Chris Frantz

They say that breaking up is hard to do. But getting dumped is harder--especially when you get dumped the way Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth say they got dumped by their old comrade, singer-guitar player David Byrne. After more than three years working apart from the other members of Talking Heads, Byrne announced the breakup last December in The Times' Pop Eye column. Frantz and Weymouth say that was news to them.

In progressive music circles, it's an event whenever Tom Tom Club , the arty electro-funk Talking Heads spin-off composed of Heads members Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, releases a new record.  "Downtown Rockers," released Sept. 11, is the band's first recording in more than a decade, and the gotta-dance, six-track EP should satisfy expectant fans. The title track pays homage to the free-wheeling New York City music scene of the 1970s and name-checks the Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, the Ramones, Television and the New York Dolls.

In progressive music circles, it's an event whenever Tom Tom Club , the arty electro-funk Talking Heads spin-off composed of Heads members Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, releases a new record.  "Downtown Rockers," released Sept. 11, is the band's first recording in more than a decade, and the gotta-dance, six-track EP should satisfy expectant fans. The title track pays homage to the free-wheeling New York City music scene of the 1970s and name-checks the Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, the Ramones, Television and the New York Dolls.

They say that breaking up is hard to do. But getting dumped is harder--especially when you get dumped the way Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth say they got dumped by their old comrade, David Byrne. After more than three years working apart from the other members of Talking Heads, Byrne made the break official last December by uttering this sentence for The Times' Sunday Calendar Pop Eye column: "You could say (we've) broken up, or call it whatever you like."

In 1980, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, the husband-and-wife rhythm section of Talking Heads, ventured out on their own with an equally polyrhythmic but even more black-influenced side project called the Tom Tom Club. Nine years later, with Talking Heads largely inactive, the Club is no longer open only at odd hours. Not having played live with the Heads in five years, bassist Weymouth and drummer Frantz are making their Club a full-time organization with a new album, "Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom," and a terrifying-to-mere-mortals tour schedule.

They say that breaking up is hard to do. But getting dumped is harder--especially when you get dumped the way Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth say they got dumped by their old comrade, David Byrne. After more than three years working apart from the other members of Talking Heads, Byrne made the break official last December by uttering this sentence for The Times' Sunday Calendar Pop Eye column: "You could say (we've) broken up, or call it whatever you like."

Jerry Harrison, keyboardist and guitarist for Talking Heads, says the band is "officially in hibernation," but no one is resting. Harrison, 41, said he had hoped Talking Heads would put out an album this year, but "I didn't get my way." "We're not through as a band, but we're not doing anything this year," he said in the Aug. 6 issue of People magazine. The band's last album, "Naked," was released in 1988.

Like its two predecessors, the third album from the side project of Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth is a fluffy funkasonic fun house that serves as a fine complement to the Heads' more arty melanges. Somehow the most curious objects are the most straightforward: A version of the Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale" doesn't really add much to the dozens of others in circulation (despite appearances by the song's author, Lou Reed, plus the other two Heads), while Frantz's reading (he doesn't really sing)

They say that breaking up is hard to do. But getting dumped is harder--especially when you get dumped the way Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth say they got dumped by their old comrade, singer-guitar player David Byrne. After more than three years working apart from the other members of Talking Heads, Byrne announced the breakup last December in The Times' Pop Eye column. Frantz and Weymouth say that was news to them.

In 1980, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, the husband-and-wife rhythm section of Talking Heads, ventured out on their own with an equally polyrhythmic but even more black-influenced side project called the Tom Tom Club. Nine years later, with Talking Heads largely inactive, the Club is no longer open only at odd hours. Not having played live with the Heads in five years, bassist Weymouth and drummer Frantz are making their Club a full-time organization with a new album, "Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom," and a terrifying-to-mere-mortals tour schedule.

"Hi everybody! Welcome to the Tom Tom Club," said a beaming Chris Frantz as he took his spot behind the drum kit Saturday at the 2nd Coming club. From his buoyant, kiddie-show-host demeanor, you'd not guess the frustrations and fancy footwork that preceded the belated beginning of the Tom Tom Club's Los Angeles residency. After last Tuesday's opening at Variety Arts Center was canceled because of permit problems, the group scrambled around and finally opened Friday at the trendy mid-town dance club, a former Knights of Columbus hall.