The Sadies ­ Tremendous Efforts Bloodshot Records BS 070

By William Michael Smith

	The Sadies aren't looking for "their niche." It would all be just too musically confining for the innovative, well-dressed (see this month's issue of Gentlemen's Quarterly) Toronto, Canada band. Nor are they going to make it easy for you to like or even understand them. No, their third CD, "Tremendous Efforts," is a deep, often dark, genre-busting (or better yet, genre-ignoring) avalanche of subtle sounds that in theory no casual listener would ever assume could be melded together into as fine a musical experience as this album is. The album is quirky, even occasionally dense, and as a whole a musical intellectual minefield. A major label marketing rep would slash both wrists and call Dr. Kevorkian for backup if assigned the project of turning this CD into a huge commercial success. Leave it to the ever-on-the-cutting-edge Bloodshot Records to produce an eclectic, anarchic, urban drive-by hayride like "Tremendous Efforts." The music hop scotches from the bouncy, could-pass-for-elevator-Muzak-if-it-wasn't-so-damn-well-played instrumental, 'Pass the Chutney,' to the zippy super-hip twang-fest 'One Million Songs' to a Yardbirds-like raver like 'FLASH.' Along the way, there are side trips into mountain bluegrass and into a straight Nashville Chet-Atkins-and-Jerry-Reed smooth picking instrumental ('Ridge Runner Rag' and 'Ridge Runner Reel' ­ two variations on a musical theme), into spaghetti western movie instrumentals like 'Empty the Chamber,' and into some innovative covers of songs you never thought you'd ever hear again ­ if you ever heard them to begin with. They've also included a slinky instrumental called 'The Creepy Butler' that would make the Munsters do the bad boogaloo. Except for the two country themes, the instrumentals are all modernized extensions of that wonderful body of surf instrumentals from the '60s, only The Sadies render them with a musical sophistication far beyond the average beach boy band. The Sadies aren't dependent on hot licks to wow the listener, to grab and hold the attention. In fact, they are more anti-hot licks, though on tunes like 'FLASH,' 'One Million Songs' and the pickers' delight, 'Ridge Runner Rag' they flail away on their guitars with the best (Nashville's best, L.A.'s best, London's best, Austin's best, The Sadies don't care, bring 'em on). The more I listened to the CD, the more I came to appreciate their compositional abilities and their abilities to play as an ensemble, to layer sounds and embellish a melody until the whole was much greater and more powerful than the sum of the individual parts. The playing is precise, not frantic or manic, the group sound overriding any individual performance. But just to make certain it all sounds good, The Sadies used super-engineer Steve Albini (Robbie Fulks, Nirvana, Pixies, Breeders and many more) to record "Tremendous Efforts." The Sadies consist of brothers Dallas Good on guitar and vocals and Travis Good on guitar, fiddle, and vocals, upright bassist Sean Dean, and Mike Belitsky on drums, guitar and vocals. For their "Tremendous Efforts," they've augmented their sound with a variety of established Canadian players and exotic instrumentation: Paul Aucoin on vibraphone, Bob Egan on steel guitar, James Gray on organ, Doug Queen on organ and accordion, and Rick White on Moog synthesizer. The Goods grew up in a bluegrass family and their mother, Margaret Good, joins for a beautiful duet on the poignant 'Before I Wake.' They also employ their siblings from The Good Brothers, Canada's top bluegrass outfit: Brian on acoustic guitar, Bruce on dobro, and Larry on banjo. Now when's the last time you saw a record with credits for a banjo and a Moog synthesizer? Or a country song with a vibraphone bubbling along in the background? The songs the Sadies have chosen to cover on "Tremendous Efforts" speak volumes for their eclectic musical tastes. Their version of the Dallas Frazier tune written for Elvis Presley, 'You're Wearing That Loved On Look,' is given that 60's "shoop, shoop" sound, with jangling guitars and Brit boy vocals. An almost-forgotten giant and one of Nashville's first rebels who refused to follow the established formulas, Frazier was one of our great off-center songwriters and this cut has some memorable lines to legitimize his legacy: Baby, if you ever loved me, Bonnie and Clyde loved the law I don't like apple pie, birds don't fly and trees don't grow in Arkansas As their press release notes, this cut will have you doing The Frug even if you thought you didn't know how. The Sadies give the track a raucous Hullabaloo treatment. They also cover 'Mother Earth' by Jeffrey Pierce of The Gun Club, giving it a somber vocal delivery coupled with excellent twang licks and an otherworldly steel guitar accompaniment. With the deep-voiced funereal vocal and the dominant steel guitar lead, the effect is hypnotic. But after hearing the bewildering set of complex instrumentals, 60's rockers, and the brooding 'Last Of The Good' with it's sorrowful organ and sitar-sounding guitars, the real surprise on the album is The Sadies' interpretation of the old Byrds tune written by Gerald Coffin and Carole King and featured in the movie "Easy Rider," the idyllic 'Wasn't Born to Follow.' The track holds fairly true to the original, but the playing is tastefully understated. Synthesizer is slowly layered on and given free rein during the break so that, true to its original '60s context, the tune takes on a soft, bubbly country psychedelia. The singing is plaintive and perfect, the harmonies bluegrass tight. Despite being composed of the standard two guitars, bass, and drums, The Sadies are no ordinary band. Their playing is top notch, they have far above average musical concepts, and whether they are playing surf, alt-country, 60's Brit rock or avant-Nashgrass, their arranging borders on the orchestral, though without all the syrupy Nashvillean strings and too-sweet pop harmonies. Pop is one thing The Sadies don't do. This isn't a CD for the conventional or narrow-minded listener, or for listeners who expect a CD to fit a particular musical category and stay within it. But for open-minded, adventurous listeners, this CD is a real treat. It's not often we find a band that can play across so many musical genres and do it all with consummate musicianship and flare. You'd need Salvador Dali to paint a cover to properly stylize and encompass this CD. I'm seeing Clint Eastwood sitting atop a longhorn steer that is teetering along on a surfboard under the curl of a giant wave. The steer has those 'Ghost Riders in the Sky' red eyes and smoke belches from his nostrils. His tail has a devil's point. Clint has a safety pin through his cheek, a Mohawk hairdo and is wearing blue eye shadow that has run. Clint has a cheroot in his teeth, a .45 automatic in one hand and a mountain dulcimer in the other. He is wearing Beatle boots with spurs. And Oshkosh overalls with a cake of Big Johnson surfboard wax in one pocket and a fifth of Rothschild Mouton Cadet in the other. Maybe I've listened to "Tremendous Efforts" once too often. Call the Betty Ford. I think I'm hooked. * If you've got big enough ears, Bloodshot Records has got the CD. www.bloodshotrecords.com Contact William Michael Smith at: wms-at-rockzilla.net

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