With roots in seminal San Francisco punk acts the Sleepers and
Negative Trend,
Toiling Midgets was one of the first West Coast punk bands to experiment with dub and post-punk elements, sounding much like their L.A. contemporaries
the Gun Club. In 1980,
Toiling Midgets was founded by guitarist
Craig Gray, who had recently parted ways with
Negative Trend.
Negative Trend was the first San Francisco punk band, whose other members (Steve DePace and
Will Shatter) went on to form yet another seminal West Coast punk band,
Flipper, with the Sleepers' Ricky Williams. Another Sleepers member, drummer
Tim Mooney, was roped in by
Gray for his own new band, who rounded out
Toiling Midgets' lineup with guitarist Paul Hood and bassist Johnathan Henrickson.
Toiling Midgets began as an instrumental four-piece looking to move beyond the confines of punk; exploring darker, more atmospheric (though no less forceful) territory. When Ricky Williams was kicked out of
Flipper, for famously being "too weird," he joined
Toiling Midgets as their vocalist, bringing a restless energy to the band. Hooking up with producer
Tom Mallon (who would go on to produce records by
American Music Club,
Chris Isaak, and
Thin White Rope; and found Grifter Records), the band recorded their debut album,
Sea of Unrest, released by Rough Trade in 1982 (reissued by Cargo in 1994). A couple of years of gigging followed, but the band's proclivity toward self-destruction prevented anything beyond a small, underground following. By the release of 1985's Deadbeats on small indie Thermidor, Williams and Henrickson had left the band.
During the rest of the '80s, there was limited activity from the
Toiling Midgets, although in 1992 the remaining members recorded
Son with
Mark Eitzel on vocals, who at the time was taking a break from his band
American Music Club. Again produced by
Mallon,
Son benefited from the relatively high profile of
Eitzel, and was released by Matador in the U.S. and Hut/Virgin in the U.K. By the end of the year, however, the band received word that Ricky Williams had passed away due to a respiratory illness, and
Eitzel returned to
AMC, bringing drummer
Tim Mooney with him. ~ Aaron Warshaw