Two-Egg Scrambler Album Review by Off-Center Views:


"Sado-Domestics Serve a Tasty Plate of Musical Offerings" (by Rob Weir):
http://off-centerviews.blogspot.com/2015/02/sado-domestics-serve-tasty-plate-of.html

The Sado-Domestics titled their debut release Two-Egg Scrambler, but by my reckoning they broke considerably more eggs and raided the nests of a variety of chickens to make this tasty musical dish. The fourteen tracks are cleverly divided into a "Side A" and "Side B" with the recorded drop of an old-style record changer appearing between tracks seven and eight. This is more than a device–the first seven tracks are more acoustic based and the remaining seven edgier and more electric.

 
The Sado-Domestics are built around the singer/songwriter partnership of Chris Gleason and Lucy Martinez, both of whom also perform as solo acts and with other bands. The ensemble is fleshed out by other veteran Boston musicians, including Bruce Bartone, Shamus Feeney, and Paul Stewart from Gleason's roots band Los Goutos. "Mule in a Swamp" sets the tone for Side A in that many of the tracks are soaked in a Southern brine that's part swamp water, part skillet-licking Appalachia, part acoustic country blues, part folk, and part traditional. Martinez has a voice that impresses by both its power and its sweetness. Her "Dragonfly" is bluegrass influenced, but more fragile, and "Weeds" evokes the reflective melancholia of a Mary Chapin-Carpenter offering. Gleason is a more ironic songwriter. If you can imagine a snarkier version of Steve Goodman, Gleason's "Badly Paid" fits those parameters. "Dahlia," a musing upon the gruesome 1947 Elizabeth Smart murder, is a dark country blues offering in keeping with Gleason's tendency to opt for realism over metaphors.
 
Side B plugs in. Gleason's "Waiting" reminded me of one of the lush songs Tim Buckley used to write, but with the studio string enhancements stripped out and replaced by Bartone's crystalline electric guitar atmospherics. Gleason seems to delight in messing with our perceptions. His "January" rocks, but in a nostalgic, bright way that defies the way most of us think about that month. Similarly, "Together in You" is the only time I've heard the following mentioned in the same song: Skip James, Kurt Cobain, Emmylou Harris, Husker Du, Tom Verlaine, and Richard Nixon. Speaking of Verlaine (Television), Martinez airs her punk sensibilities on Side B. On "Tainted Windows" she juxtaposes bouncy vocals with crunchy power chords, fuzzy feedback, and energetic percussion. Then she goes new wave Devo-like on us on "Bull in a Cage." Think you've got these guys figured out? Uh huh. Listen to Gleason's "At Night We Fall" and get back to me. The tune riffs off of The Beatles' "Let it Be," but the material is country western confessional, including the line, "the road to redemption/Is paved with the best intentions." I can't say whether these folks are as badly housebroken as the band name implies, but I sure can recommend you invite them to your musical table.—Rob Weir 
 

 

Two-Egg Scrambler Album Review by The Noise 

 

http://thenoise-boston.com/2014/05/cd-reviews-22/

SADO-DOMESTICS

Two-Egg Scrambler

15 tracks

All the best elements of grassroots, folk, Americana, country, acoustic meld beautifully in the music that Sado-Domestics creates. Of the 15 tracks, some lean more to one genre than another but the lovely common denominator lies within the harmonization of the strings—fiddle stings, banjo strumming, upright bass, guitar, mandolin, etc.—it’s like a roots symphony—Oh, except for the surprise punk tracks at the end! Not to ignore the other wonderful musical accompaniments that appear throughout as for their respective tunes they add the perfect flavor—accordion, drums/ doumbek, Hammond organ, etc. I don’t mean to tick off a list here but I’m trying to get across how well Sado-Domestics produce and perform their music, how just perfectly they arrange each tune. I feel a genuineness emanating from the songs and a uniqueness among the comfort and familiarity of these genres. I must mention that Sado-Domestics are led by the singer-songwriter duo Lucy Martinez and Chris Gleason—with the songs either sung lead by one or the other or are presented as a vocal duo. It’s a top-notch effort along with the supporting musicians. They are a South Shore-based band that sounds like a seasoned nationally touring band. I’m impressed and glad that this CD landed in my hands! I particularly love “Dragonfly,” “River,” “Waiting,” and “Tainted Windows.”
(Debbie Catalano)




Two-Egg Scrambler Album Review by The Alternate Root

Our new album, Two-Egg Scrambler, was recently reviewed by The Alternate Root. You can read the review here:
http://www.thealternateroot.com/rack-3/1880-sado-domestics-2egg?Itemidindex_php%3Foption=com_content

"The album title works but a Two-Egg Scrambler is not big enough to offer space to all the sound styles that Sado-Domestics had packed for the album. The static waves clear when the band dials in album opener “Mule in a Swamp”. The tune is a kitchen sink of percussion, scratchy fiddle, plucked banjo and slowly creeping bass notes. The notes swirl like swamp mist giving the joined vocals of Chris Gleason and Lucy Martinez as haunted feel. Mood and music share the song cycles throughout Two Egg Scrambler. Bookending the street corner jumble of the opening track is the arena-sized electric attack of Stooges-like “Bull in a Cage”. Bordering the album sound with extremes allows for lots of room for Sado-Domestics to dance a slow reel (“Lady in Blue”), drift with fresh air folk (“Weeds”) and tame acoustic rhythm and psychedelic electric feedback into form (“Waiting”).  The hurried folk telling of Hollywood history of with “Dahlia”, the telegraphed tapped notes and rhythms that circle “The Moon” like satellites, the front porch breeze that lifts up “Dragonfly” and he sunshine folk-rock simple promises of “Together in You” all fit into the Sado-Domestic jukebox of Two-Egg Scrambler."