Also this issue:

Random House
The Twin Atlas’ curious methods and haphazard road map to rock.
-Brian Howard

The Nut Never Sleeps
-Sam Adams

Melt Banana
-Paul Burress

Alexi Murdoch
-Nicole Pensiero

DJ Buck
-Sean O’Neal

Mary Lee's Corvette
-Nicole Pensiero

Yerba Buena
-A.D. Amorosi

The Gossip
-M.J. Fine

July 10-16, 2003

musicpicks

Tom Tom Club

In 1981, at the height of Talking Heads' most undulating artistic successes -- when Brian Eno was supposedly turning David Byrne from geek to groovemeister -- it was the unschooled rhythmatists who led the hit-making conga line. Heads drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth (the husband-and-wife team who provided the spartan thwack of 77 and the Afrocentric polyrhythms found on Remain In Light) became the Tom Tom Club. Experimenting with silly lyricism, spacy girlie vocals, daffy dub and stuttering funk, TTC made hits out of the arty rap and typewriter pulse of "Wordy Rappinghood" and the sexy, slick ragga dance of "Genius Of Love." That they didn't stop there means you haven't been listening: The Good, the Bad and the Funky and Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom are first-rate, weird and wack Caucasoid-funk records. (The Heads, on the other hand yuck). Last year, the TTC sent the two-CD Live @ the Clubhouse (Artist Direct) into the world, with near-hits ("Punk Lolita" and "The Man With The 4 Way Hips") cool cover versions ("You Sexy Thing", "96 Tears") and Frantz's oddball recitations of the names of James Brown and Bohannon religiously intact. You didn't buy it, so go see this show.

Thu., July 10, 7 p.m., $13, with Mutlu and Fuzz, The Trocadero, 1003 Arch St., 215-922-LIVE.

—A.D. Amorosi