When I heard that Kathy Supove was going to be performing with Toy Killers at the Stone on Halloween, I thought, “Toy Killers? Hmm…might be before my time.” I think I was still playing with toys when these guys were in full swing during the late ’70s and early ’80s. So I set off to see if I could find out more about them.

Lo and behold – YouTube has everything you know? – there’s a video trailer for a CD of unreleased Toy Killer material that came out last year. The band was/is made up of madmen percussionists Mark E. Miller and Charles K. Noyes, who apparently liked to literally tear it up and burn it down during their downtown performances. Mayhem ensued!

The pyromaniac pair made some industrial punk, no-wave noise with a host of downtown musicians like Elliott Sharp, John Zorn, Nicky Skopelitis, Bill Laswell, Arto Lindsay and the Golden Palominos. Actually, you can listen to a bunch recent demos from Miller and Noyes on their MySpace page. They sound just as clangy, buzzy and aggressive, but I didn’t hear firecrackers or blowtorches going off. Fire codes are a bit different these days, but it will be perfect Halloween fun to see Kathy (ahem, Kathleen) Supove go head to head with this infamous duo.

– Jocelyn