post-punk groups. While in London performing at The Rainbow Theatre, Dingwall's, and trendy Cabaret Futura, the Bongos recorded their early singles and their well-received debut EP Time and the River for Fetish. Cover designs for these releases were created by influential graphic artist Neville Brody, who was soon to become the designer of The Face magazine. The group's love of avant-garde performers brought them in touch with artists such as Throbbing Gristle and Clock DVA who performed with them live in London, and on their recordings. Their debut U.S. album, Drums Along the Hudson, compiled from the band's British singles, was released in 1982 to widely favorable reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. While Trouser Press suggested that the group "may trade a certain amount of substance for easy appeal," it added that "there's no better musical equivalent of whipped cream anywhere." Writing in the Village Voice, Robert Christgau dryly commented that "for all their jumpy originality [the songs are] still slight, and Richard Barone's lyrics are so oblique you have to wonder what his angle is." In 2007 however, Jim DeRegotis wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times: "The initial impression of naiveté is offset by deceptively simple lyrics that actually hint at deep, dark mysteries and unfathomed mystical enigmas." In 1981, the group's cover of T. Rex's "Mambo Sun", written by Marc Bolan, reached No. 22 on the Billboard Dance Club Chart. A thriving Hoboken pop scene emerged, triggered by the Bongos and Maxwell's, which gained national media attention, and drew many bands and fans to the city. An August 1, 1982 article in the New York Times Real Estate section hinted at the scene's popularity as an influence on increasing rents and property values. After touring domestically in support of Drums Along the Hudson, including thirty concerts with The B-52s, Barone and Mastro retreated to Mitch Easter's "Drive-In Studios" in Winston-Salem, N.C. to record their own, duo album entitled Nuts & Bolts. Co-produced by Easter, the album exhibited a more acoustic sound, and each side showcased the songs and lead vocals of either Barone or Mastro. In 1983, the group was signed to RCA Records, which subsequently released the album, Numbers With Wings. New York Times' critic Robert Palmer — himself a former Hoboken-based musician with the Insect Trust — marked this as the beginning of the Bongos' creative decline, lamenting the "slick, overproduced records which vitiated the