Tonio K.
Life In The Foodchain / Amerika
(Epic 1978 / Epic 1980)

Produced by Rob Fraboni

Recorded 1978

Tonio K.- vocals, guitar; Guitar- Earl Slick, Nick van Maarth, Dick Dale, Tim Weston, Albert Lee ; Bass- Peter Frieberger, Jean Millington-Slick, Robin Something, Erik Scott; Drums- Craig Krampt, Claude Pepper, Rob Fraboni, Curley Smith; Garth Hudson- accordion.

Produced by Nick van Maarth & Tonio K.

Recorded 1980

Tonio K. - vocals, guitar, bass, drums; Nick van Maarth- guitars; Claude Pepper- drums; Peter Freiberger- bass; Paul Hertzog- keyboards; Garth Hudson- accordion; Ike Willis - backing vocals; Flo & Eddie - backing vocals.

I can't remember the last time I listened to these two albums. Yes, albums - they are on vinyl and require 33 1/3 rpm and a tiny diamond-tipped needle to make sound. There was a time in the late 1970s/early 1980s that I listened to one if not both of these daily. And 30 years on I realize they are as brilliant as I always thought.

Tonio K. is a California singer/songwriter who at the time these two albums were released was anonymously hiding behind a hat, beard and shades (he was born Steve Krikorian). There was a lot of speculation as to his identity, rumor being he was a former Cricket as in "Buddy Holly and the" (he was in a post Buddy Holly version of the band in the early 1970s). But basically he came out of nowhere with two of the most blistering, satirical social commentaries ever disguised as rock and roll albums. Imagine Born To Run written by Johnny Rotten and you have a sense of what these albums sound like.

Life In The Foodchain was released to a mountain of critical accolades. It's angry punk in the clothes of all-American Rock and Roll and funny as hell. The first song, which is the title song, set's the stage for the entire album. Tonio K.'s delivery is the right amount of Lenny Bruce cynicism tempered with a Frank Zappa smart-aleck-ism (Ike Willis and Flo & Eddie appear on Amerika). One can only imagine how terrific he was live as his performance jumps right off the record. The band is tight in the right place and loose in the right places. "Life in the Foodchain" leads straight into "The Funky Western Civilization", a song that sounds like it was written yesterday. Joan of Arc makes an appearance midway through the song to reaffirm how funky Tonio K. really is. And on. "The Ballad of the Night The Clocks All Quit (And The Government Failed)" is a ballad in the sense of its being a long narrative story about the Apocalypse. So Side One ends with the Apocalypse... where can one possibly go from there?

Side Two is a bit more subdued than side one, more satiric and cynical and less plain angry and even veers off to a hilarious song-that-should-have-been-a-smash-hit "Why Can't I See You In My Mirror?" about, as you might guess, the perils of dating a vampire. But it's all a ploy, lulling the listener toward the final song, "H-A-T-R-E-D". Starting out as a Jackson Brown-ish breakup song it quickly goes bad, turning 180 degrees into a roaring sawed-off shotgun of rock and roll venom. Possibly the most brilliant not-love song every recorded. I get tears in my eyes every time I hear him say, as the song is fading out and he's scorched his former lover to a cinder: "Then again with proper counciling maybe we could work this out."

Two years later saw the release of the equally magnificent Amerika. The first album alluded in it's liner notes to the Dadaists - this album embraces that anarchic tradition fully, starting with a cover image of Mr. K. masked in a way that recalls one of Hugo Ball's Cabaret Voltaire costumes. The album opens with "One Big Happy Family", a laundry list of who hates who in the world ("the English hate the Irish/ the Catholic hates the Jew / the whole world's got its Black Man in a pinch") broken up with a catchy, sing-along chorus. Songs deal with prejudice, moral decay, greed and teens who kill their girlfriends on orders from Martians. This last is the topic of "The Night Fast Rodney Went Crazy" and while it is basically a riff on the classic boy/girl/car template from the 1960s, it has a terrifying resonance in recent events like gun-totting high schoolers who blame everything but themselves for their actions. Again, the high point of the album is the final song - "Merzsuite". Dedicated to Kurt Schwitters, where the word Merz comes from, it is a weird ride through Dada history and philosophy in a catchy three part suite. I swear to God: he even sneaks the Captain Kangaroo theme into this one.

After this, Tonio lost a bit of his edge. His next release was an EP called La Bomba which is strong, especially his reading of the classic "La Bamba" as an anti-nuke anthem, but its brevity bodes poorly. In fact, his next few releases are pretty tame slices of rock and roll - some clever lyrics but the fangs are definitely retracted. A shame but all the same, I'm thankful for the 2 1/2 masterworks that he bestowed on the human race. Absolutely essential listening.

Posted 2 March 2006.