Quirky West Coast duo Quasi have been intermittently ploughing their cerebral psyche pop furrow for three decades now. Their 10th long player, the eagerly awaited ‘Breaking the Balls of History’, sees the former spouses Janet Weiss (Drums, Vocals) and Sam Coomes (Keys, Guitars, Vocals) reunited in the studio after a decade or so, the intervening years spent doing a million and one other musical projects, most notably Weiss’s involvement with Sleater-Kinney.
“Breaking the balls….” marks Quasi’s debut on famed seattle alternative label Sub-Pop Records, with 18 dates in Europe penned in for this Spring, including a May Day appearance at Brudenell Social Club. The band are clearly making up for lost time as they originally planned to return to the studio in 2019. This was put on hold firstly by Weiss’s recovery from a car accident (double leg break, ouch!) before covid wreaked its havoc, forcing the duo off the road. Nevertheless, the duo jammed together every day, with ‘Breaking the Balls of History’ the natural end product.
Recorded in Seattle and produced by John Goodmanson, (another Sleater-Kinney connection), the 12-tracks of shimmering pop conceal a darker underbelly of post covid neuroses. Coomes is in full spleen venting mode, dismayed at his nation’s political upheaval as well as the proliferation of many a batshit community thanks to their amplification by social media in front of an audience with sod all better to do thanks to covid enforced isolation. It’s potent stuff all right, all propelled by Weiss’s rock steady beat driving forward Coomes phat Rocksichord sound.
Opener ‘Last Long Laughs’ opens with a brief Coomes scene setter before Weiss’s piledriver drums kick in. Quasi’s trademark vocal harmonies are still effortlessly intertwined, proving old habits die hard and I’m getting a definite fab fourness about the Quasi sound on this record too. Throw in a smattering of gallows humour, Coomes intoning on the opener “You cant let the bastards bring you down” and you’ve conclusive proof that our nations finest export, namely sarcasm, is equally valued on the Quasi side of the pond.
Lead-off single ‘Queen of Ears’ seems like it’s throw together from a bunch of non-sequiturs chucked against a wall to see what sticks, whilst ‘Gravity’ proves another Beatles tinged slice of woozy pop perfection containing smart references without really going anywhere else, but then again it doesn’t really need to.
Coomes takes a swipe at his country’s political failings in the frenetic ‘Riots and Jokes’ whilst’ ‘Doomscrollers’ laments the consequences of covid enforced isolation whilst taking a swipe at aforementioned crackpot fringe groups including climate change deniers and anti vaxxers.
Weiss takes lead vocal on the queasy otherworldly ‘Inbetweenness’ whereas on the 70 second title track, Coomes’ frustrations almost boil over. Penultimate track ‘Rotten Wrock’ has a glam laden groove before the dreamy denouement ‘The Losers Win’ rounds off a fine return to form.
Words - Mike Price
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