Quasi-Field Studies (1999)

 

Artist: Quasi

Title: Field Studies

Label: Up Records

Format: CD

Cat: UP 072

Year of Release:1999

Country and Year of Edition: US 1999

Sell Price: $3.99 12/5/22  VG+/VG+

Discogs Last Sold: 9/3/22 NM/NM $7.99

Low:$1.00

Median: $2.99

Average: $3.53

High: $7.99

Current low price: $2.50

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 17

Have/Want: 244/17

Where Sold: Indianapolis, IN

Time it took to sell:  10 years

Where and When Purchased: New NYC upon release, Kim's Underground on St. Marks

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B+

Sad To See It Go: No

1998 my friend Jimmy Fountain recommended the Featuring "Birds" album and that became a favorite of mine that year.  This meant I bought a used copy of the release before it, surrounding singles and this follow up brand new when it came out.  Oddly enough, when they moved to Touch 'n Go I stopped buying their records even though Field Studies wasn't much of a drop off in quality.  Maybe I felt Sam Coomes was a bit of a one note Charlie to need to hear every note and utterance, even if I liked or even loved his one note.

When Field Studies came out, I'm pretty sure I bought it brand new,  played it once and filed it away.  The opener "All The Same" is familiar.  The sound is "Beatlesque" or more specifically "George Harrision-esque as filtered by Oasis on the indie rock side of the spectrum."  The second track, "The Golden Egg," is a good example of this as well as "Empty Words."

Listening to this, I started thinking Sam perhaps was a bit too influenced by Elliott Smith, or that was endemic of Portland, Oregon in the late 90's.  Then I noticed that Elliott himself played bass on three of the tracks ("All The Same," "Empty Words," and "Under A Cloud")  that prompted this thought.   I realized that I was gonna have to put the work in and have at least a few passes of Field Studies to see what the "hits" were to approximate the many repeated listening I had with Featuring "Birds."

Yes, there are hits to be had. "All The Same" was the only one I remembered from the release.  Janet Weiss, the other half of the duo, kicks in great harmonies which makes certain tracks jump out.  For me, those A-tracks are "The Skeleton,"  "Under A Cloud," and "Smile."  "Birds" (not to be confused with the "Birds" track from the previous record that consisted of actual bird sounds) is the other standout.  One thing about Quasi is they could stand to chop out about 4 songs an album.  Quality or not, it's hard to focus on all 14 tracks in one sitting.  The feeling of variations on the same thing creep in.  This even renders Coomes distinctive, patented instrument, the rocksichord, occasionally part of the wallpaper. You can sometimes hear some Stooges influence if you listen hard enough.  

I'm sure if I went through each and every Quasi album to catch up, I would find more and more great tracks.  I guess I'll just check them out live sometime.  It's been a while since I left them in the 90's to the point I think of Future Birds as "the new Quasi record I haven't got around to properly listening to."  They put out another half dozen up to 2013 and are still gigging as recently as a few days ago in England.

Overall Quasi are the best at what they do.  They play in various successful acts and even have a solid successful touring and enduring entity to commemorate their broken marriage decades in the past.  I don't wanna read too much into that.  I'm sure as the cliché goes, it's complicated!

Some people love each other but can't live with each other.