Consumer Guide Album

Quasi: Breaking the Balls of History [Sub Pop, 2023]
The 58-year-old Portland-not-Seattle organ-not-guitar grunge lifer Sam Coomes--whose first band met cute as the Donner Party and who formed this one with ex-wife and world-class drummer Janet Weiss--could well be the grimmest frontman the northwest ever let out of his niche, and that includes the ones who committed suicide. If songwriters are "just a bunch of dudes trying to sell their egos to the world," as Coomes once remarked, his ego is forever obsessing on "the dead horse before the cart," "flying to Niagara in a lead balloon," "walking on water in your made-in-U.S.A. concrete shoes," "Everyone sleeping in their cars/And all the teenage TikTok stars," "All the houses lost to fire/The anti vaxxers and the climate deniers," and not only could he go on, he does. So recall that it was Coomes who midwifed the pre-inaugural anti-Trump compilation Battle Hymns, a better way to sell his ego to the world than Elliott Smith ever came up with, and figure his darkness is more politico-philosophical than biochemical. In fact, when he and Weiss bring their tour to your neck of this riven land, check them out. Coomes especially could use the money, and deserves it. A-