The Tom Fun Orchestra – July/Aug 2008
Contact: Darren Gallop, 902-539-9517, 338 Charlotte Street, Sydney, NS. B1P 1C8,
The Tom Fun Orchestra has been described as a cluster-rock ensemble “ with nine people in the band I suppose that’s an appropriate descriptor.
To accurately depict what the members of this Cape Breton-based band serve their paying customers here at home and in the UK, Ireland, and Scotland, where they’re starting to develop a fan base, I would suggest the addition of a prefix or two, something to the effect of hugely entertaining, richly diverse, almost always over-the-top cluster-rock ensemble.
With an expansive line-up that includes multiple guitars, banjo, accordion, trumpet, double bass, violin, and drums, The Tom Fun Orchestra could conceivably dispense anything that caught its collective musical fancy, from ballroom dance music with a whorehouse twist, to late-1970s punk/rock, to a musical salute to Dexy’s Midnight Runners. The band pumps out a wickedly good concoction that blends all of the above and more. Imagine, if you will, a musical marriage of The Pogues, The Clash, and Tom Waits. It’s an infectious, high-energy dish best served live in a place with a big dancefloor.
Lead vocalist Tom Fun, who sounds like a cross between Tom Waits and Shane MacGowan, fronts a line-up that boasts some of the best young players on the East Coast: Morgan Currie (violin, vocals), Alicia Penney (acoustic guitar), Donnie Calabrese (bass, vocals), Albert Lionais (trumpet, vocals), Zach MacLean (electric guitar, vocals), Dave Mahalik (accordion, vocals), Devon Strang (drums, vocals), and Victor Tomiczek (banjo, vocals).
If you can see this band live, do so. If not, pick up a copy of its latest CD, You Will Land With a Thud.
This set, recorded with Violent Femmes’ singer-guitarist Gordon Gano and platinum-selling producer Warren Bruleigh (the Violent Femmes, The Pixies) and mastered by Howie Weinberg (Nirvana), captures the spirit of Tommy Fun on full tear with such choice offerings as Watchmaker, Throw Me To The Rats, and Tar Pond Tango.
Several songs from the CD have gotten good play on CBC Radio and on campus radio.
Listen to Watchmaker