Toy Love, Live at the Gluepot (side C)

Between the punk rock aggression of the Enemy and the stripped-down duo format of Tall Dwarfs, Chris Knox and Alec Bathgate fronted the pop band Toy Love.  The band also featured future Bats and Minisnap bassist Paul Kean, along with Jane Walker on keyboards and Mike Dooley on drums.  Toy Love's studio recordings have already been compiled on the 2005 double-CD Cuts (and reissued on the Toy Love double LP in 2012).  Live at the Gluepot, also from 2012, captures an entire concert from the group's heyday in 1980.  It includes songs familiar to Toy Love fans, like "Squeeze", "Cold Meat", and "Swimming Pool", alongside undocumented oddities like "2nd to Last Song T.L. Ever Wrote".  For a live recording from the soundboard to cassette, the quality is impressive, if imperfect — the sound is impressively clear, but Knox's funny lyrics are sometimes hard to discern, and the drums sound almost comically dry.  While in the studio, the group seemed to interact in a more unified fashion, here Bathgate's punk rock roots leap out — he often appears to drive ahead of the rest of the group, pulling most noticeably in front of Dooley's more neutral drumming.  It also amazes me that Toy Love played such long headlining sets — Live at the Gluepot fills a double-LP.  The reissue includes a nice booklet with notes, classic photos (in addition to those on the cover), and reproductions of old articles and flyers.