Songs That Shaped Us – Quasi
‘You Can Stay But You Got To Go’ understandably a WithGuitars favourite, is possibly the first introduction to Quasi’s double album ‘Mole City’ if still in the dark, have a listen below. It is said that ‘Mole City’ is not in the tradition or deviating from the tradition – it is the tradition. After two decades of launching drums, guitars and pianos through the shifting interzones between harmony and chaos (moonlighting along the way with the likes of Sleater-Kinney, Wild Flag, Elliott Smith, Built to Spill and a long list of others), Quasi are a genre of their own – they write songs in the style of Quasi, and Mole City is the Quasi Song Book: Parlour Sing-alongs for the Last Century. for those that can’t wait – Quasi tour the UK in December 2013 (tour dates below) and ‘Mole City’ will be released on CD (WIGCD312), LP (WIGLP312) and digitally (WIG312D) on September 30th. Pre-order HERE.
Stream the impressive ‘You Can Stay But You Got To Go’
From here on in, are the picks from Sam Coomes. A healthy batch of choices that helped in part, to fuel Quasi’s musical vision, enjoy.
5. Sebadoh “The Freed Pig” Around the time we were beginning to get Quasi together, I was listening to this record quite a bit. This song at that time was a perfect realization of the type of thing I was interested in doing myself: simple song, inventive & solid playing, energy, noise, underground approach – kind of the ideal combo of careful craft & fuck it all attitude which made total sense to me. The other thing is the brutally honest lyrics – I’ve always been a little ambivalent about lyrics, but after this song I felt like I really had to admit they were important, & if I wanted to write a song as great as “The Freed Pig” I would have to up my game in that department. Thanks, guys!
4. Soft Machine “Lullaby Letter” Far as Quasi goes specifically, the first couple of Soft Machine albums were important to me, because here was a keyboard oriented band that was actually great! We never set out to imitate these guys, but since I come from a guitar background & found myself playing a lot of keyboard in Quasi, I needed this music to wrap my mind around the concept of playing the type of music I was interested in with keys instead of guitar. Their sound is almost as stripped down as ours, & they incorporated a lot of improvisation into pop-based structures, which was a also a point of entry for us. Robert Wyatt is also a very honest singer – very important.
3. Black Flag “Jealous Again” Again not my favorite Black Flag song, but the first song on the first punk rock album I ever got. Black Flag was the most notorious band on the scene when I was a teenager in Southern California, & to this day they are one of the few hardcore bands I still get off listening to – but for me hardcore was more of a live experience than a recorded one anyway. The shows in those days (early 80’s) were so intense, so weird. Eventually the scene become more standardized, but it wasn’t really built to last. Punk opened my eyes to the fact that energy & passion were a thousand times more important to music than chops & production, that you didn’t need to practice scales in your room 8 hours a day for however many years to be a legit player, you didn’t need a million dollar recording contract to make a great album. Also Punk laid out the social/economic/political dynamic at work in Rock & Roll, so that you could no longer claim ignorance & just go along with the corporate status quo. Sadly, I feel like a lot of the lessons of Punk Rock have been lost in recent times.
2. Yes “Close to the Edge” A few months or maybe a year after I started tripping on heavy rock, a kid down the street turned me on to this song. He sets the needle on the LP, & slowly a weird tropical/electronic soundscape creeps from the speakers. It get louder…louder…louder…louder, then wwwhhhhhhooooshh the band rips into the weirdest guitar solo I’d ever heard. Instantly opened up my mind to a much wider vista of musical possibilities. I still think its a gutsy way to begin an album.
1. Aerosmith “Back in the Saddle” Since we are talking about songs that shaped us, rather than just favorite songs, I start with this one – the first song on the first album I ever bought. In recent years Aerosmith has become a laughingstock, but around ’77 when I bought this, they were a serious, heavy band. Its a great song – inventive riff, surrealist cowboy lyrics, dark sound. Turned my young head around 180 degrees
Double Album ‘Mole City’ & UK December Tour Announced – Watch the Quasi Trailer Below
Below are the tour dates, and you can find the ticket links HERE
05/12/13: The Fleece – Bristol (UK)
06/12/13: Brudenell Social Club – Leeds (UK)
07/12/13: Broadcast – Glasgow (UK)
08/12/13: Deaf Institute – Manchester (UK)
09/12/13: Hare & Hounds – Birmingham (UK)
10/12/13: Colchester Arts Centre – Colchester (UK)
11/12/13: Shepherds Bush Empire – London (UK)
12/12/13: Norwich Arts Centre – Norwich (UK)
13/12/13: Cargo – London (UK)
14/12/13: The Haunt – Brighton (UK)