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Quasi
Quasi (phonetics 'kwa - zee') is an American indie rock band formed in Portland, Oregon in 1993 by former spouses Sam Coomes (vocals, guitar, rocksichord, various keyboards, bass) and Janet Weiss (vocals and drums). Joanna Bolme performed and recorded with the group as a bassist from 2007 to 2011. History In 1990, Sam Coomes, Janet Weiss, and Brad Pedinov formed the band Motorgoat. The band released two self-released cassettes and one 7" single before dissolving in 1993. Coomes and Weiss then began recording as a duo in 1993 under the name Quasi. They played with various additional musicians in early live appearances, but eventually settled on playing live as a duo as well. They self-recorded and self-released a cassette and a CD in 1993. They recorded ''R&B Transmogrification'' in the Portland band Pond's basement recording studio and released it on Up Records in 1997. They released two more albums with Up: ''Featuring "Birds"'' in 1998 and '' Field Studies'' in 1999; bot ...
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Janet Weiss
Janet Lee Weiss (born September 24, 1965) is an American rock drummer, best known as a former member of Sleater-Kinney and a current member of Quasi. She was the drummer for Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, leaving after the album ''Mirror Traffic'', and contributed to the Shins' fourth studio album, ''Port of Morrow'' (2012). She was also the drummer for the supergroup Wild Flag. Weiss is highly regarded as a drummer; ''Stylus Magazine'' listed her in 2007 as number 48 of rock's 50 greatest drummers, while in 2014 ''LA Weekly'' placed her at number 12 in the top 20. In 2016, ''Rolling Stone'' placed her at number 90 on its list of the 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time, and in 2018, ''New Musical Express'' ranked her as number 25 of the top 32 rock drummers. Early life Weiss was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California to a Jewish family, and began playing guitar at the age of 16. According to her interviews, her two elder sisters introduced her "to good music". She left Hollywoo ...
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R&B Transmogrification
''R&B Transmogrification'' is an album by the American indie band Quasi. It was released on March 25, 1997, on Up Records. Critical reception ''Record Collector'' wrote that the album is "clever from the get-go; between their heavily distorted rocksichord (a kind of electronic keyboard made to approximate the sound of a harpsichord) and lyricism that tells of the worst kind of heartbreak, there’s a sort of commercial viability without selling the soul of these songs." ''Trouser Press'' thought that "the imaginative music includes everything commercial pop lacks: the pioneering spirit navigating a sinking ship, violations of civilized taste and neurotic condemnations." Track listing All tracks by Sam Coomes except "Bird's Eye View" by Janet Weiss and Coomes. # "Ghost Dreaming" – 3:24 # "Ballad of Mechanical Man" – 3:13 # "In the First Place" – 4:02 # "Bird's Eye View" – 3:23 # "Two-Faced" – 2:53 # "Ghost vs. Vampire" – 3:26 # "R&B Transmogrification" – 2:29 # "When ...
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Sam Coomes
Samuel J. Coomes (born April 23, 1964) is an American musician, and one-half of the Portland-area indie band Quasi, along with his ex-wife, drummer Janet Weiss. Coomes was also a member of the mid-1980s underground pop band The Donner Party and replaced Brandt Peterson as the bassist for the 1990s Portland indie rock band, Heatmiser, playing on their final studio album, ''Mic City Sons''. Biography Coomes was born in Sherman, Texas, and moved to Southern California as a child. He started playing in The Donner Party in San Francisco in 1983 and released two albums with them before they disbanded in 1989. Coomes formed Motorgoat in Portland in 1990 with Janet Weiss (later of Sleater-Kinney) and they released two cassettes and one 7" single before disbanding and becoming Quasi in 1993. Coomes released a solo album under the name Blues Goblins in 2003 and sometimes performs under that name. He also performs on keyboards and vocals with the Oakland, California-based band, Pink Mountai ...
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Joanna Bolme
Joanna Bolme (born April 1, 1968) is a multi-instrumentalist (primarily bass guitar) and recording engineer who works with several indie rock bands and artists, mainly in the Pacific Northwest. She has been the bass guitarist for Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks since their formation in 2001. On October 12, 2019, Bolme was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. Biography Career Bolme became interested in playing music after seeing The Pretenders while in high school, and she was a fan of the Portland punk scene in the 80s. She learned to play bass when she "got bored with guitar" while playing with Calamity Jane. Over the years, she has played in bands including Quasi, The Minders, The Spinanes, Jr. High, Calamity Jane, Consortium, The Shadow Mortons, and Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. Bolme was a long-time friend (and former girlfriend) of musician Elliott Smith; she worked to mix his critically acclaimed 1997 album ''Either/Or'' and his posthumous 2004 album ''From a Ba ...
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Up Records
Up Records was a Seattle based independent record label founded in 1994 by Chris Takino and Rich Jensen. Some of the label's best known artists were 764-Hero, Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, Quasi and Tad. Chris Takino died of leukemia in 2000. The label was owned and managed by his partner Pete Ritchey until it was licensed to Sub Pop about 2018. The last update to the Up Records website was in 2007. Discography *UP000 Various Artists - Up Records Sampler 7" *UP001 Violent Green - You Make Me Wish I Had a Gun 7" *UP002 Juned - So White 7" *UP003 Mike Johnson - 100% Off 7" *UP004 Butterfly Train - Blame Weight 7" *UP005 Butterfly Train - Building Distrust From Trust CD/LP *UP006 Built To Spill - There's Nothing Wrong With Love CD/LP/CS *UP007 Juned - Juned CD/LP *UP008 Mike Johnson - Where Am I? CD/LP/CS *UP009 Oswald Five-O - Blue TV 7" *UP010 Violent Green - Eros CD/LP/CS *UP011 Land of the Loops - Multi Family Garage Sale 7" *UP012 Hush Harbor - Hush Harbor CD/10" *UP013 ...
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Elliott Smith
Steven Paul Smith (August 6, 1969 – October 21, 2003), known professionally as Elliott Smith, was an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and lived much of his life in Portland, Oregon, where he gained popularity. Smith's primary instrument was the guitar, though he also played piano, clarinet, bass guitar, drums, and harmonica. He had a distinctive vocal style, characterized by his "whispery, spiderweb-thin delivery", and often used multi-tracking to create vocal layers, textures, and harmonies. After playing in the rock band Heatmiser for several years, Smith began his solo career in 1994, with releases on the independent record labels Cavity Search and Kill Rock Stars (KRS). In 1997, he signed a contract with DreamWorks Records, for which he recorded two albums. Smith rose to mainstream prominence when his song "Miss Misery"—included in the soundtrack for the film ''Good Will Hunting ''( ...
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Heatmiser
Heatmiser was an American rock band, formed in Portland, Oregon in October 1991. Consisting of Elliott Smith (guitar and vocals), Neil Gust (guitar and vocals), Brandt Peterson (bass; later replaced by Sam Coomes, frontman of Quasi) and Tony Lash (drums), they were known for their well-crafted lyrics and songs often featuring the juxtaposition of melancholic and cheery words and melodies. The pop-oriented songs of Elliott Smith were a contrast to the darker songs of Neil Gust, while both Smith's and Gust's songs touched on subjects such as anger, alienation, loneliness and despair. History Pre-Heatmiser early years (1987–1990) In 1987, while both of them were attending classes at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, Neil Gust and Elliott Smith met and formed a band, Swimming Jesus. In addition to covers of songs by Ringo Starr and Elvis Costello, the pair performed original songs in clubs in nearby Northampton. The two were prolific: besides Swimming Jesus, Gust ...
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Wild Flag
Wild Flag was an American four-piece indie rock/post-punk supergroup based in Portland, Oregon and Washington, D.C. The group consisted of Carrie Brownstein (vocals, guitar), Mary Timony (vocals, guitar), Rebecca Cole (keyboards, backing vocals) and Janet Weiss (drums, backing vocals), who were ex-members of the groups Sleater-Kinney, Helium and the Minders. Musical influences The members of Wild Flag have extensive musical histories prior to forming this band. Carrie Brownstein played in Excuse 17 from 1993 to 1995 and then more famously in Sleater-Kinney from 1994 until 2006 when the band went on hiatus. Janet Weiss had drummed simultaneously for both Quasi and Sleater-Kinney throughout the late nineties and early 2000s, afterwards contributing to Bright Eyes, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks and Conor Oberst albums. Mary Timony played guitar and shared vocals in Autoclave in the early nineties, then went on to do the same for the band Helium from 1992 to 1997. Afterwards, she ...
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Sleater-Kinney
Sleater-Kinney ( ) is an American rock band that formed in Olympia, Washington, in 1994. The band's current lineup features Corin Tucker (vocals and guitar) and Carrie Brownstein (guitar and vocals), following the departure of longtime member Janet Weiss (vocals, drums, and harmonica) in 2019. Sleater-Kinney originated as part of the riot grrrl movement and has become a key part of the American indie rock scene. The band is also known for its feminist and liberal politics. The band released seven studio albums between 1994 and 2005: ''Sleater-Kinney'' (1995), '' Call the Doctor'' (1996), ''Dig Me Out'' (1997), '' The Hot Rock'' (1999), '' All Hands on the Bad One'' (2000), ''One Beat'' (2002) and '' The Woods'' (2005). They went on hiatus in 2006 and devoted themselves to solo projects. They reunited in 2014 and released '' No Cities to Love'' on January 20, 2015, and ''Live in Paris'' in January 2017. Their second studio album after their reunion, ''The Center Won't Hold'', was ...
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Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks is an American rock band consisting of Stephen Malkmus, Mike Clark, Joanna Bolme, and Jake Morris. Malkmus was the main singer and songwriter behind the influential 1990s indie rock band Pavement. History The Jicks formed in 2000, almost immediately after Pavement's 1999 "hiatus" began. The group's first record - which had a working title of ''Swedish Reggae'' - was simply called ''Stephen Malkmus''. It was released by Matador Records on February 13, 2001. The group made their official live debut at New York's Bowery Ballroom only a few weeks before their first record was released. Around this time, Pavement's auxiliary percussionist Bob Nastanovich began acting as The Jicks' tour manager, and Mike Clark joined on keyboards. ''Pig Lib'' was the name of the band's second record, which was released in 2003. The album featured a looser interplay between the musicians with longer song lengths and a growing emphasis on guitar solos. The album ...
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Touch And Go Records
Touch and Go Records is an American independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois. After its genesis as a handmade fanzine in 1979, it grew into one of the key record labels in the American 1980s underground and alternative rock scenes. Touch & Go carved out a reputation for releasing adventurous noise rock by the likes of Big Black, the Butthole Surfers, and The Jesus Lizard. Touch & Go helped to spearhead the nationwide network of underground bands that formed the pre-Nirvana indie rock scene, and helped preside over the shift from the hardcore punk that then dominated the American underground scene to the more diverse styles of alternative rock emerging at the time. History The zine was formed in 1979 in East Lansing, Michigan as Touch and Go magazine, a self-printed fanzine written and produced by Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson. It wasn't until 1981 that it grew into an independent record label. Vee (later front man of The Meatmen) was bored with the punk sounds of the day ...
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Domino Recording Company
Domino Recording Company or simply Domino is a British independent record label based in London. There is also a wing of the label based in Brooklyn, New York that handles releases in the United States, as well as a German division called Domino Deutschland and a French division called Domino France. In addition, Stephen Pastel presides over the subsidiary label Geographic Music, which releases more 'unusual' music from Britain and outside of the Western world. In 2011, the company announced that it was beginning a book publishing division, The Domino Press. History Founded in 1993, by Laurence Bell and Jacqui Rice, the label's first release was the Sebadoh EP '' Rocking the Forest'', licensed from Sub Pop records for release in the UK. Many of the early releases were by American artists who in the US were signed to Drag City (Smog, Will Oldham, Royal Trux), a relationship which continues to this day. Success was not immediate, as labels such as Domino, who were releasing ...
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