Recording: Andre Williams & The Sadies

Artist: Andre Williams & The Sadies

Song: I Wanna Be Your Favorite Pair of Pajamas

Recorded at The Horseshoe Tavern (NXNE 2012), June 15, 2012.

Andre Williams & The Sadies - I Wanna Be Your Favorite Pair of Pajamas

My notes for this set can be found here.

Currente calamo: NXNE 2012 (Friday)

NXNE 2012 (Friday, June 15, 2012)

While these shows are fresh in my mind I want to get some quick notes down. I'm a nerd for not wanting to throw my full reviews out of sequence, so there'll be a fuller accounting of the night by and by that'll include even more details and recordings.

Midnite: Andre Williams & The Sadies @ The Horseshoe Tavern

After spending all afternoon at the most-excellent 159 Manning BBQ, it seemed mildly strange to consider that I was starting my proper "day" at NXNE at midnite. By that point of the day, there's a certain temptation to just go home and sleep, but this was one of the sets that I had definitely been planning to go out of my way to catch during the festival.

Unsurprisingly, the 'Shoe was rammed as I made my way in, but I did manage to find a tiny bit of room along the wall at about the back of the dancefloor.

In proper soul revue fashion, The Sadies emerged first and began to lay down a groove, grabbing the audience's attention before Andre Williams — Mr. Rhythm himself — took the stage in his dashing red satin suit. At 75, the genial Williams seemed to be out to establish that he was still, as one of his songs puts it, "Agile, Mobile and Hostile".

It was definitely a treat to see him — and, in a festival filled to overflowing with the new and young, to see a senior citizen command a room like this. Williams was spirited, and the Sadies were as whip-snap sharp as always. That said, at a more objective level, I was struck by how much this show reminded me of the the last time Williams was in town. Except for that increased vitality on Williams' part, this was pretty much an abbreviated version of the same show. It was a little surprising, given how Williams and The Sadies had just dropped the new Night and Day collaboration, that none of that material made its way into the setlist.

Part of that was surely down to having to work within the confines of the festival grid. As it turned out, it took a few songs for things to really feel like they were cooking, and by then, the band were a good way through their allotted time. There was enough that Williams still managed to squeeze a costume change in, but as he departed the stage after a rollicking run through "Car With the Star", it really felt like this could have kept going.

One assumes that there's a fairly significant non-festival-going crowd that would be into this, so we might hope to see a full show from this pairing yet to come.

Listen to a track from this set here.

1 a.m.: Reigning Sound @ The Horseshoe Tavern

Being just warmed up by the point the timeslot was over would be a problem for Reigning Sound as well, although they dealt with it by just chugging onward. That would be a popular choice with the crowd — after Andre Williams' set ended, the Horseshoe emptied out a bit — just enough that it had gone from being "crammed" to "full". And though I couldn't say that I was familiar with Greg Cartwright's Memphis soul-garage project, there was clearly a strong and vocal contingent on hand to whom this was a big deal. That's probably be because although the band has been an on-and-off-concern for over a decade, it had been in quiet mode lately, and obviously too-long away for the enthusiasts to bear.

The five-piece quickly established a rock-solid groove, nimble and capable of lashing out. On top of that came Cartwright's gravelly vocals, which had a slight taste of Faces-era Rod Stewart. I knew that he had also produced The Deadly Snakes, and played alongside them for awhile to boot (leading to some lingering fondness that he expressed for Toronto) and that was also evident in the band's lean toughness.

It's always an interesting experience to be a neophyte in the midst of a crowd of devoted fans, with joyful roars of recognition coming for song after song. I was able to dig all of them in greater or smaller proportion, although admittedly, after about a half-hour, I was starting to get antsy, feeling worn-down from the long day. The band had started at about quarter after, and was still going strong at the top of the hour — creating some unhappiness, I'm sure, for anyone who had shown up for the next band. I thought about ducking into somewhere or other nearby to catch a 2 a.m. set, but I really needed some fresh air and ended up just hiking up to the Silver Dollar.

Listen to a track from this set here.

3 a.m.: the Disraelis @ The Silver Dollar Room

My timing being thrown off, I arrived to catch the last couple songs by UN (whether that's meant as an abbreviation à la the United Nations or an emphatic, all-caps french definite article I don't know). The slightly-goofy synthpop was a bit perpendicular to what I'd been seeing on the night but wasn't unwelcome — as something random to encounter during the festival I feel like I coulda done far worse.

That was tangential, however, to my late-night plans to catch a set from Optical Sounds O.G.'s The Disraelis. This was a band that I adored in their previous incarnation, their alchemy arising from the "delicious tension between Colin Bowers' crystalline guitar lines and Cameron Ingles' opaque murmurs, a collision between heightened rationality and bleary oblivion." Bowers has since taken his guitar sound to The Holiday Crowd, and after a fallow period, Ingles has reconvened a new trio with his bass backed by Calvin Brown and Richie Gibson (both formerly of The Hoa Hoa's and now with B-17). This gives the music a different cast and it's to their credit that instead of trying to replicate Bowers' sound, Gibson is playing to his own strengths, as paisley and psychedelic as the shirt he was wearing.

There were sparks — actual, literal ones — when I first saw this new lineup a couple months ago, but there was still a bit of a tentative feeling of transition. I was quite pleased to see that things felt a bit more settled in now, and the set — dominated by new songs — did a good job of showing where The Disraelis are headed. With a more muscular attack from drums and guitar, Ingles is pushing his vocals a little more, and there was a bit less space for his bass up front, but the heavier sound meant that the new material felt less like a hangover and more the the aftermath — or precipice of — a bad trip, a sentiment sealed with the set-ending blistering attack on the 13th Floor Elevators/Spacemen 3's "Rollercoaster". Well come on, and let it happen to you — you gotta open up your mind and let everything come through.

Listen to a track from this set here.

1000 Songs: catl

1000 Songs: catl

I have now posted one thousand songs from my live recordings to this blog. My introductory thoughts on that landmark can be found here, but long story short: I asked some folks to pick some of their favourites to help me celebrate.

Today's list is from Jamie of local scuzz-blues revelators catl. (Twitter: @c_a_t_l)

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Anagram - Fish [Cleavers cover]

"I love both these Oshawa area bands, and one covering the other is just about as good as it gets."

Andre Williams and The Sadies - Car With the Star

"Again, two artists I love together. Dirty R&B. Yeah!"

No No Zero - Colossal Penetrations + Eurosleaze

"Simon is a great, natural punk rock songwriter, and I had the privilege of playing guitar with them for 2 years."

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catl's third full-length Soon This Will All be Gone is coming out on April 13, 2012. To celebrate, the band will be holding a series of sweat-inducing dance parties that weekend, including April 13 at Parts & Labour and April 14 at The Dakota Tavern. There's also an in-store set earlier on the 14th at Sonic Boom Records.

You can always click on the tags below to read more about the shows these songs came from. Have there been four or five songs posted here that made an impact on you? If you'd like to get in on the action and make a list, feel free to send me an email: mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com.

Recording: Andre Williams and The Sadies

Artist: Andre Williams and The Sadies

Song: Car With the Star^*

Recorded at The Horseshoe Tavern, November 19, 2009.

Andre Williams and The Sadies - Car With the Star

My notes for this set can be found here.

^* Can anyone confirm that I have the right title here? This seems right, but based on a version I found online, Andre has some other lyrics going on here as well.

Gig: Andre Williams and the Sadies

Andre Williams and the Sadies (Bloodshot Bill / catl)

The Horseshoe Tavern. Thursday, November 19, 2009.

Truth be told, when I saw this show listed I had to do some digging to find out who Andre Williams was. Turns out I knew some of his tunes, but the biggest vote of confidence here was the partnership with local heroes The Sadies. If they're playing the 'Shoe and backing somebody else up, it's generally advisable to go check it out regardless of who they're on stage with.

On this night, starting things off in a quiet-ish room was catl, an exciting addition to the bill given that they're basically a guaranteed kick-ass good time. "It's gonna be a good drunken night," singer-guitarist catl offered as the trio paused for breath between songs. Perhaps just my imagination, but the band seemed to be playing a little faster than I remembered. When they're playing their own gigs, the band is quite capable of stretching things out for extra danceability — perhaps this time they were pushing the tempos a bit to fit as much as possible into an opening slot. Maybe also aiming to reach those in the early-arrivin' crowd who wasn't already familiar with them. Regardless, as is always the case, lots to love here, with the rockin' "Caroline" and the martial drumbeats of "Oh Death" at the heart's set impressing pretty well. The wrapped up with "Working Man's Soul", their customary closer, wrapping up eleven songs in forty minutes. If the blues is a feeling, then catl proves that feeling is scuzzy and agitated, reaching for a whiskey bottle. As expected, a top-notch time.

Listen to a track from this set here.

By this time, there was a good-sized audience built up. Quite a mixed crowd, a fair number of older greaser types, who seemed ready for something that I wasn't up on. Out came a gentleman wearing a housecoat, which he removed, revealing his pyjamas underneath. This was Bloodshot Bill, hailing from Montréal, a one-man band and atavistic swamp rocker. With vox ranging from a squeal to an asthmatic Chief Wiggum snort, full of howls, squeaks and groans — his music was a purely primal rockabilly experience, so stripped down that he made catl sound like Yes. Playing seated with a kickdrum and cymbal along with his guitar, Bill was a throwback to that moment when rock'n'roll was lewd and a dangerous influence on the youth. Songs about all the seminal topics, mostly shakin' parts and breakin' hearts. One tune was introduced as a Tandoori Knights song, which further research reveals to be his forthcoming collaboration with King Khan. Definitely an artist with a following, given the number of folks shouting out requests. And it's easy to see why, this was fun stuff, raw and greasy.

Listen to a couple songs from this set here.

And then, the crowd was waiting for the main attraction. Seeing The Sadies play The Horseshoe might not be an essential prerequisite to become a citizen of Toronto, but it surely is one one the benefits. As is often the case when they're acting as someone else's backing band (and like the last time I saw 'em) they came on first for a quick set of their own material — this time, just a quick twenty minutes before settling into the groove of "Hallelujah" and introducing Mr. Rhythm himself, Andre Williams.

Listen to The Sadies warming things up here.

At 73, Williams still cuts quite a figure, taking the stage in a bright red suit, with matching red tie and hat. A genuine R&B star in the late '50's, Williams fell between the cracks and was relegated to general obscurity by the '80's, suffering through some hard times before being rediscovered by a younger generation of soulful garage rockers in his adopted hometown of Detroit. This has led to a successful second act for Williams, playing the role of elder statesman as a sort of dignified dirty old man. Never the greatest of the R&B singers, he developed a proto-rapping spoken style (not unlike Bo Diddley calling the dozens on "Say Man") that still suits him today. The whole "bad motherfucker" angle — the salty talk, the go-go dancers — actually seemed a bit quaint, sort of a throwback to when "blue" songs existed in some murky netherworld of dank alleyways of officially forbidden culture. Old-fashioned sleaze seems so innocent nowadays.

Taking the stage in between his dancers, Williams moved into the country-ish groove of "She's a Bag of Potato Chips" (from '99's Red Dirt album, recorded with The Sadies) before veering into "Agile, Mobile and Hostile" which had a lean swagger, the Good brothers playing fierce interlocking guitar rhythms. After the slow burn of "I Can Tell" (a rewrite of an old Lefty Frizell song), Williams took a breather while The Sadies kept things going with "There's a Higher Power". Detouring from his more recent material, he dipped into his original hits for "Bacon Fat" and "Jail Bait", related a foul anecdote before "I Still Love You" and ended with a run through "Shake a Tail Feather" — which I never realized was one his own compositions. Changing into a sweater he returned for an encore — performing for about an hour overall.

With The Sadies allowing no slack behind him, the sound was never less than excellent. Not all of his songs are stone classics, but he put on a good show and the whole thing was as entertaining as hell.

Listen to a track from this set here.