Twinkeyz

From Sacramento via outer space comes The Twinkeyz and their Alpha Jerk LP, restored to excellence after 40 years! 
During the sizzling hot summer of 1976, Donnie Jupiter, Tom Darling and Walter Smith decided to break out of their boredom with a band. The group was named after Pink Fairies drummer Twink, and influnced by the Fairies, Velvet Underground, Thirteenth Floor Elevators and other underground favorites. 
In 1977, The Twinkeyz recorded and self-released their classic first single, “Aliens in Our Midst.” 1978 saw its followup, “E.S.P. / Cartoon Land.” And in 1979, the album Alpha Jerk was released on the Dutch label Plurex, run by Wally Van Middendorp of the Minny Pops. Though the songs on Alpha Jerk were great, the final mix was botched and the mastering job flawed. What should have been a classic stiffed as one of rock ’n’ roll’s “could have been great.” Now it is! 
In 1994, Anopheles Records’ Karl Ikola decided to do The Twinkeyz right. Ikola got ahold of the master tapes and, with Jupiter and Greg Freeman, remixed the entire album. In 1997, he released the restored Alpha Jerk, along with abandoned single tracks, live songs and other tidbits, as a CD entitled Aliens in Our Midst. The collection and its vinyl companion Cartoon Land went out of print more than fifteen years ago. 
Now after four decades, S-S Records presents Alpha Jerk as it was intended, with the original cover art and the superior Ikola / Jupiter mix. This version has been mastered by John Golden and pressed in an edition of 500 copies. 
 
“The Twinkeyz are one of those exceptional bands whose appearance during the early phase of the punk revolution was a reminder that all which had gone before was not shit... The Twinkeyz are wildly deserving of a legendary status that has not yet enveloped them.” —Byron Coley  
“The Twinkeyz were easily the best and the hippest [of the late ’70s Sacramento area bands]... I’d say that The Twinkeyz were a much bigger influence on the Dream Syndicate than the Velvet Underground.” —Steve Wynn, Dream Syndicate 
“When I was a teenager in Sacramento in the late ’70s, The Twinkeyz were the only instance of a band surviving in the local public eye with an innovative sound... strange, insular, dedicated people who took a palpable risk just by putting such wonderful and unfamiliar sounds on stage....” —Scott Miller, Game Theory / Loud Family