[2] 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.
[2][4] 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.
[5] 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.
[10][9] Rolling Stone's Dave Marsh was also positive, describing the recording as "bar band soul and rock, with lyrics that are post-punk humorous and direct from Springsteen land at the same time.
[12][13] 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.
[2] Writer Geoffrey Cheshire III convinced Raleigh's Spector magazine to sponsor Greetings from Comboland, a three-cassette promotional sampler of 26 North Carolina bands, including several tracks from The Accelerators.
[14] In 1985, the unpaid Cheshire went to Europe with the tapes, gaining enough interest that the British indie label Waking Waves Records released the album Welcome From Comboland: A Collection of Twelve Artists from North Carolina that included The Accelerator's single "Leave My Heart.
"[15][14][16] 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.
The Accelerators included an updated version of "Two Girls in Love" from Leave My Heart, as well as new songs written by Duncan, Rice and Johns--who also sang lead vocals on two tracks.
[7][1] The production team included Dick Hodgin, Rod Abernathy and Don Dixon,[7][1] Profile hired Grammy–winning Janet Perr to design the album's cover which featured photos taken at King's Motel on South Wilmington Street in Raleigh.
[28] Because of delays with the band's third album and personal differences, The Accelerators dissolved after recording Dream Trains and members moved on to other projects.
[29][22] When Dream Train was finally released in June 1991, the band had not played live for three years, and Duncan and Wurster were the only members willing to return.
[4] However, after working on the Road Chill compilation album, Duncan said, "Sometime around the mid-1990s, it was rumored that I had retired or was deceased or didn't matter anyway or something, so I set out [to] let anyone who cared know that I was, except for possibly the third, none of these.
[36] In addition to Superchunk, John Wurster went on to play with many acts, including The Mountain Goats, Bob Mould, Katy Perry, Rocket from the Crypt, The New Pornographers, and R.E.M.
[37] Dave Bartholomew toured with Caitlyn Cary and Tres Chicas, and currently plays with Terry Anderson And The Olympic Ass-Kickin' Team.