Biography
During its short existence, the band played several concerts in Olympia and one in Portland, Oregon. The band had more musical creativity than musicianship, with two of the band members having taken up instruments for the first time just to be able to participate in the band.
While certainly not the first amateur girl and boy band to come along, Cool Rays embodied what would become some of the motivating ideas (and ideals) of the Olympia music scene: that one need not be a formally trained or professional (or stereotyped) musician to make music; local people should make their own music (rather than passively relying on the "corporate ogre" music business to provide it); and girls should play a more active role in the making of rock music.
Cool Rays benefited from a devoted following among certain students and downtown Olympia residents, however, the group's popularity didn't spread far. In the late 1970s, many younger music listeners had not embraced punk and other emerging genres. Local tastes tended toward hard rock, psychedelic and folk-rock musical motifs.
In the spring of 1981, Cool Rays made an unpublished audio cassette produced by Steve Fisk and recorded in the recording studios of the Evergreen State College. A few of the compositions from that cassette were subsequently released as part of compilations of Olympia- and Seattle-based artists.
The band dispersed in the summer of 1981, after the end of the Evergreen State College academic year.
Cool Rays is briefly referenced in Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azerrad (Little Brown, 2001).
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