Payne's Pretzels

2008 has been rather a good year for rock and popular music – new records from Oasis, Kings of Leon, The Raconteurs and Zutons, while some fantastic acts have broken though like MGMT, Glasvegas and The Ting Tings. MGMT seem to be quite well known in Durham and the student population but the world as a whole has not been enlightened their mix of psychedelic rock, while Glasvegas have brought a solid, simple and down to earth nature to rock music once more. However, The Ting Tings have brought something that seen for years in pop music – the male-female rock duo.

The Ting Tings are not everyone’s cup of tea – the brash, upfront attitude of lead singer and chief guitarist Katie White will ensure many potential punters will put their wallets away immediately. Simply mentioning the name in musical debates can split opinions. The drummer and other member of the band, Jules De Martino brings musical clarity to the band with some of the most powerful drumming seen in a while from an English album. Possibly the true musician behind the band, some crafty pedals provide more sounds you imagined impossible to hear from only two people. Their debut album We Started Nothing rocketed to the top of the charts in May this year and you would have a hard job missing their singles – Shut Up And Let Me Know, Great DJ and That’s Not My Name – the hits just keep on coming from a band only formed for two years. Apple also chose Shut Up and Let Me Go for one of their silhouette iPod adverts, joining the likes of U2 and Bob Dylan as the select few. Live, the Ting Tings are not as impressive. Their record sounds tight, clean and modern but this sound is not transfered live successfully, maybe a few experienced people would help to pad our their sound and provide a better experience to paying punters? Their performance at Radio 1’s Big Weekend demonstrated they have the essential skill of expanding and changing songs for a live performance but something was still lacking. While pondering this, I was watching a DVD featuring another band and the similarities between the two were stark. After some digging around on the iTunes Store and my music collection, I discovered who Ting Tings have taken a great inspiration from. A band who were in their prime twenty years ago – the Tom Tom Club.

The Tom Tom Club came from a slightly different background compared to their modern counterparts – formed as a splinter from the all conquering Talking Heads. Husband and wife rhythm duo Chris Franz and Tina Weymouth admitted they needed something else to bring money to feed their family, as Talking Heads were still a niche band and their songwriting input was limited. Teaming up with some top session players of the day that support the Heads live, their self titled debut album was more successful than the Talking Heads release from that year. With hit singles Wordy Rappinghood and Genius of Love, they took the pop sensibilities of their other band with a 80s synth-pop infusion and some funk thrown in for good measure. The Tom Tom Club made an appearance in the groundbreaking concert film Stop Making Sense, treating the audience to a fantastic live version of Genius of Love. The Ting Tings should take a look at the movie, often described as “the Citizen Kane of concert films” for advice on giving the audience the greatest show on earth.

The similarities between the bands are numerous – both have a male drummer that provides a huge portion of their sound, both consist of a male-female duo that are the songwriting honchos behind the name, both make use of keyboards to pad out their sound (although the Tom Tom Club may have taken this a bit too far), both have a woman lead singer and guitarist, both were very successful in their own time, both infused pop with a mixture of rock and funk, both have slightly aggressive lead singers and on a more trivial note, they have a similar name.
Unfortunately, the story of the Tom Tom Club didn’t last long. After their first album, Chris and Tina blended back into Talking Heads which would go on to become one of America’s biggest bands of the decade and subsequent releases from their side project have gone unnoticed, apart from the usual die hard fans. Occasionally, they continue to perform the occasional live show, mostly in a America but have been spotted in the UK and Europe in recent years.

Whether the Ting Tings will go the same way as the Tom Tom Club is yet to be seen – their appeal is broad but will the restrictive nature of this uniqueness become their downfall? Can the aggressive Katie write another album of rocking pop songs? Will Jules support her with his drum kit and fancy pedals? Will they be able to evolve their sound, something the Tom Tom Club didn’t do? Either way, both bands have made a significant contribution to the history of popular music.

If you enjoyed making some shapes to That’s Not My Name in Studio recently, why not take a look at something similar that was lost in the pages but provides a great listen?

Originally published in Palatinate Issue 699