Toiling Midgets
Live At The Old Waldorf, July 21, 1982
San Francisco's Toiling Midgets is the ultimate cult band. A pair of lengthy hiatuses notwithstanding, this predominantly instrumental entity has persevered for more than three decades and recorded sporadically for labels such as Matador, Thermidor, and Rough Trade. Configured from the remains of the scabrous punk quartet Negative Trend, the group compresses glam, psychedelia, and moody hard rock into cavernous riffs dripping with grandeur and yearning. Increasingly reclusive since the mid-1990s, the Midgets are nevertheless still extant, nonchalantly perfecting a euphonious wash that causes geezers to weep and young ladies to daydream. But let's rewind. From 1981 to 1983, basket-case savant Ricky Williams signed on as the crews first (and last) official vocalist. The notorious Bay Area eccentric had already cemented his legend, having played drums for Crime and been ejected from a nascent version of Flipper. Most prominently, he'd also fronted the Sleepers. With his stream-of-consciousness lyrics, street-person growls, and rich if tormented baritone, Williams channeled addled soul singers, accidental shamans, and a malignant decadence rooted in Iggy and Bowie's ugliest fantasies. Originally documented for a radio broadcast by KFJC, 'Live At The Old Waldorf', July 21, 1982 catches the Midgets at the apex of their collaboration with this bewitching loose cannon, mere months after their pivotal debut, 'Sea Of Unrest', arrived in stores. In the near future, Ektro hopes to compile an anthology of unreleased Midgets highlights, spanning 1980 to the present. But for now, 'Live At The Old Waldorf' should suffice as a fleeting recollection of an epoch steeped in truly debauched glory.