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Excavating Variant Cause Pacific Northwest 1980s Volume 1
Variant Cause
In the hotbed of the 1980s Pacific Northwest, some rock critics thought Variant Cause had a sound ten years ahead of its time. Others thought the group was a decade too late. Twenty years later, Variant Cause careens headlong into the 21st Century.
Collection Contents
| # | Title | Length | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
Kamikaze Cabaret | 4:00 | Play |
| 2 |
|
Right Now She's Not | 2:34 | Play |
| 3 |
|
Blue Hotels | 3:39 | Play |
| 4 |
|
Push Out Your Borders | 3:20 | Play |
| 5 |
|
Last Chance for Losers | 4:24 | Play |
| 6 |
|
She's A Moving Violation | 5:36 | Play |
| 7 |
|
Exotic Locale | 4:14 | Play |
| 8 |
|
Are You Domesticated | 2:20 | Play |
| 9 |
|
I Love You | 3:22 | Play |
| 10 |
|
Till the Craving's Gone | 4:39 | Play |
| 11 |
|
Life in the Wind | 3:06 | Play |
| 12 |
|
Bad Blood Between Us | 3:19 | Play |
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| Description | Amount |
|---|---|
| Bitmunk Marketplace Service | USD $0.98 |
| CD Baby Artist Royalty | USD $5.97 |
| CD Baby 9% Digital Distribution Cost | USD $0.54 |
| Bitmunk Download Service | USD $0.71 |
| Bitmunk MicroPayment Service | USD $0.01 |
| Total | USD $8.18 |
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Description
The Pacific Northwest rock scene of the 1980s was a hotbed of creativity, with a multitude of bands developing uncommon sounds in relative geographic isolation. In the decade prior to the dotcom boom, living was gloriously cheap and a rock & roll band had the time to grow and develop, unconstrained by any set musical standards of conformity.
Variant Cause was an odd combination of disparate personalities who came together to create a brand new sound. Any given week throughout the 80s you could find the core group in one of their incarnations performing neoteric rock: at an armory dance, a DIY loft party or an intimate rock club. In Seattle, Spokane, Bellingham, Salem, Portland, Moscow, Tacoma and all points in between. They were the local opening act for Iggy Pop, Nico, Ian Hunter, the Godfathers and the Blasters.
Despite their fair share of drug and alcohol drama, mishaps and calamity, Variant Cause managed to step past their influences and forge together a unique and highly developed sound that was decidedly their own.
With the recent discovery of the old master tapes -- thought to have been destroyed years ago -- their songs can be heard again. Transferred to digital and re-mastered, we now present a treasure trove sampler of their eclectic Northwest sound: Variant Cause -- excavated for your fresh aural discovery in the 21st Century.
"Their just-compiled album rocks some dark-and-moody carnival-goth slime, some psychobilly goo-goo muck, some proto-techno jungle drums a'la Suzi Quatro's "Primitive Love" and a great song called "She's A Moving Violation" that dedicates surf guitar explosions and metal screeches and trippy garage organs to someone's backfield in motion. And it all has a goofball bounce to it that would have scared most grungesters back to their heroin dens."
- Chuck Eddy, Paper Thin Walls, Sept 2006
What they said back in the 1980s:
"From the first eight bars of this record you know exactly where Variant Cause is coming from and it's definitely nowhere you've ever been before . . . . Hey, they kill. I recommend you get a hold of this record -- if you want to know what an inventive rock group will sound like in the 90s. That's what this stuff by Variant Cause is: pop music of the 90s."
- Two Louies, Portland 1987
"Top 10 on Pluto . . . Somewhere there's a planet where Variant Cause is in the Top-40. That planet is not Earth. . . . In these days of simplified guitar-only grunge rock, Variant Cause stands out like an Escher print in a Picasso display."
- Jon Davis, Seattle Backlash, November 1989
"Puncture writers passed so much time in a state of disagreement on this record, the paste-up crew seize the last word. Neat songs! Variant Cause tunes move in a big, decided way . . . Maybe it's a matter of more English or Continental music values (cant a Seattle band have those if they want em?) not exactly fitting into the US rock & roll landscape. To us, Variant Cause sounds intriguing, musical, full."
- Kit Drumm, Puncture, San Francisco 1987
"This is one of the most original things I've heard in a long time. It's tuneful, melodic hard rock, but boy is it weird. If these guys had come out in the mid-'70s, they'd have been gods."
- Tower Pulse, Sacramento 1988
"Some (local)bands are original and some are popular. Few are both, and none more so than Variant Cause."
- Confetti, Seattle 1988
"The rich, in other words, get richer, while such worthy talent as Seattle's Variant Cause languishes virtually unheard because it isn't rich. The status quo is served. You and I ain't."
- John Mendelssohn, Creem Magazine 1986
"From the opening track, you know that this is a great and different album that reminds you, almost, of something familiar, yet so different you can't quite put your finger on it. Variant Cause produces an infectious sound that is impossible to categorize, yet irresistible to listen to. Chock full of catchy licks and superior song-writing."
- 4 R Column, Texas 1988
"In fact, Variant Cause are really freaked androids with their wires crossed. Constantly busy, twisted with manic invention, loopy by nature. these guys are more demented than they know . . . a runaway fling of stimulus-junkie madness. Electric eccentrics, safe in small doses."
- Jack Thompson, Option Magazine, Santa Monica 1987
Homemade takes a long time, and this group has made it from scratch. Theyve been walking on the edge so long that they think theyre in the middle of the road. But their geographic location has allowed them to develop their unpretentious sound and their fascinatingly distinctive musical/lyrical bent.
- Magpie, Salem 1987