The Infrareds "The Infrareds" 2000

After they started playing around town sometime in the late ’90s, The Infrareds racked up a series of shows that still live on in the minds of local music fans. The trio opened for the great ’80s surf punk band Agent Orange at the Monterey Fairgrounds and did a set before the psychedelic surf rock group The Mermen took the stage at Big Sur’s Fernwood Bar. But some folks will always remember The Infrareds for their gig at the Dream Theater in 2000 with The Lesser Known Gods and an upstart country rock act called The Darktown Rounders…
…A now-gone art house movie theater in New Monterey, The Dream Theater hosted the show on a Monday night and, according to a piece back then in the Weekly, sold out all tickets. Skydecker recalls that The Infrareds performed a high-energy closing set as the movie Apocalypse Now was projected on a movie screen behind them.
Another highlight for The Infrareds occurred later with the release of the band’s 2003 Recorded on Microfilm. The 17-song album begins with an old cigar advertisement before going into “The Red Scare,” a barreling surf-rock number with fast guitar playing and what sounds like war whoops in the background. On a later number, “Opening the Watergate,” Fortune’s surf guitar licks unfold as fluidly and powerfully as the waves reeling off a meaty right hand point break.
Following the CD’s release, The Infrareds embarked on an almost month-long tour around the United States. They performed at the famous New York City venue CBGB and did a show in a Portland, Maine, basement punk club called Gino’s, which Skydecker recalls as “the stuff that horror movies are made of.”
“That really was the apex of our career,” Skydecker says of Recorded on Microfilm and the following tour.
The Infrareds did put out another CD, 2004’s Sounds From the Darkroom, followed by a three-week tour of the Netherlands, but the trio lost their way after relocating to Los Angeles. After performing at a venue called Spike’s, The Infrareds were approached by an aspiring filmmaker who wanted to make a music video for the band. Unfortunately, the filmmaker and her associates encouraged The Infrareds to fire Glasby and add a vocalist to the band. (L.T. Thompson of the local groups Red Light Nightmare and Serpico did time as The Infrareds’ singer.) “It forced us to sell out,” Skydecker says. “In retrospect, I think we kind of feel guilty about it.” In 2006, The Infrareds officially called it quits. - http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/trax:

01 Pico Blanco 02 The Infraromp 03 The Outskirts 04 Dead Heat 05 Squad Car 06 The Umiac Mission 07 Red Spyglass 08 Exotic 09 Death to the Private Eyes 10 Covert & Stateless