Pitchfork: Sam Coomes Talks New Quasi Record

Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss lack blood relations, aren't married (anymore), don't only function in a red and white world, and perhaps most importantly, had nothing to do with "Who's a Big Baby?"

Nope, the male/female guitar/drums duo that makes up Quasi is only responsible for When the Going Gets Dark, a new album due out via Touch & Go on March 21. In order to get the full scoop and keep the White Stripes comparison filler to a minimum, Pitchfork spoke with Coomes last week regarding the new album, tour plans, and side projects.

"I suppose it's not going to be earth-shattering," Coomes said of When the Going Gets Dark. "Originally I was calling it �neoclassicism'-- not like Mozart classicism, but classic rock, or even jazz or reggae-- all the records that are sort of band-oriented, you know, drums and bass and guitar and piano... before all kinds of fancy production and electronics and shit like that started kind of dictating the sounds of records. We didn't stick entirely to that in the end, but it's more like that-- just sort of guitar, drums, bass, singin'-- simple instrumentation."

Hey, take out the word "bass", and that sure sounds like the words of a certain candy cane child.

COomes said that the duo recorded as if they were a quartet, with drums, guitar, piano, and bass making up the majority of the improvisation-based record. Coomes commented, "It still sounds like Quasi, but I feel like we're branching out a little bit."

When the Going Gets Dark was recorded with Steven Wray Lobdell (Davis Redford Triad, Faust) in his Portland studio and sent off for Dave Fridmann's mixing treatment. "It was getting out of hand," Coomes said, "so [Dave] helped us out-- sprinkled a little pixie dust on it and it sounds pretty good." Think happy thoughts!

At this point in time, the album is complete aside from the finalized artwork. The tracklist is as follows:

01 Alice the Goon
02 The Rhino
03 When the Going Gets Dark
04 I Don't Know You Anymore
05 Peace and Love
06 Beyond the Sky
07 Presto Change-o
08 Poverty Sucks
09 Merry X-Mas
10 Death Culture Blues
11 Invisible Star

Quasi has two shows scheduled for the end of this month, both with Stephen Malkmus and Weiss' "side project", Sleater-Kinney, with plans to make full touring rounds closer to the album's release. The little drummer girl won't get much of a break between pa rum pum pum pums because, as previously reported, S-K kick off a series of Big Day Out performances in Australia come January. At least it's summer over there... hot shit!

Coomes' side project, Pink Mountain (no, we didn't forget the "tops"), has been bustling as well, with an album slated for release on Frenetic Records... sometime. He explained, "I think Frenetic's trying to get a new distribution thing happening, so it's a little bit up in the air, but it's kind of done and in the can, so when they get together, they'll just be able to roll on it." Coomes described the album as "a prog rock psychedelic improv record of some sort." Honestly, we can't say we're all that surprised.

Quasi dates:

12-29 Seattle, WA - Showbox *
12-30 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom *

* with Sleater-Kinney, Steven Malkmus & the Jicks

Sleater-Kinney dates:

12-29 Seattle, WA - Showbox *
12f30 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom *
01-19 Auckland, New Zealand - Kings Arms
01-20 Auckland, New Zealand - Ericcson Stadium (Big Day Out) #
01-22 Gold Coast, Australia - Parkland (Big Day Out) #
01-26 Sydney, Australia - Sydney Showground (Big Day Out) #
01-27 Sydney, Australia - Gaelic Club
01-29 Melbourne, Australia - Princes Park (Big Day Out) #
02-02 Melbourne, Australia - Corner Hotel
02-03 Adelaide, Australia - Royal Adelaide Showground (Big Day Out) #
02-05 Perth, Australia - Claremont Showgrounds (Big Day Out) #
05-20 East Sussex, England - Camber Sands Holiday Centre (All Tomorrow's Parties) &

* with Quasi, Steven Malkmus & the Jicks
# Big Day Out with Franz Ferdinand, the White Stripes, the Stooges, etc.
& with David Cross, the Gossip