Toys
Went Berserk
This article originally appeared in NFH #18 in
the winter of 1990.
Toys Went Berserk are
yet another in Sydney's vast outpouring of inventive bands of the late eighties.
They've just released a really cool second lp, and it's well worth listening to;
I've spouted more about it in the review section, but let's just say that compared
to previous Toys stuff this one walks on water. Not to say there was no value in
the earlier stuff, but that Toys have seemingly hit their stride on this record and
come up with a real clear and bright production (courtesy of Rob Younger) to go
with some really great songs.
Toys Went Berserk
could be called the least or the most Aberrant band, depending on your perspective.
Of all Aberrant bands, Toys are the one with the most obvious accessible sound. Not
to say that they are in direct competition with Elton John, but one could imagine
that a station manager who made a mistake and played a Toys track might not lose
his job, where one playing King Snake Roost almost certainly would be filing
unemployment forms later in the afternoon. Bass player Bill tries to explain the
situation: "People now have this idea that Aberrant bands are like King Snake
Roost and feedtime; sort of noise things, and we're not, so they think it's funny
that we're on Aberrant, but if you look at what Aberrant means...", and he
laughs and turns to Bruce, who runs Aberrant, and asks, "what does it mean
again?".
Bruce uses his word
for word recall of Webster's and quotes: "It means "not falling into any
regular pattern", being very unpredictable." In which case Toys Went
Berserk qualify by virtue of not falling into the highly irregular pattern set by
the other Aberrant bands. But Toys don't fit in outside of Aberrant, either. They
aren't like the standard Sydney band, influenced by Detroit music, "Burn My
Eye" T-shirt on back, stacks of Marshalls behind them. They have other
influences. As opposed to big distorted power chords or strong leads, the guitar
tends to be more in the way of textured, treated chords; very echo-ey. The drumming
is inventive yet driving, with many interesting touches to add spice to standard
beats. The bass tends to be mixed back, while Coo's vocal provide a large part of the
character and melody to the songs. The band have been compared to Siouxie and The
Banshees (so much so that they are quite sick of it), yet the comparison is
probably reasonable if you compare early Toys to early Banshees. But off of their
new lp, there's little basis at all any more. Singer Coo's voice is actually probably
closer in tone to Debby Harry on her brassier songs, except that Coo has got better
range, better melody and more variety in her singing approach.
But where'd they all
come from?
Coo was the force
that brought the band together in 1986. Before singing in Toys Went Berserk she was
in the Perth band Lavender Disaster, a band that included Brett Ford and Peter
Hartley, both of whom wandered through the Kryptonics on the way to Lubricated
Goat. Bruce reckons that they sounded like a "tough Blondie", a
comparison that Coo seems to tolerate.
Bill plays bass. He
used to play in the Fester Brothers and also in Box Of Fish, who can be found on
the first Aberrant compilation playing some grinding two chord punk songs. Bill
describes Box Of Fish as hated by punks for being too trendy and hated by everyone
else for being too punk.
Mark used to play
drums for the Happy Hate Me Nots. For a time he was playing with both bands, but
the Happy Hate Me Nots were starting to play out a lot and he felt he had to choose
one band or the other, and although he still gets along well with the Hate Me Nots,
he felt that the musical direction Toys Went Berserk were pointed in was more
suited to his tastes.
Andy plays guitar; he
used to play in a band called Dusk Furrow that as far as I know didn't ever record.
The original lineup
also included a second guitarist, Steve Turbit (Toys policy seems to be only to
release last names of members when they leave the band, although some detective
work reveals that Coo's last name is probably Bennett, ha, ha!, and Mark’s is
known to be Nicholson). The band were signed to Aberrant the night of their very
first gig, so as Mark says with heavy sarcasm they were hot shit from the word go.
Their first recording happened in June of 1986, and the result was three songs
committed to vinyl. The first of these to be released was part of the Trousers In
Action ep (which also included feedtime and Examplehead) and was called "One
Day My Head Is Gonna Explode", a real cool and very punky sounding song; not
at all like the subsequent Toys sound (the "punky" part, not the
"cool" part). And there's a reason...it's a song that Lavender Disaster used to
do, and it was written by Coo's brother. The other two songs from the sessions came
out later on a single of their own, "Don't Run Away"/"Guns At My Head".
I didn't find "Don't Run Away" to be very enthralling, but "Guns At My
Head" has a really cool drum beat and exhibits a great feeling of tension.
These songs set the
style for the next several records the band did which included two singles and an
lp. The songs tended to be energetic, but with a dark and somber tone to them. The
lp Pieces was recorded in late 1986, and it was an interesting package...two
12" 45 rpm records with two songs a side, but unfortunately it probably has
their least interesting music. The next two singles were far more impressive. Part
of this may be due to a change of guitar players; Steve was replaced by Carolyn
Polley, but I think a bigger part is due to a change in recording
engineer/producer; up until this point everything had been done with a fellow named
Jonathan Summers. Speaking of the difference between the sound of the first single with
later recordings, Bill said: "Another thing that might explain the difference
is that the guy who was mixing cum producing the records at the time, like the first
few recordings we did, liked to experiment with unusual effects and stuff, and
that's a fairly outrageous example I suppose."
But in February of
1988 they recorded songs for two singles, the first of which was "No
Warning"/"Inseparable". This one made me sit up and regain some of
the interest that I'd lost due to the lp. It and the next single were both
engineered and co-produced by Alan Thorne, well known for all the Citadel bands he
has helped. "No Warning" is a particularly good slab of stuff with a
powerful and serious tone to it. The next one, "Forever And A Day"/"Something
Better" has a lighter feel to it, although it still is a lot heavier than
their new lp. Both tracks on this one are quite good as well.
Between those singles
and the new lp, the band slimmed down to four members with the departure of
Carolyn. The Smiler With The Knife was recorded with Rob Younger producing
and features the sort of clear and solid sound that he's becoming famous for. Yet
the band had a lot of misgivings about using him at first; they are not at all
interested in the Detroit sound, and they associated Younger with that through his
Birdman past. And although the new lp certainly isn’t a Detroit metal record,
there’s no question it has a tougher, more immediate sound. I asked whether this was
a conscious decision.
Coo: No, we've
just developed. We haven't planned how we would developed. It's just the way it happened.
Bill: That's probably another influence that's happened, because all these bands
that are hip are loud and noisy, and a lot of them are crap, but there's some good
ones, so you can't help but be affected by it. I mean, we don't hate every noise
band that's come out in the past however many years.
Andy: The music that we've listened to since we started the band has probably
changed.
Coo: And also, we've got one guitarist now. You're playing different than you
used to, and before with two guitars it was probably a lot more all over the place.
Andy: We're certainly tighter now, that's for sure. And it's helped live, too.
You can hear the vocals more and it sounds a lot more together because there's a
lot less conflicting instruments and noise.
Bill: We didn't get Rob to produce because he was in Radio Birdman, either.
Mark: Well, that was almost a deterrent to begin with because we associated Rob
Younger with...we mistakenly lumped him in...well, we almost decided his musical
tastes for him, but found out for ourselves that they were probably more diverse
that most people suspect.
If they sound a
little on edge about the pervasiveness of the Detroit influence in Sydney, it's
only because they are. I posed the following question: Is it tough playing around
Sydney when you aren't a Stooges-influenced band?
Bill: It's
fucked!
Coo: Yes!
Mark: Well actually it's not quite so bad as it was a while back. It's improved
some.
Andy: We're influenced by Stooges and The Banshees!
Bruce: You'd better explain that 'cause he'll take that seriously!
Andy: What, "Stooges and The Banshees", it's bloody obvious that it's a
joke, isn't it?
Bill: I think we've covered all that before; I mean it is about fitting in.
Coo: There's other bands too, that are playing around at the moment that have
got the same sort of problem; they don't really fit into any category and they
don't do as well as they should.
Andy: Well, it's not just that Stooges/Detroit thing. Like King Snake Roost.
Coo: Mark Of Cain, Crow...they're all different bands that I can't think fit
into any category and just don't do as well as they should for that reason. But we
are drawing more people though...the crowds are getting bigger now.
The Siouxie and The
Banshees comparison is one that still bothers the band; they feel, and rightly so,
that there's a significant double standard being applied...that if you effectively
copy the MC5 or the Stooges, you are guaranteed critical acclaim, while if you
sound at all like a band that isn't considered hip you are accused of ripping them
off. And although they won't deny that they like the Banshees, they insist that
they never considered them the model for their sound and that they don't even know
how to play any of their songs. Andy says he thinks that Blondie are a bigger influence
as far as that goes, and they all feel that their sound is best explained as a
melting pot of influences from all the sorts of music that they like. The interview
included a long discussion of this topic which ended with Bill's somewhat testy
account of being told by someone at a show that they sounded like Siouxie: "I
listened to Peepshow the other day, and we do NOT sound fucking anything
remotely like Peepshow or Hyena or bloody Kaleidescope."
When you consider the
bands that the members of Toys Went Berserk have played in in the past, you get a
feeling of a band with a much wider range of musical taste. Mark's drumming in the
Happy Hate Me Nots was great for their style, to the point that Paul Berwick says
that he was afraid they'd never find someone capable of replacing him. Mark thinks
that most people in bands fold together ideas from their entire range of musical
experience: "Influences come from everywhere. Like I can listen to Buddy Rich,
and he can play this drum fill and I think that's great, and because drums are such
a generic kind of instrument you can stick it in anywhere. Blase Ulrich does stuff
that sounds completely..."
Andy: Who are
these people, huh?
Mark: Eh?
Bill: Who's Buddy Rich?
Mark: What do you mean, "who's Buddy Rich?"
Bill: I know who Buddy Rich is...he's dead! (laughter)
Coo: Carry on with what you were saying...
Mark: Basically you can hear stuff that you like from almost any musical quarter
and apply it to what you do.
Bill: Speaking of Ulrich and drummers and stuff, well Mark bought a double kick
pedal.
Andy: I was going to say that! (laughter)
Bill: And like we told a few people that Mark's got a double kick pedal and they
go: "Oh you're going to go like Metallica now?". I mean, that's so stupid.
The stuff that the metal guys do with them is like the easiest thing to do, and if
you've got a double kick, why do you just have to go budda-budda-budda. I mean it
can be utilized in all manner of ways, and that's what he's going to try to do.
Mark: A jazz drummer would put two pedals to better use than a metal drummer,
but the reason you don't see many jazz drummers with a double pedal is that they
can do more with one than a metal head can do with two anyway.
Bill: They're probably generally better drummers...
Mark: Yeah!
Bill: I mean it's fairly easy to get a double pedal and go budda-budda-budda,
but that's not going to mean anything is it?
(at this point the
conversation degenerates into everybody going budda-budda-budda)
So you can see that
the band are fairly fed up with dealing with the situation in Sydney. Although it
seems a paradise for people who like Detroit bands or noise bands, it's apparently
a very hard place to try to forge your way with different influences. They're
trying to figure out a way to get overseas; pretty ambitious for a band that has
only played outside of Sydney once, and that was a few night's jaunt down to Melbourne
a couple years ago. But first they need licensing deals to get their records out.
Unlike other Aberrant bands, most Toys Went Berserk records have sold in Australia,
so there isn't much notice of them elsewhere, and their records haven't been
licensed overseas at all. So three and a half years on, they still have a lot of
work to do to get where they want to be. Do they want to do all this work?
Bill: Yes, we
want to get the fuck out of here!
Coo: Yeah, exactly. Ditto.
Bruce: Why do you want to get the fuck out of here?
Bill: Because I'm sick of it.
Andy: Just a change of scene.
Bill: I'm sick of playing with the same Detroit bands.
Coo: Here we go!
Mark: Sydney has more Detroit bands than Detroit.
Coo: There aren't as many venues as there were. The live scene isn't as happening
as it was five or six years ago.
Bill: The Landsdowne's kind of, as far as the inner city goes, the premier venue.
And it's fucking tiny.
Coo: Yeah, you can fit 500 people there max.
Bill: And that's a real squish. That's really jamming them in.
Mark: Which we do all the time. (much laughter)
I suspect that Toys
Went Berserk will find that the rest of the world also has a bit of a sheep
mentality when it comes to making decisions about what they like. Their style of
music isn't considered fashionable in today's conditions. But if you're open
minded, you won't let that get in your way, and if you listen, you may decide as I
have that this band plays some very worthwhile music; music with energy, heart and
sincerity. They've got the conviction to play what they want to play whether it
makes them popular or not, and to me that's the true spirit of independent music.
