If you were lucky enough to catch Toys That Kill live last year, you were maybe treated to a set that included classic F.Y.P bangers like “Come Home Smelly” and “Jerkoff”. I made the trip down to Seattle to see them with Off With Their Heads specifically for this reason and was in no way disappointed. I had somehow managed to elude seeing F.Y.P for the prior 30 years of which I’ve been a fan- first when they got stuck at the Canadian border sometime in the early 90s and most recently when I had to cancel plans to attend Fest last year due to the US’s slow-as-molasses visa issuing times. Fans of F.Y.P can’t help but to compare the two and I must say as I have become over the past twenty of those years a Toys That Kill fan as well, so really it was like watching a best of compilation IRL.
Triple Sabotage starts with a classic ruse- Todd’s fuzzed out vocals and guitar sound like they’ve been cranked to 11 already, prompting you to turn up the volume of your stereo to match but then when the other guitar, bass and drums kick in they explode like a fucking water balloon leaving you soaked in a punk singlalong anthem. TTK’s songs, like the singles “Backwash Me The Antidote” and “The Cutting Board”, aren’t as fast and stupid-in-the-best-way as F.Y.P’s but the meaty hooks with which they’ve replaced that gives the urge to pump both fists in the air instead of just wanting to smash stuff. So I guess I’m saying they’ve grown up a bit but hey so have we right? The songs are also catchier instead of just incredibly dumb. They’re still spreading their wings with other songs like “Fighter Dater” and “Oh Hey” which feel a bit more garage influenced like some Hot Charity era Rocket From The Crypt. And of course the sleeper hit for me is “Dumb And Elated” with its soaring guitar lead that grabs you by the heart almost like something by The Cure.
I’m currently on tour in Europe and playing it for our driver, spaghetti rocknroller Teo Wise. He likes it and asks me what kind of music it is. “Punk” I tell him, “good punk!” I dunno maybe it’s “orgcore” or slacker punk if that’s even a thing? I’ve kinda lost count but I think this is TTK’s 6th album since 2001? Which of course does not include last year’s fantastic LP Ex-Posse Vol. One which was compiled from 7”s, compilations and a couple unreleased tracks from earlier recordings. I have to assume that some people like me originally heard TTK as the post F.Y.P project of Sean Cole and Recess’ Todd Congeliere. It just occurred to me that TTK have been around now for more than twice as long as F.Y.P's ten year existence. It’s also impressive that they had mostly the same lineup for most of that time. It’s also awesome that as of late they have been adding F.Y.P classics to half their set for all of us old timey fans.
I promised myself I wouldn’t just focus on the past here tho. One thing that has carried through is their ability to write a catchy song. There’s a winning formula here where a good vocal hook and/or an interesting chorus line repeats enough times that you can’t help but start singing along. And the new songs stand up to the old hits. This may not seem like a huge compliment but I assure you it is meant as one. Speaking of The Cure, and maybe it’s just me, but can you think of a band that you were into thirty years ago that is still writing songs that move you? I will give once F.Y.P contemporaries Propagandhi as an example- I’m pretty sure they’re not filling half their set with songs from How To Clean Everything and I’d Rather Be Flag Burning but they’re also not writing new music that interests me. No offence to them or to fans of their current output, we’ve just grown too far apart which is great for them but not so much for me. TTK on the other hand have maybe even gotten better with age. It’s only January but having listened to the shit out of this I would wager this makes my 2026 year ender. Over the last year or two I know Sean and Todd have kept busy with other projects like Coma Twins, Con Shoal, Clown Sounds and Jumpstarted Plowhards among others. With their twin guitar assault, along with ever solid rhythm section of Chachi and Jimbo, they have managed to pump out 17 solid new tracks here that are as good or better than anything they’ve done in the past. My dudes still got it.
