to live & shave in L.A. what are they up to?

I saw TLASILA once when the band I was in played a show with them, which I am not exactly sure how it got lined up, there were some distant connections (we knew some of the same people) but mostly they were on tour and we were on tour and in the same place.

No one in my band cared and I don't think anyone in Shave cared for us, but I did, even if I wasn't a complete stan, I had a bunch of records and obv knew who Tom was through yrs of collecting noise tapes, zines interviews, I knew the history (Boat Of, POI, Pussy Galore, SY connects, etc), he was the man.

And he was very sweet and funny and charismatic. I was sort of embarrassed at the time cuz they were cool noise dudes and we were a "rock" band and it seemed like there was this gulf between us, a gulf I am pretty sure only really existed in my mind becuz when I think back on it does seem sort of like an inspired pairing.

Anyway, we played and then TLASILA played & I didn't really know what to expect, I knew they played live but wasn't sure what it would be (and maybe they didn't either). This was spring 07, about a week before the WNUR session that is on Youtube. It was this really sleazy bar in Nashville that we had played before, lots of local weirdos and drunks and drug-addled combinations thereof, this might have been one the times I got into a fight with an audience member & one of guitarists tackled this guy and played the rest of the show sitting on his chest and if it wasn't it gives of a sense of the vibe at least.

So...TLASILA starts. It is kind of a blur but they were more rock, way more show then I was expecting, Tom singing, bellowing, swaying on the mic, Rat doing, whatever fucking thing he does, it was loud, huge, sweaty, ecstatic, loud, like being trapped in a orgone box with people fucking, it was loud, did I mention that? Just fantastic, total noise, but not like a lot of super-serious noise-table stuff or even kind of that RISD-adjacent east coast mask rock stuff, this was chaotic and wild but it was a "show", a performance, it was funny and entertaining and life-affirming and weird! All of sudden there were these beautiful girls onstage, where they in the band?, hanging on Tom and screaming into the mic and I was like "where they hell did they come from?" I wonder if I hallucinated it? Maybe the music tricked my brain? Anyway it was great. There were like 50 people total and no one in my band ever mentioned the show again and maybe it didn't even happen I think about it all the time.

Thanks for all the great music Tom and thanks for the enduring memory of you being drenched in sweat sitting on some noise-generating box with a scantily-clad woman on your knee crooning in that voice into the microphone under a spotlight like a debauched Sinatra.

it was loud, huge, sweaty, ecstatic, loud, like being trapped in a orgone box with people fucking, it was loud, did I mention that?

yeah, that was the vibe at the show I put on for them. This was when Weasel was living here, so one of his free jazz groups opened, with this dude visiting from Philly, and then he sat in with TLASILA (Weasel, not the Philly dude, but the Philly dude went out for sushi with me, Weasel, Weasel's wife, Tom, Rat and ... one other person who I forget ...

All of sudden there were these beautiful girls onstage, where they in the band?, hanging on Tom and screaming into the mic and I was like "where they hell did they come from?"

ha, probably connections w/Rat and his many INC tours w/Squelchers that are basically him and hot local chicks.

That's what I assumed but in the context of the night they just...appeared out of think air, it was magical

RIP to a wild visionary.

There aren't a ton of clips on youtube, but this Miami cable access TV appearance from 1994 is priceless:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPVxSjSmlbk

Unfortunately the performance is brief and the goofy-ass host Doesn't Get It. Tom had such a deep, rich speaking voice, could have done movie trailer voiceovers.

RIP Tom Smith

Only familiar with the TLASILA stuff but I openly lol-ed realising one of the POI albums is called Talking Heads ‘77

that was the first one I heard <3

thanks so much for that video clip above, fantastic