You don’t have to be short and cute to be in the Tom Tom Club, but it doesn’t hurt. Nearly 30 years after “Genius of Love” conquered airwaves, dancefloors, Quinceaneras, Bar Mitzvahs and backyard birthday BBQs, Tina Weymouth takes the stage in flaxen pigtails, a silver sequin mini-dress and a teal guitar. Still looking like the coolest chick downtown, Weymouth together with drummer/husband/fellow ex-Talking Heads founder Chris Frantz and their air-tight Club, turn Santos Party House into a sanctuary for storm-weary New Yorkers. As they launch into the opener, “Suboceana,” the rain outside is soon forgotten and the only wetness on anyone’s mind is the sweat flying off our bouncing bodies. There is inevitably much jump-up going down on Lafayette as the influential and perennial side project to one of post-modern rock’s most fawned-over bands works its way though classics like “The Man with the Four-Way Hips” and “Wordy Rappinghood”. Had the sun-splashed riddims kept pounding, we could have easily wound up surfing the subway rumbling below .
When we call the Frantz residence in Connecticut, Tina waxes nostalgic about old-school stage presence, seemingly missing from a lot of contemporary acts. “It was a marvelous party,” she recounts, sounding like someone who needs a cigarette after a sumptuous dessert. She was (only) referring to Island Records’ 50th anniversary shindig last year and (only) to a performance by Sly and Robbie with Grace Jones–she who has made a career (and arguably a verb) out of “Mahvelous”. While no cosmic outfits sashay across Santos stage that Thursday night, Tom Tom Club’s showmanship comes through so loud and clear, it is likely still bouncing off of yet-discovered satellites.
The impetus behind this recent cross-country mini-marathon was the promotion of the band’s newest CD, Genius of Live. The double-CD features an edited version of a 2002 performance for fifty people recorded in their home studio (the Clubhouse), paired with 11 remixes of “Genius of Love” by a slew of Alter-Latino fanboys including Kinky, Ozomatli, and Nortec Collective. The project came about as a result of their longtime friendship with Tomas Cookman of Nacional Records, home to the Pinker Tones and many of the artists on the remix CD. The Frantzs first dabbled in Rock en Espanol when Cookman asked them to produce Argentina’s Los Fabulosos Cadillacs in 1995. They were aware of Latin America’s long-running fascination with their syncopated rhythms, but Tina sounds genuinely surprised by the unanimous response to this project. “We offered them all our songs, our entire catalog, but they all wanted and sent back “Genius,’” she chuckles.
It isn’t exactly the first homage to the ditty that implored, “What do you consider fun?” Type “Genius of Love” into WhoSampled.com and start scrolling. Grandmaster Flash, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, Tupac are there, along with Mariah Carey who famously used “Genius” as the foundation for her smash hit “Fantasy.” Hip Hop stars and Latin rockers, fine. But you’d imagine someone with CBGB’s cred, an artiste who’s produced Happy Mondays and played with Gorillaz, would cringe at the thought of a high-gloss pop diva liberally helping herself to a heaping cornerstone of Cool. And you’d be wrong.
“We wish she would call again, actually! Mariah, if you’re reading this…” she deadpans. “At the time we decided to clear that sample, ironically, we were in dire straits, fighting for the rights to own our music,” she said referring to an infamous legal and creative battle with David “Big Suit” Byrne over the right to name their splinter band The Heads (which featured guest vocalists including Debbie Harry in lieu of the absent reunion-resistant Byrne). “Fortunately, things were settled favorably, but that Mariah money really helped us. We were almost wiped out.” If it sounds like Weymouth is OK with the old record business, she is. “It was great having someone else to worry about your bills and bookings. Think about it, wouldn’t you rather just focus on being creative?” Not surprisingly, then, Weymouth is not a social media junkie. “I don’t do any of that stuff. Chris updates our Facebook and responds to people and deals with all that for us.”
When Chris gets on the phone, he admits that he first got into social media to promote his monthly radio show “Chris Frantz the Talking Head” on their local free-form listener supported radio station, WPKN. But he’s taken a liking to it since. “I play music I like and interview people I’m interested in and being able to share that so quickly and extensively is great, especially when you’re talking about something like a little radio station like that.” So far guests have included the B-52s’ Cindy Wilson and Joey Ramone’s brother, Mickey Leigh. His playlists feature many of Weymouth and Frantz’s peers from back in the day like Television and contemporary acts like LCD Soundsystem, but they also include music from a wider variety of genres and cultures, reflecting the eclectic hybrids you hear in Tom Tom Club and Talking Heads. “We were both military brats, so we were exposed to a lot of music from other places, frequently and early on,” Chris says. “When we were growing up, Tropicalia was really big. That was my parents’ party music,” Tina affirms, adding, “then in college [RISDE], I got turned onto punk and everything that was happening in downtown New York. Chris took me to one my first shows.”
For all of their own legendary musicianship and radiant stage presence, neither Chris nor Tina has a hand in renovating Clubhouse. “Like Tina said, we don’t touch that, we leave that to professionals. And it’s an old studio that just gave out, so we really wouldn’t know where to begin. Once it’s ready, though, then we’ll go back in there and start working on new material for next year and an even longer tour.” That’s right. After decades in the business, the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame husband and wife are eager to get back on the road –and likely inspire a whole new generation of rappers and rockeros. After all, there are still some people out there who have no idea that the force behind one of the most indelible bass lines in the history of music is a pigtail-sporting lady living in Connecticut. “We were in a recording studio once with a rapper (that shall remain nameless) and he came up to me in a total weed haze and in total amazement said, ‘That was you!?’ “And that” she concludes–professionally, graciously and firmly–”brings us full circle, doesn’t it?”
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