The king and queen of Northwest noise rock,
the married couple of Sam Coones
and Janet Weiss came to Portland, Oregon
and started making records as
Quasi in the late 90’s. Interestingly,
they ended the marriage but held on
to the friendship and the musical
collaboration right before their
successful career as Quasi got off
the ground. They record and perform
as a duo, Janet on drums, and Sam on
everything else, but most notably, a
piano and an organ on which he pounds
mercilessly while singing sometimes
nicely, more often in a punk rock,
nearly drunken sounding wail.
I heard their earlier
records for the first time in the early
oughts, and liked their brand of mashup
between lo-fi indy sensibility and their
pop melody chops. Theirs were oddball
absurdist lyrics and unconventional
arrangements. The Quasi I have in my
collection comes decidedly later in
their catalog, Mole City from 2013
and Breaking the Balls of History,
ten years later.
On the 2013 offering, there are a few
hooks and some really nice and weird
quieter things, but mostly its a noisy
mess that is difficult to love. Tons
of respect to the aesthetic they’ve
curated and the spirit and verve of the
music, but I have difficulty getting
past its sloppy, dirty sonic palette.
Listening today, I recognize only a
few things from previous listenings.
I must have spun this thing only a
handful of times. It’s just too raw.
I like my music to have more sparkle.
The earlier music from Quasi that I
heard and liked must have had a little
more sparkle. I will say this about
Mole City: it’s not a boring record,
but it’s not a record I could say I like.
Let’s check out the 2023 offering,
Quasi’s most recent album.
Okay, I’m all in on this one.
First, it sounds way better. It’s
still rowdy and noisy or spooky
weird, but the production is more
sonically high fidelity, the drums
sound great, Janet’s drumming
has stepped up a notch, her parts
are inventive and fun, the lyrics are
catchy and almost every song has
a melody that is hummable–and the
vocals are front and center in the
mix. Sam’s actually doing his best
singing. I have always had a prejudice
against bands without a bass player–
drums and guitar duos like The White
Stripes or The Black Keys just piss
me off, on principle. I love bass and
bass guitar. Quasi gets away with it.
They get a pass because their songs
are better and because Sam covers the
range with his left hand and because
everything is a little weird all the time.
Breaking the Balls of History is a really
good album; it’d be a good place to start.
And if not there, go all the way back
to the beginning for Featuring Birds or
Field Studies.
Notes on the vinyl editions:
- Mole City, Kill Rock Stars Records, 2013, black double vinyl.
- Breaking the Balls of History, Sub Pop Records, 2023, opaque pink vinyl.
In case you don’t already know: I’m listening to almost everything in my vinyl collection, A to Z, and writing at least one, sometimes two or three long skinny poem-like-things in response for each artist, and on a few occasions, writing a long skinny poem-like-thing in response to more than one artist. As a poet and a student of poetry, I understand that these things look like poems, but they don’t really sound much like poetry, hence, I call them “poem-like-things.” I’ll admit that they’re just long, skinny essays that veer every now and then into the poetic or lyric.
