Wonder Women: Toody Cole
Toody Cole is the bassist for Dead Moon, a punk/garage band described by the New Zealand Herald as “the most important band you’ve never heard of.” In 1987, Dead Moon profoundly influenced the emerging Pacific Northwest grunge scene, shaping the sounds of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and more. Toody’s path as a musician is as unique as it is inspiring. She began playing bass at age 30, practicing late into the night with her band after putting her kids to bed. Eventually, she became a touring musician as the band’s fanbase grew… and a grandparent… while sharing Dead Moon’s raw energy with audiences worldwide.
Toody was born Kathleen L. Conner in Portland Oregon on Dec 30, 1948. She was an introverted kid who was a tomboy, loved reading, went to an all-girls Catholic high school, and did well in school. “(I) started babysitting when I was nine years old, taking care of (my) brothers and sisters, working in the berry fields… and you know the whole work ethic I grew up with… having parents that survived World War 2… really made me who I am.”
She earned the nickname Toody from one of her high school friends, from Officer Toody in “Car 54 Where Are you?” Toody relates; “I went to an all-girls Catholic high school and the three names were Kathy, Linda, and Debbie. Every other girl was named that. So, in my sophomore year it was kind of like… you know whoever got called is like Kathy… Kitty… and like six girls turn around… and I happened to be a little bit of a know-it-all all. I love knowing the answer to stuff. So I’d be sitting in class and the teacher would be like ‘who knows what’… I’d be like ‘ooh ooh’. And one of my girlfriends started calling me Toody after Officer Toody… and I thought cool. I just started hanging with this little click of friends who were the oddball artistic types… and they started calling me Toody… it just stuck from there.”
Toody discovered her love for music early on. She listened to albums by The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and the Beatles… just a few of the influences that helped later shape her artistically. She initially played piano in grade school..taking piano lessons and doing recitals. In her teens, her parents purchased a classical guitar for her due to her love of Joan Baez. However, the extra wide neck didn’t work out with her smaller hands.
She worked the door at the Crystal Ballroom. But Toody met her future husband, Fred Cole, in 1966 while volunteering at the Folksinger coffeehouse, while he was touring with his band The Weeds. They clicked and fell for each other quickly… they shared a love for independence and self-reliance, setting the groundwork for their DIY lifestyle.
Toody and Fred married on June 14th, 1967 and… while starting a family… moved several times. They initially headed to Alaska for Fred to become a bush pilot, but instead, they ended up homesteading in the Yukon for almost a year in 1970. They went back to Portland to visit family for the holidays and were denied re-entry to Canada (Fred was accused of draft dodging since they never made it to Alaska). So they returned to Portland and then headed to Los Angeles. Musically speaking, nothing really seemed to work out for Fred in LA, so they ultimately returned to the rural outskirts of Portland. There, Fred and Toody built a home for their family.
The same DIY/entrepreneurial approach was brought into the couple’s musical lives. First, they opened Capt. Whizeagles, a music store that became a major community hub for area musicians, giving hundreds of musicians their start. Toody shared, “We were basically the one and only music store that had super cheap instruments. It was the one place where everyone could meet and not get shit for going in the back and banging away on stuff, you know, makin’ noise, all the rest of it. So it became a really big hang out. And even Tombstone [record label founded by the Coles], was that for a lot of high school kids from Oregon City and Gladstone. There are still a lot of them that keep in touch and come to gigs! We call them Whizeagle and Tombstone brats!”
Fred also started a hard rock band called Zipper. Greg Shadoan, bassist for the Zipper, related this story that illustrates the DIY ethos of the Coles. “… after they got back from the Yukon, they decided to start the Whizeagles brand. Fred was always good at business, so he would keep the money we made, or at least part of it, and after we had a few songs written, we started dabbling with recording. The Zipper record recordings were like the 3rd, or 4th sessions we had. We recorded covers, to give to the booking agents, and then started mixing in some originals. Fred had developed a relationship with a local recording studio, Recording Associates. He negotiated with them, to get all our originals done, in just a couple days. Wild times. We spent all of our gig money on that, and the record pressing, printing et cetera. I also know Fred and Toody had to pony up more money to get it completed. Also Toody made us all of our cool shirts and pants back in those days. After it was all recorded, pressed, cover art et cetera, we set up an assembly line at Whizeagles, and put the 1st batch together. If I recall, I believe it was 500 units. We used masking tape to tape the covers together by hand, so no two record covers were the same. It took us a few days to get it all done, and Fred had a heat shrink thing we used to seal up the final records. The store was huge. Cavernous even [laughs],”
After hearing the Ramones, Fred Cole was inspired to develop an edgier sound in his own group. He needed to learn how to play guitar beyond the basic chords used to support his songwriting efforts, so he began teaching himself. He was also fed up with working with bass players in his local scene, so he decided he would teach Toody how to play. She was initially dubious given her lack of success with the guitar. But now she had a whole music store inventory at her disposal to find the right instrument. Initially, she played a Vox rip-off made by Del Ray. Later on, she played a Mosrite bass for a while before it was stolen. Just before Dead Moon started up, a Vox hollow body teardrop-shaped bass became her instrument of choice.
A store customer also happened to want to learn drums… so since they were all learning, they formed a cover band. Toody shared, “At that point we linked up with Rod Rat, who had never played drums before either, and that’s when we started the Rats. We were just playing super simple stuff. I just loved the power of bass. Slowly, as what Fred was doing on guitar started getting more complicated, what I was doing on bass did also.”
Toody described the daily routine: “Get the kids off to school, go in and work until 6 or 7, come home, fix dinner, get the kids settled in and usually drive all the way back downtown to rehearse… six days a week.”
Toody and Fred formed their own record label, Tombstone Records… named for Fred’s love of Westerns and the independent spirit. And their label was very DIY… down to cutting vinyl in-house. Fred had been trying to purchase a broken mono record lathe for the label with no success. Toody got on the phone and managed to seal the deal as a birthday gift for Fred for $200. The lathe they purchased was used by the Kingsman to record the lyrically ambiguous “Louie Louie.” Fred spent months repairing the lathe to get it up and running. Toody talks in depth about their DIY home studio, the label and the lo-fi home recording sessions more in this interview with QoBuz.
The Rats continued for eight years. By 1987, with Fred on guitar, Toody on bass, and Andrew Loomis on drums, Dead Moon was born, bringing to life a raw sound that defied easy categorization. Their music wasn’t made to be perfect; it was made to be real, raw energy with unpolished authenticity… and it resonated deeply with fans. They gained a cult following in the Pacific Northwest. Since Toody and Fred were older than most of the other musicians at the gigs they played at, they became something of “parental” figures in the music scene, staying and watching every band play whenever they could, applauding and supporting them.
Dead Moon’s first album, In the Graveyard, was released in 1988. The album captured the band’s raw, lo-fi sound, which became their trademark. Dead Moon wasn’t just going to be a band on the periphery. They became an essential influence for the grunge movement, influencing bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam. Toody related, “We would be going up to play in Seattle all the time. It was cheap to get into venues, it was exciting, and there was a real buzz. When Nirvana and Soundgarden were up-and-coming (and underage) they would be sneaking into shows to see us play. We were great mates with Mudhoney — we saw what everyone was up to.”
Dead Moon’s DIY ethos was never just a choice; it was an extension of who they were. Their music, infused with grit and resilience, reflected the life Toody and Fred shared both on and off the road… a life of passion, independence, and authenticity.
When asked about upsides and challenges of DIY music-making, Toody shared this; “… you’re never gonna make it big big big. You’re never gonna be Nirvana. Which is fine… I know I probably couldn’t deal with that. I don’t think (Fred) could either. We got really lucky to be renowned enough to satisfy us… and yet maintain an anonymity to the level to where you still have a life. And you have a multifaceted life; it’s not just music… it’s not just the band. So I have no complaints, it really worked out amazingly well.”
“As far as the DIY thing, that’s just something that we would’ve done either way. At first it was more about getting the control over a finished product, or having stuff the way you wanted it. And a lot of it was economic of course… and a lot of it was just not having to depend on somebody else. We both always hated that… having to wait around for somebody else to decide they wanted to do your record or you know… any of that kind of stuff. So that’s a lot of the reasons, and luckily having the music store, we had the capital. We had the funds available to be able to do that, so we were lucky in that aspect. Where a lot of bands aren’t… or they have to put all their money in a pool from all their gigs to put out the first record… which is awesome. I love that and I know a lot of bands do that and still do that. Which is great because… it’s just it’s something that no one can ever take away from you… to have that in your hand and say ‘I did this’. It’s an amazing feeling… it’s incredible. So, I’m really happy there’s still people that are still willing to make those sacrifices to make their dreams happen… and you kinda red to do that but you can’t count on somebody else doing it for you.”
I could write a lot more about Dead Moon; but I’m going to leave you with an invitation to check out the life of Toody Cole, and what she and her husband Fred Cole built. Even if their music isn’t necessarily your cup of tea, there’s a lot to learn from their story. A great place to start is this full-life interview by The Women In Rock Oral History Project.
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Brittany Frompovich is a highly regarded educator, clinician, blogger, and bassist who currently resides in the Washington DC/NOVA region. For more content from Brittany, check out her blog, her YouTube channel, and her Bandcamp site. She also offers handmade unisex music-themed jewelry through her Etsy store. Get a Wonder Woman Tee!
