Long before it was cool to wear a trucker hat, a little band from Manhattan, Kan. called Truck Stop Love stopped drinking long enough (well, not really stopped) to record a 1993 self-titled EP and a 1995 full-length that, courtesy Los Angeles' Scotti Bros/Backyard Records, slowly crept its way across the plains and into the stereos of America. And those albums were played loud.
Ignoring the advice of their lawyer, Truck Stop Love signed with Scotti Brothers Records, a label best known for "Weird Al" Yankovic and Survivor. The band hit the road hard after that in Hi-Tone, their 1954 Chevy school bus. The gas mileage was horrible, but it looked cool and it was big, allowing the members to be apart from each other whenever fights would break out.
The group covered "Listen To Her Heart" for "You Got Lucky - A Tribute To Tom Petty" and participated in the sold-out "Lucky" tribute concert at the House Of Blues in Los Angeles in January of 1995. The show was later seen by more than 3 million music fans when it aired on ABC's late-night music show "In Concert."
"How I Spent My Summer Vacation" is the album that defines Truck Stop Love for many in the Midwestern music scene. Produced at Memphis' legendary Ardent Studios by Big Star drummer Jody Stephens and Jeff Powell, the album is a dizzying mix of TSL's wide influences, drenched with loud guitars and a twist of country.
A great sounding record and an expensive video weren't enough for the label to push four unpolished Kansas scrubs into the national spotlight, and, despite college radio airplay and the support of commercial Lawrence giant KLZR (R.I.P.), the album didn't catch on with the pre-TRL crowd.
"If there is ever to be such a thing as a "Kansas sound" or "Midwestern sound," the members of Truck Stop Love will surely be remembered as four of its godfathers." -Lawrence, KS music monthly "The Note" (1993)
