Quasi – You Can Stay But You Gotta Go
Portland indie aristocrats return, cuffing and smacking.
EQUILIBRIUM IS RESTORED. Portland power (ex-) couple Janet Weiss (drums/vocals) and Sam Coomes (vocals/the rest) return as a duo next month (bass player Joanna Bolme having made three on 2010's American Gong). Ahead of Mole City* the duo share this three and a half minute salvo of yin and yang chaos and melody, perfectly balanced on the fulcrum of guitar and drums. Vocally, Sam takes the lead, discharging big themes – mortality, disposable sound-byte culture, financial disarray – with Quasi's usual blinding simplicity while also stepping up to the role of guitar hero, spelling out the nursery rhyme melody in whammy bar syntax, before Janet arrives a minute in, cuffing and smacking the song onto its climactic feedback finish.
*Mole City (a double, naturally) is out on September 30. The first ten vinyl orders get a bespoke, outgoing voicemail message recorded for them by Quasi!
