Tuxedomoon – Joeboy…The Electronic Ghost // Pinheads on the Move (Tidal Wave Records) 1978. I guess Chrome is some sort of gateway drug or something because in all honesty, it opened a lot of doors up to me. You know how it goes….I’m rocking the Amphetamine Reptile catalog and get to Helios Creed. Jesus Lizard releases the Chrome 7inch. I start buying the entire Chrome catalog on the german imprint Dossier. Chrome kicks ass because it is truly experimental but at the same time it ROCKS. Next thing I know, I’m buying Subterranean Moderne and hearing Tuxedomoon, The Residents and MX-80 Sound for the first time. Two years later, I am listening to the Tuxedomoon’s Desire LP, which is experimental and does not rock in the slightest (it sways), in my car and wondering how the fuck I got there. Damn those Chrome dudes for getting me hooked!

I always had mixed feelings about Tuxedomoon’s weird electronic cabaret sound. The overt flamboyance of it all is a little too much for me at times. Still, there are so many moments of utter genius in their cannon and anything they released up until Desire and their subsequent move to France in 1981, are essential. Blaine Reininger in his sleevenotes to the Tuxedomoon compilation Pinheads on the Move describes this, their first 45 with typical flamboyance as “our own ‘Belle Epoque… state of grace”. I would describe this as an early synthpunk release that definitely places them as peers to The Units and Voice Farm. The cabaret aspects of the band are still pretty nascent. I would look to the next release No Tears for the beginnings of that. Here we get two weird synth-based tunes with Pinheads on the Move being the standout for me.