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The Sadies
Stories Often Told
Yep Roc Records
By Steve Cooper
 This
being my first exposure to the music of The Sadies, I can't really
compare this album to their past three studio albums. I can't
speak with authority about The Sadies backing Neko Case, Andre
Williams, and Jon Langford. I hardly know of their previous
producer, Steve Albini, who produced (fanfare) In Utero
by Kurt Cobain and the Nirvana Boys. Therefore, I can't juxtapose
Albini's style of production versus the knob-turning of current
producer Greg Keelor. And, I don't know much about Greg Keelor's
own band, Blue Rodeo, and how they have influenced The Sadies
and have been influenced by them. Ergo, with CD in CD-ROM player,
I begin.
Stories Often Told is impressive without, seemingly,
trying that hard. Yeah, The Sadies are cool. Led by the brothers
Good, Dallas and Travis, The Sadies are a jigger of Webb Wilder,
a dash Ennio Morricone, a drop of Mekons, a drip of Man or Astroman,
with a hybrid Byrds/Buffalo Springfield/Flying Burrito Brothers/Crazy
Horse/Cowboy Junkies chaser. In other words, they really don't
sound like anyone else all that much. "Sadies music"
we'll call it. They mix vocal tracks and matching instrumental
tracks as if filling out a soundtrack album to some Robert Altman
flick. Somewhere off the cart path, lying in the mesquite, is
a dead gunfighter.
The opening cut, "Lay Down Your Arms," is squarely
in Ennio Morricone/Dick Dale territory. Man or Astroman leaps
to mind. The electric guitars of the Good brothers are dramatic
and note-bending, seemingly accompanying an outlaw gang as they
ride their horses either into or out of town (I can't be sure
which). Mike Belitsky is militarily fine on drums as is Sean
Dean on bass.
Then, The Sadies start their neat trick on "Oak Ridges,"
which is basically the vocal take of "Lay Down Your Arms."
They can't do that, can they? I mean, this isn't a soundtrack,
is it? No matter, the lazy, deep lead vocal of either Dallas
or Travis Good (help me out here) is double-fine -- a cross between
Kris Kristofferson and John Hartford, only hipper. The whammy-bar
lead guitar conjures up a squinty-eyed Lee Van Cleef, maybe a
sneering Bruce Dern.
The title track follows, complete with a Burrito-style hook
chorus: "The palace of gold/The palace of gold/He's so high
in the palace of gold." The boom-chicka-boom Tennessee
Two rhythm of the song meets the twang of Lonnie Mack in a satisfying
combination. And, then, back to their neat trick (this time
in reverse) -- the next cut, "A#1," is an instrumental
take of the previous song, "Stories Often Told." The
reverb is turned up a bit and siren-call, wordless vocals assist.
They really can't do this soundtrack stuff and make it work
-- can they? Surely, they're not that unconcerned, that cool.
"Within a Stone" presents a different Good brother
on lead vocal (either Dallas or Travis, but not the same vocalist
as on the title track). The vocal is lazy but nowhere near as
low in pitch, more Chris Hillman than Johnny Cash. And, yet
again, the next song, "Mile Over Mecca," reworks the
vocal of the previous song in instrumental, heavy-reverb form,
this time ably aided by Mexicali horns.
"Steep Climb" features the lower voiced Good brother
on a duet with Margaret Good. As ever, the pace is slow and
dramatic, a six-shooter around some corner. The groove is so
sweet, so hip-shitkicker dead-on that this is, at last, "the
single" from the album. The "centerpiece." But,
then, The Sadies once again confound by cutting the song off
at only three minutes when it could have been an epic, a-la Danny
Whitten's "I Don't Want to Talk About It."
"Tiger Tiger" turns up the rock and the Carl Perkins
guitar. The singing is raw and right, featuring the higher-voiced
Good brother. This could easily be a page in NRBQ's discography.
The Long Ryders also comes to mind, though there is no twelve-string.
The chorus is a stone grabber: "Tiger tiger on a circus
train/Tiger tiger on a circus train/Tiger tiger on a circus train/You
can never go home again." No western images here, just
good-old rockabilly/garage rock fun.
"Of Our Land" confuses the issue even more. The
Sadies go psychedelic, like a crazed Skip Spence or something,
with a dream-sequence instrumental break to boot. The hook is
English pop, circa 1967, perhaps the Small Faces of Ogden's
Nutgone Flake. And, finally, quite naturally, the disc closes
out with "Monkey & Cork," an instrumental reworking
of (you guessed it) "Of Our Land."
The Sadies are cool. The Sadies are captivating. The Sadies
don't care what you think. Buy it. Play it. You'll be hooked,
even if you don't like soundtracks.
* www.yeproc.com
Contact Steve Cooper at: cooper-at-rockzilla.net
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