The Sadies, Favourite Colours (Yep Roc, 2004)
The Sadies may be the best Canadian band you've never heard of. Fronted by brothers Dallas and Travis Good, this band, over the course of five full-length CDs, has staked out a unique territory that covers country, rock, Sixties-style country-rock and whammy-bar-laden surf rock. Favourite Colours, their sixth release, comes on the heels of their collaboration with Neko Case on her live set, The Tigers Have Spoken.
A few dedicated spins of this record reveal a unified vision from start to finish, highlighted by the metaphysical triptych formed by "1000 Cities Falling," "Song of the Chief Musician" and "Why Be So Curious?" These three songs, credited to the entire band (with co-credit on the third to Rick White) detail a biblical end-times vision of society falling apart. In the first, the craggy vocals are up-front over fingerpicked acoustic guitars and guest Paul Brainerd's keening pedal steel, setting the theme of war and vengeance: "From above the stars put out the dawn's early light/now both the darkness and the rain fall day and night." The dark, swampy Tom Petty-influenced "Song of the Chief Musician" (a dedication you'll find on many of the entries in the Book of Psalms) continues, with lines like "Beginning again is the last thing that ever could happen. "Why Be Curious" has a warm Byrdsian jangle, and offers a questionable solace in lines like "Look to the simple and be like the snow / Why be so curioius when nobody knows ... the truth." The second and third of the trilogy are separated by an instrumental (one of five on the disc) titled "The Curdled Journey," featuring Calexico's Joey Burns on atmospheric cello.
Echoes of the aforementioned Byrds, the Grateful Dead, Flying Burrito Brothers and other psychedelic Americana acts sound from every track, particularly in the sibling harmonies of the Goods. Dallas sings lead most of the time, although Travis steps to the front on two tracks, but they're not saying which ones. Doesn't matter. Sean Dean and Mike Belitsky lay down the rhythm on bass and drums respectively, and there are several other guests. Robyn Hitchcock, last heard harmonizing with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings on his 2004 release, Spooked, sings lead on the final track, which he co-wrote, "Why Would Anybody Live Here?" Lovely three-part harmonies with the brothers Good. Their Mum and Pa contribute some non-verbal vocals to the spaghetti-Western instrumental "A Burning Snowman."
Not one-, two-, or even three-trick ponies, the Sadies dish up some Revolver-era Beatles style pop on "As Much As Such," and some punk squall on the penultimate track, "Coming Back." And each of the five instrumentals has its own unique character as well. Favourite Colours is a fascinating record from start to finish. You can learn more at the band's Web site which is fairly graphics-heavy and slow loading for those on dialup.
