TAD were fucking loud. That’s probably the first thing anybody should know about them.
I first heard them back in Queens when a customer at the record store brought in 8-Way Santa. I knew the Sub Pop name by then, so I put it on.
“Jinx” came blasting out of the speakers and I remember thinking, what the hell is this?
Then came “Giant Killer,” “Jack Pepsi,” “Stumbling Man.” The whole record sounded enormous. Tad Doyle had this guitar sound that felt like somebody starting a truck inside the store.
Naturally, I loved it.
Once I moved to Seattle I started going backwards through their records and found God’s Balls and Salt Lick. That stuff was even nastier. Jack Endino did God’s Balls, Steve Albini recorded Salt Lick, Butch Vig did 8-Way Santa. That’s a pretty ridiculous three-record run when you think about it.
TAD also seemed to have absolutely terrible luck.
The original 8-Way Santa cover got them sued. Then there was “Jack Pepsi,” which managed to piss off Pepsi. Later they signed to Giant, made Inhaler, and somebody decided it would be a good idea to promote the record with a poster of Bill Clinton smoking a joint.
That went about as well as you’d expect.
The funny thing is that underneath all the stupid controversy, Inhaler is a great fucking record. “Grease Box,” “Throat Locust,” “Leafy Incline,” “Luminol.” It’s probably the best they ever sounded on record.
I saw them at the King Cat on September 24, 1994. By then Gary Thorstensen was on his way out and the band was going through another one of those weird periods they always seemed to be going through.
I mostly remember the volume.
Jesus Christ.
I’ve seen a lot of loud bands, but TAD had this low-end thing where you didn’t just hear them, you felt them in your ribs. Kurt Danielson’s bass was ridiculous. By the end of the night my ears were completely shot.
Worth it.
Then somehow they got another major-label deal, this time with EastWest, and made Infrared Riding Hood with Jack Endino. And somehow they got screwed again. The guy at the label who signed them got fired and the record basically disappeared almost as soon as it came out.
If there was ever a Seattle band that could make you believe somebody had put a curse on them, it was TAD.
They kept going anyway. Gary left, Josh Sinder eventually left, Mike Mongrain came in, and they hung around without much of a label until the end of the ’90s. Their last couple of singles barely seemed to register outside the people who were still paying attention.
Tad finally called it quits around ’99.
He put together Hog Molly afterward and they released Kung-Fu Cocktail Grip last year. It’s heavy as hell, obviously. Tad Doyle was never suddenly going to make a Belle and Sebastian record.
I still see him around town every once in a while.
I probably play Inhaler more than anything else these days, although 8-Way Santa will always be the one that got me into them.
TAD should have been bigger.
Maybe they were just too damn heavy.
