When the Going Gets Dark

Quasi

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 21, 2006)
• Original Release Date: March 21, 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Touch & Go Records
• ASIN: B000E6GC4I
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #261,273 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The end of the world is nigh and Sam Coomes sounds really pissed about it, and also more than a bit confused. But mostly pissed. Indie-rock's greatest angry piano man--aided and abetted as always by drummer/ co-vocalist Janet Weiss--brings all of his tricks to the table on this loud and excellent album. It's the duo's best since their ground-breaking Featuring "Birds". The chaotic energy of his Blues Goblins persona is given the focus of Badfinger-y pop. And everywhere the menace of stomping, classic rock looms excellently; Coomes' guitar playing has never been so intense and focused. Anyone can look at the world and write "what the hell is wrong with the world?" music, especially today. But few can do it with equal amounts of humor and conviction. The title tune manages that and more. If only preaching to the converted always sounded so sweet. --Mike McGonigal

Product Description

Quasi captures sounds that are powerful, unrepeatable, and unmistakably psychedelic. Producer Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, Sleater-Kinney) made the mixes powerful and unpredictable. He enhanced the swirling, layered, psyche feel. "When The Going Gets Dark" proves that all the blood, sweat, and tears were worthwhile.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Darkness into Light, March 23, 2006

By	D. Michael "misterpleasant" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Some fans of the 90's Quasi sound may find themselves truly left in the dark with WTGGD, but those adventurous enough to follow along with this band's journey will be unduly rewarded with their hardest hitting recording to date. Pounding piano riffs and psychedelic guitar flourishes abound, along with Janet's always dead-on drumming. Alice the Goon and The Rhino get to album off to a heavy piano destroying start, with all of the charm of early Quasi invigorated by the new found heaviness in their sound. The politics of their last release is still evident but less emphasis has been placed on name calling, replaced by a call to own up to one's beliefs. With a top notch melody, Peace and Love is a wonderful continuation of the sentiments in the Nick Lowe/Elvis Costello What's So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding, sung by Sam with a heartfelt urgency. Poverty Sucks could have been an acoustic folk strut on Led Zeppelin 3, except for the lovely Sam/Janet harmonies on the chorus, and lyric content which makes it clear whose side of the economic scale Sam Coomes is on.

Death Culture Blues continues Sam's flirtation with the blues, with stomping, off kilter rhythms and chromatic counterpoint popping in just before the vocals start, giving a big shot of energy as the album comes to a close. The topper and show stopper is the closing track, Invisble Star, which slowly builds from a hymn to a furious Robin Troweresque guitar workout, coming to rest amongst shattering distorion and feedback. This band has made it clear that they are not about repeating the past. The adventure continues.

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great record from Quasi, February 27, 2009

By	Brian Ferguson "bjf10" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Sam and Janet do it again! If you like their earlier work this album will be right down your alley. Poppy ballads with bone-crunching lyrics, with many wonderful jabs at the Bush regime. Great stuff.

3.0 out of 5 stars pleasing...3.5 stars, July 23, 2006

By	S. R. - See all my reviews

Sam Coomes has taken many a shot at the country's current administration in albums past, deserved shots I might add, but goes back into a meat and potatos mode and delivers (along with Janet Weiss) a rabid slab of noisey rock with just a sliver of delicate melody intertwined. "Alice the Goon" gets the effort off to a piano ponding start that moves easily into Coomes best vocal melody on the effort. Track 2, "The Rhino", keeps the calamity going until the simmering scream of the album's title track. Part of Coomes appeal to me is his and Weiss' ability to continually lead the listener almost too far into the void of their menagerie of sounds and rythm only to be brought back into sanity with Coomes unique chord changes struggling to be logical amid the chaos.... It may sound slap-dash at times to many, but it's a very clever approach to rock and roll, especially amid all the blues-based rock throughout rock's brief history. All in all just another very good Quasi effort, lots of noise, thundering rythms, and another clever batch of Coomes lyrics. It's my favorite release of the Spring '06.