The story
Post punk, new wave, experimental, alternative band from Los Angeles, California, USA.
17 Pygmies officially began in 1982 when then Savage Republic member began jamming in a garage with keyboardist and guitarist Michael Kory () and drummer, soon to be singer, Debbie Spinelli (from Food & Shelter and Radwaste). The group's first composition was an odd, kind of surf-a-delic, Emerson Lake & Palmer inspired cover version of the theme music to David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia. Τhe band quickly devolved into a kind of spooky instrumental and 80's style techno-pop band, and by the time they started covering Brazilian sambas (and just before the release of their first EP) Robert Loveless, now a member of Savage Republic, signed on as bass player/keyboardist.
The "Hatikva," EP quickly led (minus Kory, who left the band) to 1984's LP “Jedda By The Sea". Next came 1985's "Captured In Ice" which interestingly contained the non-hit "Chameleon" which made a very influential list called the 100 greatest unknown techno songs. Del Rey enlisted new members for the release of 1989's "Welcome", on Island Records subsidiary, Great Jones. The band was dropped the next year (1990), but self-released the EP “Missyfish”, which contained their last demos for Island, and disbanded.
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