TV Toy "Monofunk"

TV Toy
Building with Assurance
7" EP
(Permanent Records, 1981)

I first heard of TV Toy when it was announced in 1979 (?) that their drummer, Steve Peer, would be joining Bill Nelson's Red Noise for touring. The name stuck with me, but I didn't ever see anything in print about them again, and Red Noise didn't last long as a band, live or otherwise.

On a record shopping trip to Manhattan in the mid-1980s, however, I came across a 7" record by TV Toy, so I bought it, took it home, put it on the record player, listened to it, and found it was good. It was hard-edged new wave with a bit of a prog rock edge, and quite catchy. Sadly, I don't recall which one it was, though it seems most likely it was their second EP, (Don't Blame It on the) Weekend. Future shopping trips yielded three more little records.

2005 saw the release of Shards 1977-1983, a nifty collection of both released and unreleased material. Monofunk appears on Shards, but in a live version, rather than studio. On this here jukebox, it's the studio version, from their third EP, Building with Assurance.

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I had to get fancy on this one! I have two copies, but neither is in perfect condition. I recorded both to wav files and edited the best bits together. Unfortunately, some parts of the record were a bit noisy on both copies, so there's still a bit of surface noise. Please, no lawsuits.