Starfish Entertainment

Darker Circles is the follow-up to The Sadies’ acclaimed last album Country Club (feat. John Doe) and sees guitarist brothers Dallas and Travis Good, drummer Mike Belitsky and bassist Sean Dean again pair with legendary Jayhawk and sought-after producer Gary Louris. Furthering the focused songwriting and recording aspirations reached on New Seasons, The Sadies bring their signature blend of country, psychedelic, rock and surf into rifle-scope focus on Darker Circles, further underscoring their reputations as musicians’ musicians. Always at the top of the list when discussing musical chops and live intensity, The Sadies are now more intent than ever on making their mark as songwriters. In one turn as heavy as a sledge, and on the other flitting across melodies with the ease of so many sparrows, The Sadies prove once again that denying them now is simply prolonging your conversion. So go on, pull up that screeching wooden chair that bows with your weight. Slide it up next to the turntable and drop the needle, The Sadies are a sure thing...tomorrow isn’t.

Click enlargement (right) for hi-rez version to download
(Drag or right-click and Save as to download hi-rez)

For more information and tour dates, please visit
www.thesadies.net
www.myspace.com/thesadies

Biography

Toronto's Sadies earn both halves of the "country rock" tag, tearing through honkytonk, rockabilly, surf, electric bluegrass, and heavy psychedelic rock with virtuosic soul and unhinged brawn. - Entertainment Weekly

What makes the Sadies so special? They are a family, a unit with a shared vision and they are unapologetic about mining traditional music and making it their own - the real stuff that will last- and they are badass on their instruments all down the line. - Gary Louris

Bands get worse over time; it’s an immutable law. Not THE SADIES. After a dozen years and eight (or is it nine?) albums (excluding their collaborations with Andre Williams, Neko Case et al.) The Sadies just get better and better. And with Darker Circles they’ve made their strongest and most fully realized work to date. It’s tempting to write that the band has ‘matured’, but in rockcritspeak that’s usually code for ‘old, tired and boring’—which they are not. The Sadies can still out-sing, out-pick and out-rock anyone out there, but there’s a new depth to their songwriting now, a process they began to perfect on 2007’s New Seasons but which has blossomed here in spectacular fashion.

As the title suggests, Darker Circles is a more somber, soul searching affair than its predecessor. There’s a haunting, spiritual quality to songs like Kut Corners, Tell Her What I Said, Whispering Circles and The Quiet One; ghosts of regret and lost love reverberate softly between the vocals and guitars or “drift like whispers that echo in your mind.” Even when the band rocks out, like on the fuzz-drenched garage-psych opener, Another Year Again, the lyrics wrestle with themes of failure, rejection and mortality.
In the past The Sadies have been pigeonholed as country-rock—or worse, alt-country—a lazy label that fails to do them justice. While there’s no arguing that country music runs in their blood, they’ve always been closer in spirit to Younger Than Yesterday than Sweetheart Of The Rodeo—just check out Postcards or Violet and Jeffrey Lee. In other words, country is just one element of an increasingly unique and distinctive Sadies sound that draws on a range of influences from garage, folk-rock and psychedelia, to Link Wray and Ennio Morricone.

On Darker Circles all these elements come together perfectly to create a record that feels like a real album in the classic sense of the word. In an age where art, music and culture are usually instantly disposable, The Sadies have accomplished that most rare of feats—they’ve created something timeless.

- Mike Stax - Ugly Things Magazine, February 2010

Press

METRO News Canada - 2010-05-20

The Sadies Sweeten Their Spooky Country
Graham Rockingham

****
Opening a Sadies CD has always been like crawling into a dark hollow in Appalachia and waiting for the LSD to take effect. Sometimes the results could be fairly spooky. Fortunately, the Sadies have shaved most of the trip bumps off their latest, possibly finest, offering. There remains a low dose of psychedelia in a space cowboy sort of way. There’s even some surf guitar and spaghetti-western sound effects. For the most part, however, Darker Circles finds its roots in the pre-acid days of folk-rock. Jangly guitars and sweet harmonies. Dark, but not scary. It’s what the Sadies do best.

EXCLAIM Magazine - 2010-05-19

Sadies
Darker Circles
By Kerry Doole

The liner notes' claim that the Sadies keep getting better may sound presumptuous, but a few spins and there is no disproving the boast. Given that they're now well into double figures for albums made (collaborations rightfully included) that's a rare feat. Beginning with 2007's triumph, New Seasons, the band have narrowed their musical focus a little, resulting in a distilled concentrate that packs the potent punch of well-made moonshine. Production values have been simultaneously strengthened, in part via the invaluable input of co-producer Gary Louris (Jayhawks). Louris adds vocal harmonies to six cuts, including co-write "Idle Tomorrows." That's the only guest appearance here, unlike on earlier albums. Things kick off with the spiritedly garage-ish "Another Year Again" and close with a typically cinematic instrumental, "10 More Songs." In between are a batch of well-constructed numbers that often have a sombre feel. The stone cold killer cut is "Tell Her What I Said," which is full of haunting sonics and lines like, "I turn to oblivion, night after night." There's nary a dud here, though the vocals are somewhat buried on "Violet and Jeffrey Lee." This band can still play, sing and write circles around virtually all those out there. The Sadies' status as a national treasure remains intact.

Enjoy working with Gary Louris again?
Singer/guitarist Dallas Good: We're getting into the studio process more all the time. Gary and I really enjoy chasing down weird sounds and doing now unconventional things that were once very conventional, like analog and little effects and tricks. This album was really fun to make. We made it quickly and collaboratively. Compared to all our other experiences, everyone was really prepared and excited about this one. Gary brings so much to the table in different ways, and he makes us all really confident about the things he likes. Because of what we learned from him on the last record, we knew a lot of what he'd say about the songs in advance. He is family. Totally.

There's a dark tone to most of the lyrics here.
I've never really thought of it this way before, but I guess up until now I've been writing more about death 'cause I thought that was a heavy thing to write about. Now, I like writing about dying, because that seems a little heavier. I guess that's the shift in my approach to writing. This time, I decided to beat around the burning bush a little less. My tongue is never in my cheek on this record, but it wasn't exactly an attempt to send a dark, profound message. (Outside)

GLOBE & MAIL - 2010-05-17

Someone needed to bridge the dark gap between Pink Floyd and Blue Rodeo, and the job couldn’t have gone to a band better equipped to handle the job than the Sadies. On the autumnal Darker Circles (a worthy follow-up to 2007’s New Seasons), the Toronto cosmic-roots troopers tell moodily of the passage of time and life’s final hours. Another Year Again is a songwriting success – the closest the Sadies have come to Blue Rodeo yet, though the track ends with a psychedelic sprint through the cornfield. At times, the singing is ordinary – Kut Corners cries out for a Neko Case – but that’s only a small complaint. On an album about departures, the disc-closing instrumental 10 More Songs (in which one imagines Peter Fonda and Clint Eastwood both eyeing that last piece of peyote, to a Morricone soundtrack) points to more things to come. Look forward to it.

UNCUT - 2010-04-27

Stunning ninth from Canadian country/garage psychsters

4 Stars

Grounded in eerie country blues, Byrds-style folk-rock, and brain-rattling fuzztone freakout, Toronto’s Sadies – led by brothers Dallas and Travis Good – are at the top of their game here. Opener “Another Year Again”, which shifts from atmospheric, apocalyptic shuffle to a gathering storm of guitar wreck, sets an ominous tone. While the relative light touc of “Postcards” – with its shades of The Byrds’ “Mr Spaceman” – provides relief, the wracked, haunted “Whispering Circles” barely offers a sliver of hope amid a black swirl of jangly guitar and spooky organ.
Luke Torn

EXCLAIM Magazine - 2010-04-09

The Sadies Stream New Album Online, Book Canadian Tour  4/8/2010 By Alex Hudson  Back in February, we revealed that alt-country workhorses the Sadies were preparing a new album, along with a slew of collaborations. While the details of those collaborations are still forthcoming, the Toronto foursome are now ready to release their latest album, which is called Darker Circles and is due on on May 18 via Outside Music.   

According to a press release, the album was largely recorded during an intense 12-day session at Bathouse Studio on Lake Ontario, with an additional five days at Toronto's Woodshed Studio. The result is an album that deals with "desolation, love and abandonment."   

According to Ugly Things editor Mike Stax, who wrote the liner notes, "There's a haunting, spiritual quality to songs like 'Cut Corners,' 'Tell Her What I Said,' 'Whispering Circles' and 'The Quiet One'; ghosts of regret and lost love reverberate softly between the vocals and guitars or drift like whispers that echo in your mind."

  While the release date is still six weeks away, the album is already streaming in full over at Outside Music and Yep Roc. This means that by the time the Sadies head out on the road in May, you'll already have these songs memorized and be able to sing along with every word.   

The band currently have ten shows booked, starting out in London, ON and heading west to Vancouver. The tour dates and album tracklist are below.

Darker Circles:

1. "Another Year Again"
2. "Cut Corners"
3. "Another Day Again"
4. "Tell Her What I Said"
5. "The Quiet One"
6. "Post Cards"
7. "Whispering Circles"
8. "Idle Tomorrows"
9. "Choosing to Fly"
10. "Violet and Jeffrey Lee"
11. "Ten More Songs"

Tour dates:

5/21 London, ON - Call the Office
5/22 Toronto, ON - Lee’s Palace
5/25 Winnipeg, MB - Pyramid Cabaret
5/26 Saskatoon, SK - Louis’ Pub
5/27 Edmonton, AB - Starlite Room
5/29 Calgary, AB - Dickens
5/30 Canmore, AB - Canmore Hotel
5/31 Canmore, AB - Canmore Hotel
6/1 Nelson, BC - Spiritbar
6/4 Vancouver, BC - The Biltmore

PASTE Magazine - 2009-05-07

John Doe & The Sadies: Country Club
[Yep Roc]

By Stephen M. Deusner
on May 5, 2009 8:59 AM

X FRONTMAN GOES CLUBBING WITH THE SADIES

X always mixed in a little country with its rockabilly punk, but Country Club, a new album with Toronto barnstormers the Sadies, is the first time John Doe devoted himself so completely to the genre, covering songs by Roger Miller, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard—and even X. He’s certainly comfortable with the material, and his worn-leather voice conveys an unexpected tenderness that adds spirited desperation to opener “Stop the World and Let Me Off,” gritty regret to “‘Til I Get It Right,” and aching vulnerability to “Help Me Make It Through the Night.” His only dud is Willie Nelson’s “Night Life,” whose arrangement is so forcefully dramatic that he gets a little lost in the mix. On the whole, though, the Sadies know just when to step forward or back, creating a general bootgazer ambience and re-creating the steely Bakersfield licks of Hag’s “Are the Good Times Really Over for Good.” They speed up Cash’s “I Still Miss Someone” and fit it to a Sun Records stomp, but they only really cut loose on instrumentals like “The Sudbury Nickel” and “Pink Mountain Rag,” which shows how country-club refined the album is.

MOJO - 2009-05-05

EXCLAIM MAGAZINE - 2008-01-15

Wood Wires & Whiskey: Year in Review 2007

1. The Sadies New Seasons (Outside)
The new season for the Sadies definitely isn’t fall; here, they soar to new creative heights, delivering an album that’s been unanimously proclaimed their best. Yet that claim somehow devalues the excellent music these honky-tonk heroes produced over the course of four earlier studio albums, not to mention killer collaborations with the likes of Neko Case, Jon Langford, Jon Spencer and their Rat Fink soundtrack.

The album is the group’s most creatively coherent to date, with the prevailing mood suggesting the psychedelia meets cosmic country cowboy vibe of such pioneering outfits as the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers, not to mention Keelor-led Blue Rodeo. Recruiting Gary Louris as producer proved one smart move. The layered vocal harmonies essential to his own band, the Jayhawks, are a key to the success of New Seasons, with the voices of Dallas and Travis Good (and Louris) meshing seamlessly (the gorgeous “A Simple Aspiration” is a prime example).

“That was something I was hoping he could bring to the forefront,” says Dallas Good. “What I was surprised by was how musically in synch we were on every other aspect of what makes the Sadies. Gary gave me a whole different approach to how I would write a song, in his attention to fine detail. He was definitely the right guy for the job.”

Travis Good is equally complimentary. “We had a lot of songs that weren’t written when we went in and he’d help us with the arranging. He sat with us while we wrote songs, guiding us and telling us what he thought a song would need without actually saying ‘OK, do this or that.’”

For New Seasons, the Sadies adopted a different approach, as Travis explains. “We just wanted to try writing stuff in the studio. Not completely from scratch, but every time someone would have an idea, from a line or a little instrumental bit to almost a complete song. We especially did that in Spain, where we recorded the first half. That was such a nice and inspiring environment. This was also down to wanting to use Gary as much as possible. If we had written and practiced for months before going to Spain, then chances are we’d be set in our ways, and Gary would largely have been engineering.”

The Sadies don’t take accolades for granted. “We’ve been on both sides of the pendulum, and I sure do appreciate the praise,” notes Dallas. “If people say this is a notch above the rest then I’ll take that as an evolutionary compliment, as opposed to a ‘What the fuck am I gonna do now?’ It’s so much more of an uphill battle when you don’t have the support of your peers and the music scene you want to be a part of.”

“It does feel like people are in our corner for this one,” agrees Travis. “I always think every single record I’ve made is the best we’ve ever done, but I also often second-guess these things, which makes the process a little more nerve-wracking.” Our scene is indeed enriched greatly by the Sadies. Their success proves good guys can come first. Long may they ride. Kerry Doole

EDMONTON SUN - 2007-09-18

New Seasons - Outside Music Sun rating: 4 out of 5 Calmer and with a wider backdrop than any Sadies record before it, New Seasons is named appropriately enough right out of the '60s, complete with an album cover that looks like it was shot just behind the witch-infested Black Sabbath farmhouse. Pun intended, it's a very Good record, occasionally creepy and acid-trip personal. Ever since brushing shoulders with Blue Rodeo's Greg Keelor, the band has embraced its Byrds side - to the point of making more listenable country Byrds records than that band ever did. You can call that sacrilege, but go on and revisit Sweethearts of the Rodeo again; its full marks for ambition and bucking the sound of the times gets bogged down a little by some of the hokier or lifeless songs. But it's the Sadies I like on this psychedelic twang album, not the fact they have Gram Parsons records. If anything, it's something else fittingly sneaking in that's great: Mr. Gordon Lightfoot - meaning solid, vulnerable folk not afraid to show its personal roots that still rocks the echoes at the same time. Like Lightfoot's early work - and buy his beige box set if you have the chance - the new Good brothers, bassist Sean Dean and drummer Mike Belitsky go through an interesting evolution here. One of the not-well-kept secrets of the Sadies is that they're practically a metal band when they get going, especially Travis Good, who can shriek like he's in 3 Inches of Blood. You can see all this Oct. 19 at the Starlite, friend. Yet this album cleverly ignores this live talent with a selection of songs that sound, through deliberate production by the Jayhawks' Gary Louris, like unearthed classics. Not musty, but fundamental, with looping, jangling harmonies and long-shelved sentiments like, "How'd we become so tangled?" The ritualistic exhale at the end, a combination of crazed drumming with their caterer Muni Paco's pleasant sigh, rounds up the effort nicely. What I love most about this Toronto band is how they follow their instincts and go for art over kitsch, though you need to look closely to understand the difference. Why they're drawn to this particular era of experimental music is obvious by what they bring back out, always with that signature giddy-up guitar. Definitely worth picking up.

Discography