The Twin Cities music scene adored The Plastic Constellations. With a reputation for gleefully jumping up and down at shows to their quirky indie-rock and lead singer Jeff Allen’s vocal similarity to the younger version of Lifter Puller’s Craig Finn, the four Hopkins high-schoolers created quite a stir for underage music. Their 2000 record “Let’s War” received much airplay on Radio K and even landed at spot number 34 for the station’s year-end list.

After high school, the band began to play less and less, slowly fading from the scene. Guitarist Aaron Mader explained with school, work, travel and even a wedding, “Everyone’s priorities changed. Real life kicked in.”

But Mader guarantees that The Plastic Constellations “are back and focused.” There are even talks of a reunion of their side project, the Killer Bees, where the band dresses in cheesy bee costumes and pesters the audience. A new album is expected soon, along with a tour in 2004.

Mader said, “(In the past) we didn’t know how to write our own songs.” On the new album, the band doesn’t try as hard to replicate their influences and instead lets more of their own songwriting come through. The songs are also much more influenced by hip-hop (though the band does not actually rap) so “hopefully people can dance to it easier.”

Though The Plastic Constellations might have to start from the beginning and rebuild their fan base, surely their legacy has not been completely forgotten. And soon enough, The Plastic Constellations will once again be streaming out of the airwaves of Radio K.