The Accelerators had their origins in the early 1980s as the
Greenville, S.C. band Moon Pie which recorded on EP,
Welcome to Hard Times. In 1982, three members of Moon Pie, along with their manager and producer
Dick Hodgin, moved to the growing music scene in
Raleigh and changed the band's name to The Accelerators. The original lineup featured Gerald Duncan on lead vocals/guitar, Doug Whelchel on drums, Chris Moran on guitar/vocals, and Keller "Skip" Anderson on bass. Musically, "their songs are raw-edged sketches of drive-ins, fast-cars, beer joints and teenaged passion framed in the muscular sound of rockabilly-influenced pop and rock."
Dolphin Records After relocating to Raleigh, Moon Pie was picked up by Dolphin Records, operated by the regional retail chain
Record Bar, and was included in the label's compilation album
Mondo Montage. A portion of the album was recorded at
Mitch Easter's (
Lets Active) Drive-in Studio, and Easter also played on two tracks. Despite his acclaim for working with
R.E.M. and
The Smithereens, one reviewer noted, "Dixon overembellished some of the songs, diminishing their impact." The latter was shot in the
Record Bar warehouse. Despite this publicity and some airplay on college radio, promotion of the album was stunted because the band's representative from Dolphin was fired before
Leave My Heart was released. The expression "comboland" was coined by
Mitch Easter and referred to the music scene in the Raleigh area. Cheshire's efforts also led to the
BBC's weekly television show,
The Old Grey Whistle Test, traveling to North Carolina to produce the segment "A Visit to Comboland" which included an interview with the band and a partial performance of their song "Tears." Covering several bands, 20-minute segment was filmed at
The Brewery in
Raleigh in September 1985 and aired on BBC-2 on October 29, 1985. It was promoted as "Andy Kershaw's report on Comboland, birthplace of the new American rock 'n' roll." The band's showcase performance was at the Lonestar Roadhouse in Manhattan and was a success. The band promoted the album via a national tour, along with the release of singles "Stayin' Up in the City" and "What is Real."
The Accelerators was reviewed by
Rolling Stone and was selected by
Billboard magazine for its "New and Noteworthy" section. Manager Dick Hodgin stalled on the album's release for more than a year, hoping the label would concede.
Nearer was produced by Charles Desmond White, instead of Hodgin, but was recorded at
Jag Studio in Raleigh, where all previous albums were also recorded. Jerker Emanuelson, owner of the Swedish label Sound Asleep Records, was a fan of
Nearer and contacted the band. ==Hiatus and break up==