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Tom Timony

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Thomas J. Timony is an American music executive who is noted for his lengthy association with Ralph Records, beginning in 1980.[1] The first "outside person" ever hired by the company, Timony began working with Ralph in a secretarial/assistant role,[2] and later became the label's head of sales,[3] initiating the Buy Or Die! series of sampler EPs which accompanied the label's mail order catalogs.

Timony purchased Ralph from The Cryptic Corporation in 1983,[3] during a period of financial troubles following The Residents' international live tour, The Mole Show. Timony restructured the label, renaming it New Ralph, and continued to operate it until 1988, when the company was split into the sub-labels T.E.C. Tones (1989-1999) and Psycho Acoustic Sounds (1989-1996). During this period, Timony also assisted with operating The Residents' official fan club UWEB; his home address was used as the club's official mailing address (which often led fans to confuse Timony with the fan club's president Uncle Willie).[3][4]

In 1999, T.E.C. Tones became Esoteric Music Group, which reissued old Ralph releases via mail order until finally ceasing operations in 2001. Timony has continued to work in the music industry in the years following the closure of Esoteric Music Group.

In the 1980s, Timony was married to fellow Ralph employee Sheenah Spece.[3] In May 1984, the couple had a son, Simon (later known as the guitarist and vocalist of the band The Stinky Puffs).[5][6] They separated in the late 1980s.

See also

  1. ↑ Tom Timony, The Vinyl Guide episode 137: Ralph Records with Tom Timony, September 10th 2018
  2. ↑ "I ran into Penny Hoyle, who happened to be Jay Clem - who sort of ran Ralph Records at the time - his girlfriend, and... she asked me if I knew anybody who wanted to sort of work at Ralph Records, and I said no... and then a few weeks went by, and she sort of asked me another question again, and I gave her some thought... they were sort of looking for sort of a secretary, things like that... I knew who [The Residents] were, and I found them very interesting and stuff. And I said... 'well, I'll go interview.' So I did, and they hired me. I was the first outside person of the clan that they ever hired." Tom Timony, The Vinyl Guide episode 137: Ralph Records with Tom Timony, September 10th 2018
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Uncle Willie, "The Real Story - Tom Timony", UWEB Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 2½, June 1990
  4. ↑ "I actually had [fans] come to my house, because... my house was used as the UWEB address, so I'd have like... some drunk French guy at three o'clock in the morning banging on my door saying 'Uncle Willie! Uncle Willie!' You know, I wasn't Uncle Willie... it was just my house address. You know, they'd published my house address in Rolling Stone or something... But there was always somebody knocking on the door... some very weird characters definitely showed up... Pretty bizarre clientele. But hey, what do you expect when you do this kind of stuff, you know?" Tom Timony, The Vinyl Guide episode 137: Ralph Records with Tom Timony, September 10th 2018
  5. ↑ "Stinky Puffs" by Ira Robbins at Trouser Press
  6. ↑ Oliver Hall, "Nirvana, Yo La Tengo and Half Japanese meet in the Super Stinky Puffs, 1994", Dangerous Minds, October 27th 2017
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