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