SOUNDTRACK: SAD13-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #105 (October 30, 2020).
After yesterday’s Concert, this was an excellent palate cleanser. Sad13 is basically Saude Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz. Sadie is a fun and great frontwoman in Speedy, whose songs tend to rock. For Sad13 she plays more synth and the songs are a bit quieter.
It was also fun to see bassist Audrey Zee Whitesides whom I have seen in many bands over the years playing on a Tiny Desk (and wearing rather convincing vampire fangs).
“We weren’t sure what to wear and the only thing we could agree on was devil costumes.” In a pink wig, blue horns and a purple cheerleading outfit, Sadie Dupuis brings a brightly ghoulish spirit to her Tiny Desk (home) concert, just in time for Halloween.
Drummer Zoë Brecher is also in costume–wearing a black cape and horns.
Sadie says “we are a coven of musical demons” and she hoped this would air around Halloween, but if not, haunted cosplay is “good for the whole month of October. For 12 months a year.” Plus it ties in with the new album.
Haunted Painting, her terrific new album as Sad13, is, in part, about metaphorical and literal ghosts: their weight and place in your life, but blasted with the sonic glee of a neon rainbow. While Dupuis’ guitar unmistakably squiggles with a vocal vibrato to match, Sad13’s pop sensibility differentiates from her other band, Speedy Ortiz; these sweet-and-sour songs explode with creative arrangements and nerdy production techniques.
I haven’t heard the record but I guess it sounds different from this Concert
Recording separately from their homes in Philly, New York and Stamford, Conn., Sad13 (featuring drummer Zoë Brecher and bassist Audrey Zee Whitesides) doesn’t so much slim down the wild details but finds different textures in these songs.
They open with “Oops…!” which has simple echoing guitar riffs and some fancy bass work from Audrey. I love Audrey’s backing vocals when they sing opposite Sadie. Sadie also throws in some waverly synth parts.
Between songs she says “they don’t make pink desks for adults so this is where I make music that I have to crouch over for and is giving me premature back pain.”
“Hysterical,” is up next. Sadie moves to the organ for some cool synth lines. Zoë sings backing vocals along with Audrey’s pumping bass line. There’s terrific backing vox during the chorus, in particular. The song
leans into a fuzzy space-age boogie, as Dupuis hooks up her Farfisa organ to an array of effects pedals, sounding like one of Joe Meek’s idiosyncratic productions from the 1960s.
“WTD?” (What’s The Drama?”) has a fun off kilter guitar riff and more killer playing from the band.
Sad13’s set ends with “Take Care,” a song that beautifully blossoms from grief. “It’s about caring for and missing people to an extent that’s detrimental to your own well-being,” she shares as cellist Sasha Ono and violinist Camellia Hartman take their virtual places. “I think, as we’re all secluded and cloistered away from the people we care about, this one’s been resonating harder with me than it did when I recorded it.”
It’s a lovely ballad with Sadie on acoustic guitar and delicate pizzicato from Camellia. It’s a beautiful song and a great selling point for getting the album. They song fades out at the end but it feels like it could go much longer.
[READ: November 18, 2020] “A Bit on the Side”
This was the slow detailed story of a couple breaking up.
They met at their usual cafe and she sensed something was wrong.
He spoke positively of how nice she looked. (more…)
I was really bummed when this show was postponed. I was even more bummed when it was moved to the Church. I really liked the venue when we first arrived, but by the end, I was hot and sweaty and crowded and worn out.
