Terry Malts started as a project in 2009. Singer/bassist Phil Benson, guitarist/singer Corey Cunningham, and drummer Nathan Sweatt had been toiling in San Francisco band Magic Bullets for the last five years. While Magic Bullets had been known more for jangly guitars and fluid bass-lines, Terry Malts would be a cathartic 180-degree turn towards feedback and noise.



In 2010 the group self-recorded a six-song cassette entitled Distracted that saw release on the San Francisco-based Loglady Records imprint (Woolen Men, Permanent Collection). That year, while recording a follow-up called On A Halfpipe, Mike from Slumberland Records asked to release some of the songs from the Distracted cassette as a 7" single.



The resulting 7", I'm Neurotic, came out in early 2011 and tracks from the shelved On A Halfpipe cassette landed on another Slumberland 7" single called Something About You later that year.



With the help of two borrowed microphones, the band compiled a set of songs from both cassettes and recorded (or in some cases re-recorded) them in their rehearsal space during the summer of 2011 for a full-length album.



With the freshly-mixed record by Monte Vallier (Weekend, Soft Moon) under their arms, the band set about on their first national tour in October 2011.



The debut album Killing Time would be released on Slumberland on February 21st 2012 and more touring and festivals were on the horizon. By year's end the group had compiled another set of songs and began recording a second full-length record.



The follow-up album, Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere, was finished with more borrowed microphones only a couple of weeks before the band became a two-city entity. In January of 2013, guitarist/singer Corey Cunningham moved to Los Angeles and Terry Malts carried on logging frequent traveler miles on many of California's bus lines.



Distance did not slow the group down and after more touring the band took four new songs to Monte Vallier's studio in 2014 to dip their toes into the world of proper recording- where microphones did not need to be borrowed and a professional engineer could harness the cacophony.

The resulting EP, Insides, came out on Slumberland Records in September 2014.

What people have to say about Shark Toys debut LP on Dead Beat:

"This is one bug-eyed full-length, with an overabundance of both anxiety and energy captured by engineer Monty Buckles of the Lamps, and across nine songs it never takes a rest—across the first eight songs, it never even slows down. Instead it's scribble-scribble guitar, boom-boom-boom drums and big sizzling smears of keyboard, and then varying degrees of composure and unhingement from singer (and L.A. RECORD contributor) Danny Clodfelter. Billy Childish if his mind was unwound by Hardcore Devo instead of Kinda Kinks? Well, not completely, but when you hear the keys burn through the song "Library" like a cigarette against a strip of film, you WILL suddenly see a miniature Mark Mothersbaugh doing that "This Moog is electrocuting me!" dance right before your eyes. Otherwise a lotta Urinals in this, lotta Swell Maps, some of the Modern Lovers demos—"She Cracked" with the radio static and the Kim Fowley production credit, if we wanna be accurate—and a lot of the caveman-savant philosophy that lights up Wounded Lion and probably every band Chris Woodhouse produces. "Victorian House" and "Library" are my winners, punk songs smashed to pieces and reassembled with the landing gear pointing in the wrong direction, but there's a song here for anybody who likes DDT for breakfast—and anybody who likes to wing it." - LA RECORD

"Shark Toys have crafted a sound that could be a direct line to the quirkiness of early L.A. weirdos like the Urinals, but their catchy, off-kilter song-writing, zipping toy keyboards and wild guitars could easily be the result of big-city kids having an early exposure to the skronky and unhinged Coachwhips or the wackiness of the New Zealand punks that solidified the Flying Nun scene. Fun as all get-out, their self-titled LP (recorded and mixed by Monty Buckles of The Lamps) is a clanging, rock and roll romp you shouldn't miss." - UNPIANO

"It reminds me of The Fall, Tyvek, G.Green and Parquet Courts, but some how beachier and more Californian, which is appropriate considering these blokes are from sunny LA." - LO-PIE

"...Th[e] sound Shark Toys invokes is a lot like what one would expect to come-about if The Clean and Swell Maps had a lovechild, abandoned it in LA, and thereby led it to grow up, mature, and fend for itself amidst the palm trees and parking tickets all the while snacking on cheap tasty burritos." - PROPER YARN