Talking Heads

Though Talking Heads rose to prominence as part of the New York underground scene, the band initially took root in Rhode Island, where guitarist/vocalist David Byrne and drummer Chris Frantz had met as students at the Rhode Island School of Design and formed a band called the Artistics in 1973. The pair folded the act the following year and relocated to New York with Frantz's girlfriend, Tina Weymouth, whom they tapped to play bass in a new group they called Talking Heads after a term used by television studios to describe a static shot of an interview participant. The new band made its debut opening for the Ramones at CBGB in 1975, and soon drew a following with their sound - anxious, rhythmic rock fueled by Byrne's nervous delivery and stream-of-consciousness delivery - which led to a contract with Sire in 1976. The following year, Talking Heads added former Modern Lovers keyboardist Jerry Harrison following the release of their debut album Talking Heads: 77. A collaboration with producer Brian Eno and the addition of several guest musicians such as guitarist Adrian Belew and keyboardist Bernie Worrell led to a string of increasingly dance-oriented albums including Fear of Music and Remain In Light. The rise of MTV brought the group's inventive videos to mainstream attention, and director Jonathan Demme captured their 1983 stage show for the concert film "Stop Making Sense" (1984). A stripped-down four-piece lineup made a pair of country-tinged albums, Little Creatures and True Stories, the latter a soundtrack of sorts to Byrne's first film as a director, "True Stories" (1986). Although Talking Heads recorded one more album, Naked, tensions within the band, especially between Byrne and Weymouth, led to their quiet dissolution at the end of the '80s.