News – Pezband

Pezband founders see remixed ‘Best of Pezband’ as their legacy

By Bill Dwyer for Chronicle Media — January 16, 2025

Pezband co-founder Mimi Betinis used the word “legacy” several times as he talked about the recent release on vinyl of “The Best of Pezband.”

Betinis, the band’s guitarist, along with bassist Mike Gorman, guitarist John Pazdan and the late drummer Mike Ruane, aka Mick Rain, started out back in 1971 in the basement of Betinis’ childhood home on North Grove Avenue in Oak Park. There they labored to learn songs from Fleetwood Mac’s “Kiln House” and other artists. It was the beginning of what would later be widely acknowledged as the seminal American power pop group…

Mimi Betinis (left) and Mike Gorman founded power pop legend Pezband. (Photo by Jim Summaria)

’70s rockers from Pezband still rocking in their 70s

By Bill Dwyer for Chronicle Media — September 19, 2023

“It’s a long way to the top, if you wanna rock ’n’ roll,” AC/DC sang. No one knows that better than Oak Park natives Mimi Betinis and Mike Gorman. Betinis and Gorman founded power pop legend Pezband, and Gorman played bass both in Pezband and another legendary Chicago band, Off Broadway. They first picked up…

Michael ‘Mick Rain’ Ruane, drummer for Chicago power pop group Pezband, dead of COVID-19 at 68

Read More at the Chicago Sun-Times

Hero to today gone tomorrow is my favorite opening line from a song Mick and I collaborated on. He was the printing block and I was the fabric. So much of our writing together took on that characteristic. An incredibly gifted writer with wry sarcasm, humor, insight, and observation—this was his mark. And he was a hero to many, a modern knight dedicated to helping and serving others.

This month would have marked thirty-two years of dedication to his AA efforts. His daughter said, ‘He lived out loud.’ I will add that that is just the way he played too. We played together some 25 years and traveled the world. It’s all love, it’s the only thing we leave. A quote from yet another collaboration, a wonderful song. But he has left so much more to all of us. I have my love for him and I will miss him the rest of my days. It is only love, and he has left me with that love for him.

—Mimi Betinis, August 2021

Pezband Featured in New Music Exhibit at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

Pezband’s iconic logo is featured in a new exhibit: THE STATE OF SOUND: A WORLD OF MUSIC FROM ILLINOIS at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, IL.

This one-of-a-kind exhibit showcases the achievements and contributions of Illinois’ finest in music. Written by award-winning author, documentary-producer and former Chicago Sun-Times Columnist and Critic, Dave Hoekstra.

Exhibit Information

Pezband featured in A WORLD OF MUSIC FROM ILLINOIS museum exhibit at the Lincoln Museum