The Pulses were the most underrated band to come out of Seattle’s 2000 music scene, hands down. As far as comparisons go, they’re a little hard to peg; the first bands that come to my mind are Flying Nun bands like the Chills or the Clean and maybe ’80s college rock thrown in for influence. But the Pulses were a lot faster and punker, more like the garagey pop-punk bands that come just a few years before them, such as Empty Records’ Scared of Chaka. They just weren’t THAT fast.

The Pulses came to Seattle via New York in 1999. Originally they were a four-piece — Dave (drums), Jesse (guitar/vocals), Ian (bass) and ? (guitar)– but bassist Ian left the band to join the local garage/surf band, the Zombie 4, and as for the other guitarist, who knows? That same year the band lucked out and replaced Ian with former Fallouts’ bassist Shannon.

My band the Recordbreakers played one of the Pulses first shows, at a great dive in downtown Seattle called “Gibson’s.” (Sadly, Gibson’s is now a Pier 1 or a coffee shop or something) The band used its Fallouts connections to vie for the headline spot, which did not work in their favor. By the time they took the stage, the few people that stuck around continued to sit in their seats and converse their neighbors, me included. But every once in awhile I would catch a killer riff and remark to my bandmates, “Hey, this is kind of good, like early Dead Milkmen.” I think that was the extent of everyone’s interest.

The Pulses didn’t become a Seattle staple like the A-Frames, the Spits or the Briefs, but they played out and every show they got better. I remember talking up Dave frequently, especially after the Popular Shapes started playing out. We always talked about playing shows together and he kept handing me CDRs of their recordings, the first being the 30-song demo.

The demo was one of those cd’s I would pop in my stereo and stand right next to it so I could repeat certain songs over and over again (my repeat function didn’t work right). I included some of the standout tracks down below, but they were a ton, including pretty much all of the first half.

The Pulses later signed to Dirtnap Records, where they would release the remaining of the catalog. They actually turned down the split 7″ deal with the Intelligence that the Popular Shapes took up (lucky us!). Their two albums — 2002′s s/t and 2005′s “Gather Round and Destroy All Our Records”– as well as their 2003′s “Little Brothers” EP are all worth picking up. Each one features perfect verse-chorus-verse pop songs that belong on roadtrip mixtapes. It’s just that they started investing in recording after the demo, so the folllowing releases are a little pro.

To hear and learn more about the band, check out their Website at a www.thepulses.com.

Here are a few of my favs from the demo: