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THE SIMPSONS ARE up to their usual cartoon antics on the telly in the corner of the room. but even the animated mayhem of America’s maddest family pales somewhat next to the group of brightly-hued humanoids sitting watching. One has yellow skin. another green. another pillar-box red. A more bizarre collection of beings hasn’t been spotted this side of the final frontier.
The species is known as ‘Toaster Video Extra’. and yours truly is about tojoin the herd as one of the red-faced (literally and
'On the EP, there's one indie song, one pop song, one rock song and one Orb song. We haven't got the vision to pull it
all together.’ Grant McKean
metaphorically) breed. Our mission: to indulge in some freaky dancing to snatches of Toaster’s debut single ‘People’s People‘ while a blue-faced outsider wanders among us. Presumably it’ll make sense on The Chart Show. Meanwhile the group. one of Glasgow’s best new combos for the paSI few years. mime enthusiastically to order. Their faces are covered in nothing more disconcerting than a little face powder. the jammy so-and-sos.
‘People’s People’ is one of four diverse tracks on the ‘Craska Vegas’ EP (named after a Highland golf course. spelled phonetically). the quintet’s first release since signing to Creation Records eighteen months ago. Fellow Scots Teenage Fanclub share the same recording stable. but Toaster have little in common with the Beatles/Byrds/Beach Boys musical axis of their labelmates.
‘On the EP. there’s one indie song. one pop song. one rock song and one Orb song.’ says Grant McKean. the man responsible for the carousel keyboards which dominate many a Toaster track. ‘I think the album will be like that too — because we haven’t got the vision to pull it all together.‘
Singer Sinclair Hutcheson is not so cautious about the band’s merits. ‘l’ve always known that we were going to succeed. I didn’t think it would take so long. though.’ he says. without actually sounding arrogant.
Drummer Paul Moreland then recalls an incident from their days as architecture students at Strathclyde University. where they all first met.
‘We had to make masks and Sinc had this cathedral sat on his head.’ he says. ‘I thought. good God. this guy spent hours and hours
FAMESPOTTING
l g U r l i
preparing this mask, and I’d spent about fifteen minutes making mine. I thought he was going to have some big thesis on why he had a cathedral on his head. like he likes the historic side of architecture. But he stood up and said. “It’s basically a metaphor for my feeling that I’m going to be famous at something”. And I thought. “How do you go from a cathedral mask to this tangent about succeeding and wanting to be famou.“?”.’
‘That’s Bros philosophy!’ interjects McKean. ‘When will I. will I be famous?’
However. such an eccentric tangent is par for the course when it comes to the chaos theory at the heart of the Toaster sound. if there is such a thing. It’s quite simple: imagine every band you’ve ever heard. and Toaster will probably remind you of them at some point in their set.
Alan McGee usually has something to say about each of the bands on his label. Toaster. he reckons. are ‘more rock ’n’ roll than Lynyrd Skynyrd’. Toaster have a slightly different view.
‘Can we make it “more rock ’n’ roll than Leo Sayer”‘.”
Toaster play King Tut's, Glasgow on Fri 3 and The Attic, Edinburgh on Friday 10 April.
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2—16 Apr 1998 THE U871?