When Portland indie-rock duo Quasi released their 2013 album Mole City, they thought it might be their last — but life has a way of asserting itself.
To wit: the terrible car accident drummer Janet Weiss experienced in 2019, which broke her collarbone and both her legs. This came on the heels of Weiss leaving Sleater-Kinney, the critically lauded punk institution where she made her name as one of rock’s most powerful percussionists. Her departure came as a shock to fans. Just a few months later, a different kind of shock took hold when the pandemic upended the world as we know it.
Together with vocalist, keyboardist and guitarist Sam Coomes, the Quasi bandmates (and former spouses) suddenly had a lot of time on their hands. They used it to work, practicing every day and eventually recording the dark yet joyful Breaking the Balls of History, released last year via the iconic Seattle alt-rock label Sub Pop. They had such a good time as an active band, it spurred them to hit the road again. But what would the hook be?
Weiss had enjoyed tours by other reunited legacy acts playing their classic albums in full, which seemed like a good route to get her own beloved duo back on the road. Looking back on Quasi’s catalog, she and Coomes saw a clear fan favorite: 1998’s Featuring “Birds.”
“It’s when a lot of people our age got into Quasi,” Weiss, 58, told Boulder Weekly ahead of the band’s July 18 gig at the Marquis Theater in Denver, where they’ll play the classic LP front-to-back alongside a smattering of other material from throughout their career. “We thought that’d be a good way to connect with people and bring some out of the woodwork that we haven’t seen in a while.”
Interludes at altitude
Some of the songs from Featuring “Birds” have never been played live, but Weiss and Coomes are enjoying the process of reconnecting with different parts of themselves. With the addition of former bandmate Joanne Bolme on bass for this tour, the band can now play material that didn’t work live as a two-piece.
“It is a bit of an experiment, though,” Weiss says. “We’ve never done it, so it’ll be interesting to see how it feels.”
Quasi’s catalog is full of corkers, but there’s something special about Featuring “Birds.” The band’s third album is a brilliant expression of their ability to rough up electro-pop perfection with hard-hitting drums and cerebral yet catchy riffs, the darkness of the lyrics charmingly obscured by lovely vocal melodies.
The music speaks for itself, as evidenced by the album’s guileful title. Though it does refer to a song on the record (“Birds”), it’s not an essential one in Coomes’ view.
“It has no lyrics. It’s more of an interlude,” he says. “It was a way to make the title neutral while at the same time referring to the record. … If you name an album [something] like Heartbreak and Loss, before you even hear the music, you have an impression. It’s good to choose a title that is interesting but doesn’t necessarily put its finger on the scales of perception.”
“It’s like not playing favorites,” Weiss adds. “You see those records featuring the hit song. It’s turning that on its head.”
The dream of the ’90s is alive in Denver
The band is overdue for a Denver show, as their most recent one was canceled by COVID. Over the years they’ve made several stops in the Mile High City, but when recalling memories of Colorado tours, it’s the mid-90s that comes to Coomes’ mind.
“My bandmate Elliott’s mother lived in Denver, so we stayed there when we were on tour with Heatmiser,” the 60-year-old musician says. “We had a day off and we drove from Denver to Boulder to get coffee at Starbucks, because that was the only Starbucks in the state, probably.”
Elliott is, of course, the late singer-songwriter, indie music icon and fellow Portlander Elliott Smith. In addition to Heatmiser, Coomes played on some of Smith’s albums and Quasi was often his backing band when touring his celebrated fourth studio album, XO. They opened many of the shows, with Smith sometimes joining the band during their sets. He’s also listed as one of the executive producers on Featuring “Birds” — alongside at least eight other people, which the band says was essentially an inside joke.
The Portland scene has earned its place in music history now, but then it was more or less a backwater. It was smaller than others and thus more concentrated, with everyone attending all the same shows and drawing inspiration from each other.
“That developmental stage of the music can be the most exciting, when you see someone doing something you’ve never seen anyone do,” Weiss says.
When it comes to Smith’s particular influence on the band, Coomes points to the Featuring “Birds” song “Please Do” as the most direct example.
“It’s an acoustic fingerpicking song. Would I have ever done that had I not been friends with Elliott? No,” he says. “I thought, ‘I want to do that, too’ … I can’t say that I love the song now, but at the time I had never done anything like that. After we did, I realized: better to just plug in the electric and crank it up.”
ON THE BILL: Quasi – Featuring “Birds” Tour. 7 p.m. Thursday, July 18, Marquis Theater, 2009 Larimer St., Denver. $30+