The Green Pajamas

by Jason Ankeny
 
The neo-psychedelic band the Green Pajamas was founded in Seattle in 1984 by Jeff Kelly and Joe Ross. A lifelong music fan, Kelly began composing his first songs at the age of 11, forming a group called the Electric Garbage Cans; after his parents purchased him a reel-to-reel tape recorder, he spent his teenage years compiling literally hundreds of cassettes of original material. After graduating college, Kelly joined a new wave band dubbed the Larch; after meeting Ross at a party, they formed the Green Pajamas, informed by their mutual love of the Beatles and inspired by the Los Angeles paisley underground community. After debuting in 1984 with the cassette Summer of Lust on the Green Monkey label, the group issued a flurry of tapes before recording their full-length debut, Book of Hours, in 1987. After 1990s Ghosts of Love, the Green Pajamas went on hiatus, and Kelly issued the solo LP Coffee in Nepal in 1991; finally, in 1997 the band resurfaced with Doctor Dragonfly as well as Indian Winter, a compilation of singles and compilation tracks. All Clues Lead to Meagans Bed followed in 1999 and Seven Fathoms Down and Falling arrived in 2000. The following year the Green Pajamas released the In a Glass Darkly EP, which was inspired by J.S. Le Fanus writing, as well as the full-length This Is Where We Disappear. A mishmash of discarded singles and outtakes, Narcotic Kisses was released in 2002 along with a full-length album, Northern Gothic. The band celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2004, commemorating the event with a 14-track retrospective disc, Through Glass Colored Roses, and a live in-studio album, Ten White Stones. Another full-length studio effort, the unabashedly psychedelic 21st Century Séance, was released the following year, and this was followed up with yet another compilation disc, Night Races into Anna, in 2006.