October 29–November 5, 1998

six pick

Tom Tom Club

Elements of the Tom Tom Club's early hip-hop pop singles "Wordy Rappinghood" and "Genius of Love" seem to come back year after year. Grandmaster Flash, Ziggy Marley and Mariah Carey have all appropriated bits of those tunes for their songs. Tom Tom Club, which features Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, was little more than a Talking Heads side project when it burst on the scene in the early '80s. Its subsequent releases, Close the Bone, Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom and DarkSneakLoveAction, never had the same amount of success as the parent band, but had some fun, funky cuts as well as interesting rock forays reminiscent of early Talking Heads. On the current tour the group is working out new material for an album it's in the midst of recording. At the very least, you can count on hearing the influences of no wave, new wave and funk all mixed together.

-Neil Gladstone

Fri., Oct. 30, T.L.A., 334 South St., 922-1011.