Natrona Heights native Jimmer Podrasky releases 1st Rave-Ups album in 3 decades

Having left the Alle-Kiski Valley behind in the early 1980s, Natrona Heights, Harrison, native Jimmer Podrasky doesn’t miss the weather headed Pittsburgh’s way this weekend.

“It’s been 40 years since I’ve driven in that kind of weather, and it still haunts me,” said Podrasky, 64, now a Los Angeles resident.

Before leaving Pittsburgh, Podrasky was part of the Rave-Ups, playing at the limited number of local venues like Fat City, the Decade and the Electric Banana, which all catered to the city’s punk and New Wave music scene.

“The band that formed while I was at Carnegie Mellon was four of us who were all students in 1979,” Podrasky said. “I’m still in touch with those guys, but unfortunately that band never made any recordings.”

After moving to L.A., Podrasky formed a new version of the Rave-Ups when he and three fellow mailroom workers at A&M Records decided to start making music together.

They released three albums between 1985 and 1990, along the way signing with Epic Records and making an appearance in the classic ’80s film “Pretty in Pink.”

The band built a limited-but-loyal fan base with the call-and-response of songs such as “They Do Talk” and the high-energy “Rave-Up/Shut-Up.”

Their 1990 record, “Chance,” saw Podrasky confronting topics like loss, heartache and fatherhood.

He left the music industry to focus on raising his son and was going through some difficult times when fellow Natrona Heights native Ed Sikov paid him a visit in 2011. Sikov, a film scholar, is the author of acclaimed biographies of Peter Sellers, Bette Davis and others.

Sikov — who was a couple years ahead of Podrasky at Highlands High School — helped him to start recording again. Podrasky eventually released a record called “Would-Be Plans,” followed by three independent, solo records.

“If it wasn’t for Ed Sikov, I wouldn’t be making music,” Podrasky said. “I owe an awful lot to him.”

Now, after more than three decades, Podrasky has gotten back together with the L.A. version of the Rave-Ups — joined by guitarist Terry Wilson, bassist Tommy Blatnik and drummer Timothy Jimenez — to release “Tomorrow.”

“Getting back together kind of happened serendipitously,” Podrasky said. “There wasn’t a lot of intent to necessarily make a record.”

But it happened all the same.

One of the album’s first released tracks, How Old Am I, captures the dichotomy in Podrasky’s approach to songwriting. It tackles emotional topics with a bright guitar sound and an uptempo foundation.

The album will be released in Europe. While Podrasky said he won’t be traveling overseas anytime soon, he does relish the idea of getting out and performing the songs from “Tomorrow.”

“I think the performing is the best part of it all,” he said. “Being in the studio can bring some anxiety. But performing has an immediacy to it — they laugh, they react. You sing a certain line and look at people’s faces and have that intangible feeling of, ‘Wow, they get it’ — that’s the payoff.”

“Tomorrow” can be purchased online at OmnivoreRecordings.com.