blackleatherbookshelf | Entries tagged with tonio k

Life A little Lesser on The Foodchain
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Tonio K had the familiar catch 22 of any artist who cuts a brilliant meisterwerk on the first try; where do we go from here? His second album (on a second label, Columibia dumped him after the incredible "Life In The Foodchain" and Arista picked him up for this) is in the same chaotic, angry but sardonic style of the debut but without the shock and awe that the debut brought forth.

After all, when you've written perhaps the greatest all time Eff-Off song ("H-A-T-R-E-D") to close your debut, the closest match you have is the one here called "Go Away," well, the new one seems almost polite by comparison. The punk-frantic "One Big Happy Family" tries to see the ties that un-bind (and it's darn good at it), but the title song of "Foodchain" said it better and with more of a boogie attitude. The real kicker here is the dour but rocking "Trouble," complete with a police siren guitar riff and apocalypic lyrics.

Which is not to say that "Amerika" is a poor album. By any other standards, it's a barn burner. The ultimate in teenaged death songs is here by route of "The Night Fast Rodney Went Crazy," sending all others into pretenderland. Then there's "Merzsuite," a three part Dada-ispired collision where, as the liner notes said, Tonio was doing a take on a play where on the stage was an entire liferunning its course; nothing happens but ultimately everything happens, and then culminates with the everyone chanting 'futt futt futt' as the band spatters cacophony all around each other.

"Amerika" may have been subtitled "Cars Guitars and Teenaged Violence," and it lives up to that moniker. (The original title, "Too Cool To Be A Chistian" is rumoured to be what got him the boot from CBS, but is just as likely a title as "Amerika" would be.) Yet let's not confuse the titles with the facts. Tonio had a mild sophomore slump with this platter, but for an album originally released in 1980, it's got plenty of bite for a 32 year old.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: Philadelphia
Current Music: "Trouble" Tonio K

Oh, I wish I were as mellow, as, for instance, Jackson Browne
5 Out of 5 Stars

Tonio K totally rocked my world in 1979. The first time I heard "Life In The Foodchain," I couldn't believe how blunt and brutally funny this guy was. Imagine a punk rock Warren Zevon or a misogynistic folkie who just took a hypodermic full of adrenaline Pulp Fiction style right in his songwriting sternum. That's how far out of this world "Life In The Foodchain" was (and, frankly, still is).

Side one in the old days was a flawless four song sledgehammer the set its aim on the complacent California Rock scene and smashed it to smithereens. In addition to the title track, you get the modern rock hit "Funky Western Civilization," which takes a no-holds-barred looks at the hypocrisy of mankind and shoots it all down in what may be the most offensive/hysterical verse ever played on the radio:

"Well they put Jesus on a cross, they put a hole in JFK,
They put Hitler in the driver's seat and looked the other way."

The side closes with the best Bob Dylan re-write ever. "The Night The Clocks All Quit and The Government Fell" is, well, the only way I can describe it is imagine of Dylan ate some really bad acid in the recording studio, imagined he was watching the Armageddon/apocalypse and recorded his visions with The Clash as his backing band. That's just side one.

The second half falters a bit, since there was almost no way Tonio could have topped it. That doesn't mean the songs are bad, and "Life In The Foodchain" ends with what can only be said is the number one most viciously brutal and hysterically funny Eff-Off song that no-one, and I do mean, no-one, will ever be able to top. "H-A-T-R-E-D" starts off with Tonio gently strumming a guitar and warbling in a hurt, sensitive manner about how hurt he is that is woman has left him...before he softly whispers "But let me kind of put this another way, OK?" At which point all hell breaks loose as Tonio and the band let fly with a rage both frightening and laugh-out-loud nuts, as he screams "I'm gonna K-I-L-L one of us, baby, when I'm sober, I'll decide on which!" The song and the album come to a crashing close, with howls of feedback, chaotic drums, an organ doing the "Louie Louie" riff and Tonio begging "with a little counseling, maybe we can work this out."

That's the song were the Jackson Browne line comes from (and the obscene second line can't be printed). Like all of "Life In The Foodchain," it's chaotic and funny, brilliantly written and sarcastic as anything before or since. Tonio managed a few more great albums and even wrote a couple of hits, but this remains a defining moment in rock history. It's a biting 30 plus years on as it was on the day of release.