Thanks,

Chuck Nolan
Zolar X webmaster.
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Zolar X
Timeless
Aquarius Records
Review - (author uncredited on the website)

Wow. A while back a friend of ours at Alternative Tentacles told us that Jello Biafra was all keen on reissuing some ultra-obscure '70s LA punk/glam band who apparently dressed up like space aliens and pretended they were from another planet (it helped that all the band members happened to be fairly short). Sounds, uh, interesting we said, we'll be curious to hear it... Well now we've heard that band -- this band, Zolar X -- and we've gotta say, Jello, thank you! This is freakin' awesome!

Brimming with extra-terrestrial energy, this collection compiles twenty tracks (fewer on the LP version) from three different recording sessions and Zolar X line-ups. Memphis 1976, LA 1979 and San Francisco 1980. All are great. Jello considers Zolar X to be "the missing link between Chrome and the Stooges"...and indeed some of this has that vibe, sorta like Simply Saucer. But the '60s pop background and Bowie-worship of Zolar X's prime movers Zory Zenith and Ygarr Ygarrist Lazor really results in something that was both more bubblegum and yet more metal too. Zolar X's collision of punk and glam, though totally underground, had definite classic, commerical rock pretensions...the vocals sound just a little bit like Geddy Lee of Rush, and the arena-rock guitars and epic songwriting remind us of Thin Lizzy, Queen, and Blue Oyster Cult as well. You'll even hear a little "Cat Scratch Fever" in their song "Moonbeams" we think...and the Beatles in "Blues On Blue".

Now, tongue in cheek it all may be: what to make of a song (a great song!) entitled "I Pulled My Helmet Off (I'm Going To Love Her)"? The lyrics are worthy of Jack Black/Tenacious D! Or a 19-minute rock opera called "Plutonian Elf Story" (this disc's final, amazing track)?? Well you gotta stop thinking like an Earthling and get with the Zolar X program! Yeah, costume-rock bands normally invite skepticism as to their musical worth -- I mean, would you wear spacesuits and Martian antennae if you had *songs*? KISS may or may not be a good counter example, but Zolar X sure is. Silly haircuts, outfits and names aside, they ROCKED. I think the secret is, that they seemed to take themselves seriously. This was no joke band. At least, not outwardly. Reportedly, they even stayed in character when off-stage. Seeing them live must have been incredible, if the color photos in the cd booklet -- and the stories told in the lengthy liner notes -- are anything to go by. It's hard to tell why they never "made it". You'd have thought that the old "take me to your leader" routine would have worked. Oh well. They picked the wrong planet I guess.

And as a side note, we're proud that our record store actually played some small, entirely random part in getting this reissued, as Jello mentions in his liner notes that he bought his first copy of the Zolar X LP out of the bargain bin here at Aquarius, doubtless years and years ago. Maybe we weren't recommending it then, but we sure are now! Timeless indeed. Shoulda been huge. It's time now though...get this!!

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Zolar X
Timeless
BY MIKE ROWELL
mrowell@sfweekly.com
Originally published: September 29, 2004
San Francisco Weekly

When Zolar X was on the '70s Los Angeles music scene, audiences weren't sure what to make of spacesuited guys with Spock-like helmet hair playing over-the-top Hawkwind-meets-Bowie glam rock. Existing from 1972 to 1981, the band of self-professed extraterrestrials recorded much of its brilliantly bombastic "rocket roll" but released almost none of it. After unearthing a copy of the group's nigh-unobtainable album at S.F.'s Aquarius Records, Alternative Tentacles honcho Jello Biafra rereleased it properly, a mere 23 years after Zolar X called it quits. With extensive liner notes, hilarious photos, and infectious interstellar anthems rescued from the dustbin of obscurity, Timeless is a first-rate work of musical archaeology and makes for an insanely fun party record with such instant classics as "Jet Star 19," "Space Age Love," and the 16.5-minute rock opera "Plutonian Elf Story."

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Zolar X
Timeless
(Alternative Tentacles)
***  (stars)
The Portland Mercury

My novelty obsession of the year is Zolar X, a band that celebrates their first official release just 25 years after they broke up. The deal is that they were this very glammy, proto-punk band in L.A. in the early '70s who used to elaborately dress, talk, and act like shiny space aliens, all the time--even when they went to the corner store! So, you immediately have to love them. Unsurprisingly, Ace Frehley and Redd Kross were huge fans. The press release swears they are the missing link between the Stooges and Chrome, but their music is a lot more cartoonish and poppy. Besides, we all know that Simply Saucer were the missing link between the Stooges and Chrome (press dudes, c'mon!). If the idea of the Sweet and T. Rex backing Geddy Lee (in outer space) gives you a boner, you absolutely need this.
MM