Aug 15, 2003milestone
Short Film – The Icons: Proof That They Rocked
Short film on Icons shot for Seattle Fly Film festival by Jen Peel in 2003 starts the comeback trail.- Tom Dyer Guitar, singing, producer and so on
- Steve Trettevik Guitar and singing
- Rick Yust Bass and signing
- James Gascoigne Drums
- Tim Nelson Drums