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R&B Transmogrification (Up) (star) (star) (star)
Right off the bat, Portland’s Quasi has two remarkable things going for it. The first is that singer Sam Coomes generally eschews the electric guitar in favor of a distorted Roxichord (an electric harpsichord). The other is that Coomes and drummer Janet Weiss (of Sleater-Kinney) were once married. Both musicians downplay their divorce, but there’s no avoiding the emotional baggage; the fact that Coomes’ bitter lyrics may arise from his feelings toward Weiss lends each song a palpable tension. But the band manages to match the melodic thrust of the Kinks and Big Star with cathartic trash-rock primalcy, guaranteeing that “R&B Transmogrification” never falls prey to self-pity.
