When the dark gets going...

They may claim to be Popeye the Sailor man, living in a garbage can, but this record smacks of qualities that are far removed from the garbage cans of contemporary music.

Quasi has been around for more than a decade but I must admit that they didn't appear on my musical radar until earlier this year. The band is a duo that hails from Portland, Oregon, consisting of singer/songwriter Sam Coomes and drummer Janet Weiss.

Sam and Janet first teamed up as Quasi back in 1993 but only started making waves around the turn of the millennium, after Janet had made an appearance as drummer for Sleater-Kinney - on their Dig Me Out (1997) album - and in particular after Quasi signed with Touch & Go in 2001.

Around spring equinoxe 2006 Quasi released their 6th album, the 3rd on Touch & Go, called When the going gets dark. It's a sneaky album. It didn't make a big splash in the press but seems to have snuck up on innocent reviewers and record shoppers. Myself included.

The first thing that struck me about the album is its playfulness and distortion, the surprising blend of styles and instruments; pianos overlayed with fuzzy synthetic sounds and guitars, the throbbing drums and soft backup vocals by Janet. At times it comes close to The Flaming Lips, or perhaps Modest Mouse, but still the album retains a feeling that this is their sound, their music.

When the going gets dark opens with a blaze of hammering piano keys on "Alice the goon", on which Sam's voice has the same out-of-breath qualities that Wayne Coyne sports so well. It's a powerful and clever opener, it caught my attention from the first listen and has even grown with time!

"Peace and love" is another strong track, though it's also the one with the strongest similarities to The Flaming Lips - it could almost have been from their Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots album, with its staccato rhythm, the quirky melody and the way Sam sings and Janet backs him up. It's a wonderful piece of pop rock.

Was I supposed to go down with the ship?
I was not the captain, it was not my trip.
Sailing to the moon, with Alice the Goon.
I'm Popeye the Sailor man, I live in a Garbage Can.
Oh baby, you gotta take the world.

Fortunately the album isn't a carbon copy of The 'Lips. There are many different musical spices on it, not at least on the instrumental track "Presto change-o" that sports a melancolic sounding piano, some jazzy drums and fuzzy guitars. It's really a strong track! On "Merry x-mas" they unwind a bit to perform more basic rock, stil with jazzy sounding drums.

In addition to the opening track and the instrumental. already mentioned, the highlights of the album includes the mellow title-track and the punkish "Death culture blues". The album fades out with the quiet "Invisible star", carried by a "Whiter shade of pale"-sounding Hammond organ. Very nice!

All in all, When the going gets dark is a solid album that still sounds fresh to me after four weeks of repeated playing. It's a favorite this summer!