TKO - Let It Roll 12"
This promotional 12" captures a solid piece of Seattle hard rock history, long before the city became shorthand for another sound entirely. TKO were a stadium-ready heavy metal band, built on big hooks, driving guitars and an anthemic, radio-minded swagger that courted the working class.
That sensibility led to a deal with New York–based Infinity Records, an ambitious MCA-backed label. Touring the East Coast, TKO opened for AC/DC and Van Halen, swiftly building momentum that resulted in their 1979 debut album Let It Roll. This advanced pressing of the title track had radio DJs in mind and plots them right on the cusp of breaking through.
That momentum didn’t last: Infinity collapsed as quickly as it appeared after overspending on signings and promotion – including a bizarre Pope John Paul II record that few stores knew what to do with – and the label that should have been a platform instead became a pitfall. Let It Roll slipped out of circulation just as the band were finding their feet.
TKO continued through several later LPs and have since been revisited via CD reissues. This 12″ now stands as a perfect time capsule of a band on the brink – a snapshot of real promise, preserved in the same condition nearly 50 years on.
