Tom Tom Club

Tom Tom Club began life as a side project for Talking Heads members Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, who adopted a light, tropical dance style that won them a gold album in Tom Tom Club in 1981 and a Top 40 single in “Genius of Love.” They continued to make albums under this moniker between Heads production projects: Close to the Bone (1983) and Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom (1989). They even toured as Tom Tom Club in the summer of 1989. When the Heads broke up in late 1991, Tom Tom Club became Frantz and Weymouth’s main outlet. They released Dark Sneak Love Action in 1992, but soon took time away from working with one another to concentrate on other projects. A Talking Heads reunion minus David Byrne resulted in the two coming back together, and so after eight years of an inactive Tom Tom Club, the two came together and released The Good the Bad and the Funky. The next year, a live album marked their exotic and fun live reunion shows. In 2012, the band offered up Downtown Rockers, an EP of new material very true to their earliest work, featuring guest appearances from likeminded newcomers Wild Belle. ~ William Ruhlmann