Timeless

Bands that didn't get their due when they were active are usually described as "flying below radar," but in the case of Zolar X, it's more accurate to say they soared above it — that's where the trajectory of these Los Angeles glam aspirants was aiming. They were wrapped in a bubblegum cosmology that owed as much to Sid & Marty Krofft as it did to Ziggy Stardust, and they framed themselves with a unified "look" much like the Ramones would a few years later and a million miles away, Zolar X had stylish bleached locks accented with antennae, freakish space costumes and appropriately interstellar names like Zory Zenith and Ygarr Ygarrist. Zolar X were supreme space rock mythologists with one thumb out in the cosmos, hoisting a tattered "anywhere but here" sign hoping to hitch the next rocket flight to rock & roll superstardom. That they didn't become rock stars isn't a total surprise, Zolar's theatrical take on rock was fading from favor with the Los Angeles public in the light of disco's mirrored ball. Out of step with the times they may have been, but the songs collected on Timeless sound completely in tune with the high-energy rock continuum that inspired them in the first place. Stuck somewhere in the sticky carbonated hard rock of Sweet, Cheap Trick and even late- '70s, new wave- leaning Hawkwind, Zolar X riffs on space, space science, love in space, and more space on "Jet Star 19," "Test Tube Baby," "Plutonian Elf Story" and the brilliantly titled "I Pulled My Helmet Off (I'm Going to Love Her.)" Sure, they should have been bigger than the blip on L.A. nightlife than they were, but the world was not ready for Zolar X then, and most of the world still won't know what to think of them, but this return to earthly orbit should find a few more receptive ears.