Electric Wizards JR Moores · Reaktion, 2021

CHAPTER 12

TAD: The Heaviest and Least Celebrated Grunge Band

The heaviest band Seattle never quite celebrated

10 works, in the order the book names them

  • 001/Album/1991

    Nevermind

    Nirvana

    Nevermind was just starting to take off and I was talking about this whole ‘Grunge thing’ with a friend in LA, when ‘Helter Skelter’ came on some jukebox.
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 002/Album

    Goo

    Sonic Youth

    The executives at Geffen hoped Nirvana’s album might eventually match the sales of Sonic Youth’s Goo (around 250,000).
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 003/Album

    Dangerous

    Michael Jackson

    By January 1992 Nevermind had surprised everybody by knocking Michael Jackson’s Dangerous from the top of the charts.
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 004/Documentary

    1991: The Year Punk Broke

    Dave Markey

    Markey’s Sonic Youth documentary was titled 1991: The Year Punk Broke.
    Open in IMDb ↗

  • 005/Album/1991

    8-Way Santa

    TAD

    The opening track from 1991’s 8-Way Santa boasts bruising riffs and lurching rhythms as frontman Tad Doyle snarls a fate-tempting chorus, identifying himself as a jinx who is followed everywhere he goes by bad luck.
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 006/Album

    Inhaler

    TAD

    The band signed to the Warner subsidiary Giant for 1993’s Inhaler, but, while out touring with Soundgarden, they were unceremoniously dropped after a promotional poster emerged that featured a photograph of Bill Clinton with a marijuana joint superimposed between his fingers.
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 007/Album/1995

    Infrared Riding Hood

    TAD

    TAD were subsequently dumped by East West just a week after releasing their fourth and final studio album in 1995: Infrared Riding Hood received no promotion and sold poorly.
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 008/Compilation

    Quick and Dirty

    TAD

    The 2018 Record Store Day release Quick and Dirty included previously unreleased studio sessions from 1999.
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 009/Album/1989

    God’s Balls

    TAD

    TAD’S debut album, 1989’s God’s Balls, was named after a phrase uttered by an orgasmic priest in a porno film (‘God’s balls, that feels good!’).
    Open in YouTube ↗

  • 010/Album/1990

    Salt Lick

    TAD

    ‘You can’t sing so don’t even try,’ Albini told Doyle when working on 1990’s Salt Lick EP. Butch Vig had a different approach for the following year’s 8-Way Santa.
    Open in YouTube ↗