Entry tags:

modern music appreciation

Toy Dolls
Every Memorial Day, Live 105 would have a Top 300 Modern Rock Classics Countdown, playing pretty much every song worth remembering as voted on by listeners. Some really great stuff would turn up on it, including a lot of stuff that you would expect, but also some songs and some bands that were awesome but weren't in their usual rotation. Every year my friends and I would go out of our way to listen to it and tape as much as we could, and every single year it would include Nellie the Elephant:

You cannot fail to love that song. That was my introduction to the Toy Dolls:

... an English punk rock band. They formed in 1979, playing their first concert at Millview Social Club, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, on 20 October 1979.

While much punk rock is political or angry, the Toy Dolls worked within the esthetics of punk to express a sense of irreverent adolescent fun with irreverent lyrics and song titles such as "Yul Brynner Was A Skinhead", "My Girlfriend's Dad's A Vicar" and "James Bond Lives Down Our Street." There is often alliteration in their song titles (e.g. "Peter Practice's Practice Place", "Fisticuffs in Frederick Street", "Neville is a Nerd").Their albums usually include a cover version of a well-known hit song, usually sped up to the usual punk rock tempo. Covers have included "Toccata in Dm", "Sabre Dance", "Livin' La Vida Loca", "Lazy Sunday Afternoon", "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) and "The Final Countdown." They have also recorded parodies of popular songs, such as "The Kids in Tyne and Wear (Kids in America)" and "The Devil Went Down to Scunthorpe (The Devil Went Down to Georgia)". Their albums often start with a short intro with a catchy guitar riff, and end with an outro, which is usually a slightly longer variation of the intro riff. Their lyrics are usually based on singer Olga's experiences and favorite soap operas.

Most of the band members have nicknames and are rarely seen without their cartoonish rectangular sunglasses. Although they appeared bare-eyed on the One More Megabyte album cover, they have usually appeared in sunglasses ever since the group formed.

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You cannot fail to love them. If the Toy Dolls can't make you happy, then there's just no hope. I mean, you've got to love a band that makes asthma cool:
























































































Forty years later, they're still touring, and they're still kicking obscene amounts of ass. They are, of course, huge in Japan. And Olga'll even teach you to play the guitar.