| · A snake goes solo.
As far as letdowns go, the last Deadly Snakes record was no 2000 Florida recount, but it sure weren’t no good Deadly Snakes record. The Toronto Stax Records revival garage band’s first album, Love Undone, ranks somewhere between As For Me and My House by Sinclair Ross and those Lawren Harris paintings of the icebergs in the great big list of Canadian achievements. The Snakes were great because they denied the passage of time. Don’t be a punk band and reference Otis and the Stones, they preached – do your damnedest to be Otis and the Stones.
Andre Ethier (née St Claire), who penned most of the Snakes’s early tracks, was down to singing and writing about half the songs on Ode to Joy – the letdown album. Not that keyboard player Max "Age of Danger" didn’t write a few good numbers, but if you’ve got Mick in the band, you wouldn’t let Bill Wyman sing half the songs now would you? Either Bill or Mick will have to release a solo record. Fans everywhere get queasy.
Enter Andre Ethier with Christopher Sandes Featuring Pickles and Price which features... well, you can read. Ethier steps back from the soul-garage pole to the Antarctica of music fetishism – country-rock. Is there precious crude oil under that ice, or is it frozen for a reason? Ethier delivers 12 country tunes that swing so hard your hips get bruised (from all the falling over). His hoarse Memphis vocals take on an unmistakable Dylan drawl for songs about hangin’, sinnin’, and lettin’ yer baby down. Christopher Sandes plays mean ragtime piano over an upright bass-standup snare and brushes rhythm section. At the end of the day, it’s all a little like the Sadies without the Morricone. I ain’t complaining. If you like Blonde on Blonde, Tupelo Honey and Red Headed Stranger and feel that rock music needs innovation like Bedouins need city planning, this record is for you.
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