This is a good month for Talking Heads fans. Tomorrow, David Byrne's magnum opus book on music and technology How Music Works ships, and today, Tom Tom Club -- the band founded by Heads Tina Weymouth and Chris Franz -- releases its first EP in ten years: Downtown Rockers.

Downtown Rockers is just what you'd like from funky pop heroes like Tom Tom Club: a bit silly, with infectious grooves, and a bit of nostalgia. The title track (there are 12 tracks in all: six songs with six instrumental mixes ready for mashing up and club extension) is an ode to the legendary acts of the golden age of CBGB. All six of the tracks make me want to get up and dance. The band's PR notes that "The album was mixed by Ed Stasium, who also recorded and mixed Talking Heads '77 and umpteen Ramones classics."

Downtown Rockers (MP3)

Downtown Rockers (Vinyl)

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I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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neurogami

How Music Works is well worth getting. Nicely done book.
http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt

One expects no less from the head Head. I saw every damn Talking Heads concert in Austin, except for the Stop Making Sense Tour. Bummer. Still, saw the one at the Armadillo when the B-52′s opened. Just hardly ever gets better than that.
And no sir. The Big Giant Head turned out to be William Shatner.
- http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt
  
  And yet, they might be giants. And what are we going to do in case they are [boy!]
bobrk

Don’t forget his recent collaboration with St Vincent, Love This Giant.

But Tina would be pissed off that we’re talking about David, and not her and Chris. ;-)
bluest_one

Sounds pretty good from the samples. A lot more intersting than what Byrne is up to these days. I say that as a huge fan of Talking Heads and Mr. Byrne (as an artist and a person) – I just find what he does with his voice these days … annoying: trying to hit that same few notes over and over again in every song.

And they’re not notes I particularly care for. :(
Preston Sturges

One of the things that makes the original Tom Tom Club album still fun is the references to stuff like Funkadelic that I only picked up on years later.

Tom Tom Club's first EP in 10+ years: Downtown Rockers

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