Featuring "Birds"

Quasi: Sam Coomes, Janet Weiss (various instruments).
Additional personnel: Charlie Campbell (guitar).
Recorded at Jackpot Studio, Portland, Oregon in December 1997.
Personnel: Charlie Campbell (electric guitar).
Recording information: JackPot Studio, Portland, OR (12/1997).
A duo of Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss (who also drums in the acclaimed Olympia punk band Sleater-Kinney), Quasi is one of the most unique bands in the late 90's indie scene. Most of their songs find Coomes on keyboards and lead vocals and Weiss behind the drums, although both take turns on guitar. Their songs belong to the winsome pop tradition epitomized by Badfinger, yet most of them don't have choruses and are generally over in two minutes. Even the title mocks the notion of hit songs--"Birds" is just a short track of birds whistling.
What's perhaps most striking about FEATURING "BIRDS" is its despairing and sarcastic worldview. It's peppered with lines like "Life is dull, life is gray/At best it's just okay/But I'm happy to report/Life is also short." Suicide, the oppression of work, failure and broken romance are also recurring themes. Weiss' drumming is impressive and much more varied than her playing in Sleater-Kinney. The two harmonize together well, almost sweetly at times, making for ironic distance from the bitterness of the lyrics. This is a bleak and intelligent record that should make Quasi as well regarded as Elliott Smith, Modest Mouse, and their other Pacific Northwest contemporaries.