A Minneapolis band whose album transgresses psychedelia and progressivism. It's now becoming a minor collectable and is very hard to find. The medley on side two is full of variety and interest but the highlights are the opening cut, Head Embers, which has lots of good guitar work and the mildly psychedelic, At The Top Of The Stairs. There are a few awful tracks, but there are lots of ideas on this album and if you're into psychedelic guitar and keyboards this is one for you.
The band evolved out of
The Good Idea. When that band had split in 1969, John Miesen landed a deal with Roulette on the basis on an unreleasedThe Good Idea track, 12:25, which was used for one side of the Thundertree album.
Bill Hallquist later recorded two solo albums. The first under the name of Billy, Persephone (Orion 20510) 1972, although he's more often referred to as Persephone Billy, due to a typographical error on the sleeve. On this he was helped out by, amongst others, Rick liaBraaten (also ex-Thundertree). The album, which is pretty rare and sought-after, consists of pleasant, dreamy folk-rock and comes in a striking black and white cover. After second, Travelin' (Mill City) 1976, Bill Hallquist did some session work including Kevin Odegard's Silver Lining album. (Kevin, in turn played on one of the songs on Dylan's Blood On The Tracks). Bill:- "In 1976 Kevin and I played together in The K.O. Band. Our drummer later became a member of Prince and The Revolution (Bobby Z), and guitar player (Jeff Dayton) currently plays with Glen Campbell. After that I played with a folk trio Macavity with Tim Sparks (Rio Nido), followed by a bar band Cimarron. Later, I wrote/produced radio jingles before becoming Director of Marketing at K-tel here in the U.S. I am still active musically as a songwriter and as a member of Perfectly Loud. The K.O. band is doing a reunion gig Sept. 1, 2000 at a club here in Mpls./St. Paul".
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