Tales of the Rat Fink: Original Soundtrack

They Say...

Review by Mark Deming, All Music Guide

Given their obvious fondness for the sound of surf guitar (which has manifested itself to some degree on most of their albums), it's no great surprise that the Sadies were tapped to provide music for Tales of the Rat Fink, a documentary about legendary custom-car designer Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, whose stylistically outsized automotive creations and wacky monster T-shirts were a major part of the "cars, girls, surfing, beer" mindset of teen life on the West Coast before the hippie movement set in. Sadies axemen Dallas Good and Travis Good certainly capture the mood of that era on this soundtrack album, in which they conjure up the spirit of Dick Dale, Davie Allan, Lonnie Mack, Link Wray, and any number of other instrumental guitar titans while following the pattern in which the washes of twang and reverb accompanied such classic surfing documentaries as The Endless Summer. However, this is a soundtrack album, which means the songs were written to fit the action on the screen, and instead of full-blown songs, most of the tracks on Tales of the Rat Fink are short cues, with 26 selections crammed into less than 32 minutes; one number rarely has time to establish itself before another one takes its place. But if you like to hear the Sadies in more rockin' and less twangy form, Tales of the Rat Fink is sure to satisfy -- the guitars are fun and fiery, the rhythm section cooks, and this will sound great booming out of the stereo of something chopped and channeled on a summer afternoon.