Tom Tom Club

MUSIC The '80s were much more diverse than today's crop of synthy revivalists might have you believe. At this bill, post-punk pranksters Devo team up with the ambitious dance experimentalists Tom Tom Club and modish two-tone ska act English Beat for a night showcasing the decade's range. San Manuel Casino, 777 San Manuel Blvd., Highland. 6:30 p.m. Thurs. $30-$40. Sanmanuel.com

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.

MUSIC The '80s were much more diverse than today's crop of synthy revivalists might have you believe. At this bill, post-punk pranksters Devo team up with the ambitious dance experimentalists Tom Tom Club and modish two-tone ska act English Beat for a night showcasing the decade's range. San Manuel Casino, 777 San Manuel Blvd., Highland. 6:30 p.m. Thurs. $30-$40. Sanmanuel.com

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.

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."

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)

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Nokia Theatre Tool, July 18-19; Lady Antebellum, Oct. 30 (Fri.) Hollywood Palladium Coheed & Cambria, Aug. 12 (Fri.) Auto Club Speedway Epicenter 2010 with KISS, Eminem and Blink-182, Sepr. 25-26 (Sat.) Wiltern Mike Birbiglia, Oct. 21 (Fri.); Gary Allan, Sept. 9 (Sat.) Gibson Amphitheatre Bronco, Nov. 11 (Fri.); Ladies of Soul with the Emotions and more, Sept. 19; Meat Loaf, Aug. 12 (Sat.) Theatre at Honda Center Chayanne, Nov. 11 (Fri.

The Talking Heads will perform together for the first time in 14 years when the band is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next month. "I'm sure a lot of fans are thinking, 'Oh, gosh, this is going to be a reunion,'" bassist Tina Weymouth says from her home in Westport, Conn. Rather, she says, "this is the moment we thank people behind the scenes to tell them how great they are."

ORANGE 6pm Art A special discussion on the death penalty will take place at the Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University as part of a new exhibition, "The Waiting Room." The exhibition is an installation by Richard Kramer, who deals with the emotional, visual, physical and social environment of a death row waiting room in his art. The special discussion, titled, "Community Conversation No.

This collection--a testament to Carey's broad appeal among pop, R&B and adult-contemporary audiences--offers all 13 of the singer's No. 1 hits, plus four fresh tracks. On upbeat numbers such as 1992's "Emotions" and the new, hip-hop-flavored "Sweetheart," Carey sounds sexier and more human than contemporaries Celine Dion and Whitney Houston.

The Heads didn't actually discuss former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne during their Roxy show Thursday, but Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison and Chris Frantz sent a clear message right before the encore, via an electronic board flashing an array of slogans, among them: "Welcome our new singer Johnette . . . we're ego downsizing." One might say they'd already downsized expectations on their debut album, "No Talking Just Head."

Sunday night at 6, MTV will broadcast highlights of a benefit concert U2 gave in London last Sunday to raise money for the Jamaican Hurricane Relief Fund. Operators will be available via toll-free telephone numbers to take pledges for the fund from viewers. The broadcast will also include performances by Robert Palmer, Keith Richards, Ziggy Marley, Eddie Grant, Boy George, Tom Tom Club, Robert Cray and Erasure.