Toto “IV” 1982. Today’s pull a bit of an inside joke (which will be explained so I guess not that inside) and a shout-out to a group of Appleton ex-pat friends I’ve known for 30+ years. Toto is not exactly on heavy rotation at the Vault – in fact I picked up this record, used, not that long ago specifically to blog about it for this upcoming weekend.

So back in 80′s during high school, my friends played Lawrence University (Appleton, WI) Great Midwest Trivia on WLFM, a yearly trivia contest held each year during the last weekend of January that runs from Friday night through Sunday night. We would try to stay awake the entire time (I’d generally fail miserably at this, passing out on the floor in the middle of my friend’s basement), phoning in our answers in between youthful shenanigans like toilet-papering rival teams headquarters, driving through the snow and ice at 2:00 a.m. to the University to volunteer to answer phones for the contest (=cheating). A few years ago a bunch of us decided to “get the band back together” and reform a team, now played online and remotely from various areas around the country as people have relocated. This year will be a bit less virtual; a bunch of folks are flying and driving to my house to crash for the weekend (though likely less antics and more sleeping than in the 80′s, probably just as much junk food and caffeine). Anyway, sometime in past years the Trivia folks were in desperate need of volunteers and commenced to play Toto’s “Africa” nonstop (in various forms: regular, backwards, remixes, etc.) until help was received. A monster was born and now “Africa” is the unofficial theme song for the weekend.

IX is Toto’s 4th album (duh) and their most successful. It spawned their biggest hits, “Africa,” which went to #1, and “Rosanna” which hit #2 on the charts. The album overall is soft smooshy smooth 80′s rock filled with power ballads and nothing I plan to listen to again (except for “Africa” which I will likely hear a zillion times by the end of the weekend).