Tad

Biography/History

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Tad (1988-1999): a Grunge band from Seattle, Washington, USA.

his act was founded by its namesake Tad Doyle (guitar/vocals) and his buddy Kurt Danielson (bass/vocals), both formerly of Bundles Of Piss. The name of the band an abbreviation of Thomas Adam Doyle. After recruiting the services of drummer Steve Wied they would sign to the grunge/alternative cult indie 'Sub Pop', and after their initial single Ritual Device (1988), Tad would release their mini album Gods Balls (1989) a few months later on the infamous same label to become one of the heavier acts ever published by that company, and one who stuck to their original grunge manifesto, along the same lines as Nirvana.

Their sound was reminiscent of doom purists Black Sabbath but crawled through the gutters of the now developing grunge movement and helped create some of its rules. After issuing a cover of Black Flag's Damaged, touring with label mates Nirvana, and hiring Gary Thornstensen (guitar), along with Josh Sinder replacing Wied they would release Salt Lick (1990), their debut album proper.

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The big notoriety came with their next album, 8-Way Santa (1991), the artwork of which featuring a hairy man resting his hand on a woman's breast. The photograph was apparently unauthorized and the woman in question complained in the form of a lawsuit. The album was subsequently removed from store shelves until a more agreeable cover image could be found. Despite the cover art, the album featured some serious musical advancement on the part of the act with the first track Jinx, a song that adequately incorporated melody and choruses, not to mention its story of the band's latest brushes with death, including avoiding getting bombed in an I.R.A. bombing whist staying in a Belfast hotel, surviving a lightening strike, and escaping the crush of a stray boulder (who says the music business isn't a dangerous place). But not all was bad for Doyle landed himself a very small spot in the Cameron Crowe film Singles.

Rey Washam (ex-Rapeman/ex-Scratch Acid) stepped in to replace Sinder on drums in time for the follow up album Inhaler (1993). The album was released on 'Warner' subsidiary 'Giant' and showed Tad giving nothing to commercial demands by returning to their days of old. Subsequently they were dumped off in the lap of 'Music For Nations' for the one-off live concert set Live Alien Broadcasts (1995) before being picked up by 'East West' for Infrared Riding Hood (1995), after-which the band broke up in early 1999 with drummer Josh joining Hotrod Lunatics, and Tad himself in a new band called Hog Molly.