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.

---

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.

Lucky Pierre. "Absinthe"

Lucky Pierre. Ramrod 7" EP (Uprising Records, 1992)

Yes, that period is supposed to be at the end of their name, so post-menopausal readers may want to skip this one.

Wild Horses "The Kid"

Wild Horses I'll Give You Love 2 x 7" single (EMI, 1981)

So, like, Thin Lizzy are one of the greatest bands ever, right? And Rainbow were great 'til vocalist Ronnie James Dio left to join Black Sabbath, right? Don't you defy me! Anyhow, so Brian Robertson left Lizzy sometime between the recording of Live and Dangerous and the subsequent tour when it was released. Gary Moore was on guitar when I saw them on that tour, in fact. And Jimmy Bain? Well, he got the boot from Rainbow, 'cause leader/guitarist/despot Ritchie Blackmore is a control freak, in addition to a great guitarist. Or maybe he quit. I don't know. Go look it up yourself, dammit! Anyhow, the two of them joined forces as Wild Horses.

Monitor "Beak"

Monitor
Beak
7" single
(World Imitation, 1979)

OK, so maybe my return was a bit premature; my sincere apologies. I have several things lined up, now, and a ton more stuff ripped from vinyl and cassette, so hopefully there won't be another gap.

I first checked out Monitor because they had the mighty Meat Puppets cover one of their songs on their (Monitor's) eponymous, 1981 debut LP. The majority of the album was on the more mellow end of avant garde rock, with a blast of fairly insane noise rock stuck right near the end of side two. Not that I didn't like the rest of the record, mind you! I used to play We Get Messages and Mokele-Mbembe on my radio show moderately often, and probably other tracks, as well.

I discovered a few years after I bought the LP that it was preceded by a single. Now, you may notice the DM 8.– price tag on the sleeve, unless you're one of my blind readers, if I have any. I honestly can't recall if I bought this via mail order or on one of my handful of late '80s/early '90s trips to Deutschland (the DM is for Deutschmark). I don't like price stickers on my stuff, but sometimes the darn things won't come off without threatening to damage the cover, so they are allowed to remain. Ingrates.

Anyhow, this 1979 single is rather a bit more manic than the album, and sounds rather Residential. The b-side is also cool, but the a-side is the tits, as they say. Not me, mind you; I would never be so guoache, as I've never been fond of watercolors. Regardless, their MySpace indicates 2011 will see a CD containing all of their released material plus unreleased stuff. Yea!

The Undecided "Down, Down"

The Undecided
Dressed to Watch Television
LP
(Morgue Method Records, 1985)

Well, dang it, I ripped this whole record to digital, agonized over what song to pick, started my post, went to see if there was any additional info on the 'net I could provide, and found out, gosh darnit, that they now have a Facebook page and have the record for sale all over the place in MP3 format, as of mid-2010.

So, you may notice the usual button has been replaced by and buttons. It wouldn't be fair to the artists for me to post free downloads of songs commercially available, so I'm now going to still allow streaming, but no downloading of stuff when the artists actually have it out there for sale. I've made the switch for two earlier posts that I discovered are available as MP3s: The Barry Sisters' Roumania and Talk Engine's Dream Me Coupled.

Anyhow, The Undecided were from Virginia and released just this one record. The drummer in my old hardcore band was a friend of theirs, and I bought the record when it came out back in 1985. They played a mix of punk rock, funkier stuff, postpunk, and a kinda cheesy fake country song. They get the before they were famous label as the bassist was Dave Park, who went on to play in DC legends Unrest.