Toy Love - Toy Love Last week on vacation, a nice interview in The Big Takeover with Roger Shepherd from Flying Nun sent me on a spin back through the label's catalog, offshoots and alumni on the plane and I chanced again on Chris Knox's pre-Tall
Dwarfs band Toy Love (on WEA, not Flying Nun). Often cited as one of the ignition points of the Dunedin sound, the band were usually remarked more for their live show than for their debut album, but it stands up over time to be a great crossroads of New Wave and punk. Its brittle and caustic in some places and alternately melodic in others, in a way that The Clean would come to own shortly afterward (see: "Swimming Pool"). The band were only together two years and were never happy with the sound of this album, which tended to round off the jagged edges of their sound for a bit more pop polish but in the rearview its a worthwhile piece of the puzzle for a developing regional sound. Knox and band member Alec Bathgate formed Tall Dwarfs after the demise of the band and gained a further (and well deserved) notoriety with them. The Toy Love album is usually found coupled with demos and unreleased material as the renamed Cuts but there's a digital reissue of the album proper out now as well. Download: [MP3] Toy Love - Ain't It Nice Support the artist, buy it HERE