David Byrne
50 years to the day since their first live show, Talking Heads have unveiled the official video for their first charting single, ‘Psycho Killer.”
Released on Thursday (June 5), the clip marks the gold anniversary of the band’s debut performance at iconic New York City club CBGB. Opening for fellow New Yorkers the Ramones, the performance comprised just nine songs, including “Psycho Killer,” which would be released as their third single in December 1977.
Issued on debut album Talking Heads: 77, the single would become the group’s first to impact the Hot 100, reaching No. 92 in early 1978. However, it lacked any official visual accompaniment until now, with the Mike Mills-directed clip featuring Academy Award-nominated actress Saoirse Ronan navigating the mundanity of modern life as she slowly destabilizes.
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“This video makes the song better,” the band wrote in a statement. “We LOVE what this video is NOT – it’s not literal, creepy, bloody, physically violent or obvious.”
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Alongside the release of the video, Talking Heads have also announced the super deluxe edition of their second album, 1978’s More Songs About Buildings and Food, with the limited box set due for release on July 25.
Talking Heads lasted from 1975 until 1991, with their 16-year career resulting in eight studio albums. 1983’s Speaking in Tongues was their most successful, peaking at No. 15 on the Billboard 200, with lead single “Burning Down the House” giving them their highest-charting single when it reached No. 9 on the Hot 100.
Though the group would split in 1991, their final live performances would take place seven years earlier as part of the Speaking in Tongues tour in 1984. They would later reunite for one solitary performance for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
Reports of “bad blood” between the group has been the stated cause behind no further reunions, though David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison did appear together for the first time since 2002 as part of the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023 to celebrate the re-release of their Stop Making Sense concert film.
However, while this in-person reunion has left fans eager for a return to the live stage, the band seem less than eager to do so, with members even going so far as to turn down a reported $80 million offer for a series of shows in late 2023.
Watch Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” below.
Don’t expect new music music from veteran electronic producer Fatboy Slim (aka Norman Cook) any time soon, with the artist revealing that live shows have taken over as his main focus in recent years.
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Cook, who began his professional musical career as a member of indie rock outfit The Housemartins in the ’80s, has been an electronic producer since his work with Beats International at the advent of the ’90s, ultimately going solo as Fatboy Slim in 1996.
Though massively popular in his native U.K., Cook’s success also extended globally, with his breakthrough record – 1998’s You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby – reaching No. 34 on the Billboard 200, and third single “Praise You” hitting No. 36 on the Hot 100. However, he’s been largely absent from the charts for most of the past two decades, with his 2004 album Palookaville arriving as his last studio album to date.
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Instead, Cook has largely turned his focus towards his live show, though new music does arrive sporadically. In 2024 alone, Cook released the singles “Role Model” and “Bus Stop Please”, which were his first new tracks since 2022’s “Speed Trials on Acid” with Carl Cox.
Speaking to British publication The Sun’s Bizarre column recently, Cook explained that his output has slowed dramatically due a lack of passion for creating new material.
“My last two singles just came out of a live show,” he explained. “They were both things that I made just to play on the side. I had tunes that nobody else had in my set. And that kind of caught on with people when we worked out that we could clear the samples and release them.
“The thing is, you can’t make music unless you’re absolutely passionate about it and it drives you from the moment you wake up in the morning,” he added. “I just don’t seem to feel like that any more. I feel like that about DJing and about putting on things like this, but I’ve kind of lost my passion for making music.”
In 2010, Cook collaborated with Talking Heads frontman David Byrne for Here Lies Love, a joint concept and soundtrack album about Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines. To date, this is the closest thing he’s come to making a new full-length record, though he admits to struggling with a sense of obligation alongside his live sets.
“For five years, I tried to beat myself up about it and go, ‘You should be doing this’, but then I thought, ‘Well, everybody likes my DJing and I enjoy that more, so I’ll do that’,” he continued. “I’m hoping that one day the passion will come back.”
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