Tad had documented their unrelenting parade of heavy riffage and antisocial behavior with no small skill on their debut album,
God's Balls, and the follow-up EP,
Salt Lick. But by this point, the bandmembers wanted to broaden their palette a bit, and they upped their ante on 1991's
8-Way Santa.
Tad worked with producer Butch Vig for the
8-Way Santa sessions, shortly before he helped
Nirvana craft the game-changing
Nevermind. While the results lacked a bit of the monster truck impact of
God's Balls, the album certainly favored Steve Wied's drumming, as well as the taut guitar crosstalk between Tad Doyle and Gary Thorstensen.
8-Way Santa sounded cleaner and better detailed than
Tad's previous work without sacrificing the roar of the guitars, and Doyle's vocals were a serious improvement over what came before, still gruff and full of menace but better articulated and with a welcome touch of drama.
8-Way Santa was clearly and unmistakably
Tad, but it also found them showing new ambition in their songwriting. The tunes managed to incorporate melody and hooks in a way that had eluded the band before; "Giant Killer" and "Candi" showed they hadn't lost touch with their thunderous past, but "Jinx" and "Jack Pepsi" were heavy rock you could howl along with, and "Delinquent" even featured a protagonist one could empathize with (or at least feel sorry for). And the hard but unmistakable jangle of "3-D Witch Hunt" revealed
Tad could write something like a pop tune if they felt like it, though they still hit the fuzz pedals for the chorus. Calling
8-Way Santa Tad's most user-friendly album suggests it was somehow compromised, but that's not how it plays; it's dynamic and melodic, but also a master class in the heavier side of grunge, and a work capable of pleasing old fans and winning new ones. And who knows, without a couple of lawsuits related to the cover artwork, it might have been the LP that took
Tad to the big time. [Sub Pop Records reissued their
Tad catalog in 2016, including a new edition of
8-Way Santa. Jack Endino, who produced the band's debut,
God's Balls, remastered
8-Way Santa for this release, and the audio respects the album's balance of heaviness and high fidelity. The reissue included seven bonus tracks -- three non-LP cuts ("Pig Iron," "Nuts 'n' Bolts," and "Eddie Hook") and early demos of four
8-Way Santa tunes ("Delinquent," "Giant Killer," "Wired God," and "3-D Witch Hunt"). The liner notes include an interview with all four bandmembers in which they discuss the making of the album and the legal troubles that stymied its original release.
8-Way Santa is one of the unrecognized landmarks of grunge's heyday, and this edition treats it with the respect and high volume it deserves.] ~ Mark Deming