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TDA! Squeeze Box

THOSE DARN ACCORDIONS! MEDIA MENTIONS

YEAR 1996 -

Reviews of the Album, No Strings Attached (See 1997 for other reviews of this CD)

Other Years...

Those Darn Accordions! (TDA!) is an octet from San Francisco devoted to making the world safe for accordion fanciers. As one of their T-shirts proclaims: "Accordions don't play Lady of Spain, People do." Six of the eight members of TDA! play the accordion (in public), and a bassist and drummer fill out the band. According to this formula, the bass and drums lay down the groove and the accordions take the rest, sometimes screaming like lead guitars and sometimes providing a more subtle backing.

The majority of the 14 tracks on "No Strings Attached" are TDA! originals. These are often wry and humorous, presenting little vignettes about people like "Hamsterman" or "Citizen Contraire" and important topics such as where the Loch Ness monster came from, or whether "Them Hippies Was Right."

As is their wont, they also throw in a couple of covers. (They refer to them as accordion "enhancements" of classic songs.) This time out, they include a convincing version of The Who's "Baba O'Riley" and a curious (and probably downright sardonic) cover of Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" (with band member Clyde Forsman, 81 years old, taking the lead). There are also a couple of more traditional accordion instrumentals ("Ramune" and "Mambo Triste"), and Dick Contino provides a couple of solo accordion cameo appearances.

TDA! are clearly unabashed (and successful) evangelists for the accordion. As they sing on the track "Behind the Bellows" - "I never got nowhere/ 'Til I started pumping air."

- Ivan Emke (Corner Brook, NF Canada)

Well they're at it again, those warped squeezers of the stomach Steinway. This time it's mostly clever, poppy originals, played with their usual attention to quirky detail. Frankly, I think their take on "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy" is a great improvement on the original.

- Elaine Bradtke

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