honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, October 12, 2007

Caddies' tunes, and food pairings to boot

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Golf carts optional: The Mad Caddies, from Santa Barbara, play Pipeline Cafe tonight. That's Sascha Lazor in the middle.

spacer spacer

MAD CADDIES

6 p.m. today

Pipeline Cafe

All ages (under 18 admitted with guardian)

$25

www.808shows.com

Also playing: The Golfcart Rebellion

spacer spacer

Give the little ones a Raffi CD to keep them occupied and some noise-canceling headphones. Santa Barbara favorite sons The Mad Caddies are returning to Honolulu for the first time in two years to make our town safe for — in the band's words the last time they were here — "eclectic rock band(s) with reggae, ska, Dixieland jazz and punk-rock influences." And sea shanties.

Inspired by a morning of Caddies tunes and hungry for lunch, I asked guitarist Sascha Lazor to share his picks for a band-approved "Essential Mad Caddies" mix-CD you can burn at home yourself ... and, as with a fine wine, food pairings to go with each.

Mmmmmm ... conch!

  • "Preppie Girl" (1997)

    "One of the first songs we ever wrote. It's a very juvenile song. It was written when we were, pretty much, still in high school. ... It's one of the first songs we ever wrote that people really kind of gravitated to. It has a very typical early Caddies sound."

    Sascha's food paring: A really sloppy cake. ("The first you ever made in second-grade baking school.")

  • "Monkeys" (1998)

    "The first song (with) what has become the sound that we kind of established and (are) now more known for — Dixieland punk rock. It's the first Dixieland rock song we ever wrote, and quite possibly the first Dixieland rock song ever written."

    Sascha's food pairing: flaming bananas.

  • "Macho Nachos" (1998)

    "It's a very typical rock song with horns. There's nothing unique about it. But it seems to be one of the crowd favorites. ... It's also a (menu item) at Del Taco."

    Sascha's food pairing: nachos, obviously.

  • "Road Rash" (1998)

    " 'Monkeys' was more straight-up Dixieland. This is where we began to incorporate more punk rock with the Dixieland."

    Sascha's food pairing: super-spicy gumbo.

  • "Mary Melody" (2001)

    "Significant because it was the first time that (vocalist) Chuck (Robertson) let everybody know how well the guy can whistle. ... He was short on lyrics (so) he just whistled something. He was just (messing) around, but we decided to keep it."

    Sascha's food pairing: a cherry lollipop.

  • "Drinking for 11" (2003)

    "It's a reggae song about drinking. And who doesn't like reggae, and who doesn't like drinking? You can't really go wrong with that combination."

    Sascha's food pairing: salty Beer Nuts.

  • "Villains" (2003)

    "It has more of an evil Dixieland sound. ... Darker, as opposed to happy. Lyrically, it's about people talking. (Chuck and I) come from a pretty small town (Santa Ynez, Calif.) where people make your business their business. The song was a response to ... people chatting too much."

    Sascha's food pairing: uni. ("The best uni in the world comes from the coast off of Santa Barbara.")

  • "The Dirge" (2007)

    "The first song with our friend (and) official touring member Dustin (Lanker) playing keyboards and doing most of the writing. ... We originally wanted a funeral-dirge sound, and there's a version of that at the end of the record. Then we sped it up and put it on the beginning as well, because it sounded cool.

    Sascha's food pairing: perogies. ("What my family always makes at funerals, because they're Russian. It's a go-to funeral food.)

  • "Riding For A Fall" (2007)

    "We've never really been good at covering songs. But compared to the original (by Jamaican ska/rocksteady singer Delroy Wilson), we did this song justice. The arrangement is good. And production-wise, I like it."

    Sascha's food pairing: conch. ("One of my favorite things to eat in Jamaica. It's a shellfish that, apparently, makes you horny.")

  • "Coyote" (2007)

    "The sound that the band is (now) going for. A darker, more groovy (sound) ... leaning toward reggae-style production with deeper bass and more minor-sounding horn lines ... and a cumbia influence. ... We're always trying to think of new music. That's our future sound right there."

    Sascha's food pairing: fish tacos.

    Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.