Variant Cause

Excavating Variant Cause
1980s Pacific Northwest
Volume 1 and Volume2
Out Now!
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"By 1986, hard rock in Seattle -- at least the stuff getting noticed elsewhere -- was starting to sludge like Flipper crossed with the Birthday Party (or maybe Black Sabbath crossed with Led Zeppelin in bands' dreams), and that's not where Variant Cause were at either . . .
"Their just-compiled album rocks some dark-and-spooky carnival-goth slime, some psychobilly goo-goo muck, some proto-techno jungle drums 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
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"As far as most of music fandom knows (including me), the Pacific Northwest was a dead issue between the 60s garage rock explosion and the ascent of grunge in the very early 90s. (Heart's 70s superstardom was an exception, of course.) Variant Cause intends to change that perception.
"Excavating-Volume 1 is a set of 80s recordings from a band that crossbreeds the classic rock sounds it grew up with and the new wave noises proliferating in both the mainstream and the underground. Tunes like "She's a Moving Violation," "Right Now She's Not" and "Life in the Wind" sound like the love children of Thin Lizzy and Devo; shockingly, it for the most part works. Part of it's due to Jan Gregor's appealing voice, but most of it is due to the group's unerring accuracy with hooks. It's a sound full of promise, if not exactly timeless. The album title implies this is only the first artifact -- it'll be interesting to hear how this band developed over its lifespan."
Michael Toland, High Bias, Dec 2006
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. Living was cheap and a band had the time to play and grow, unconstrained by any set musical standards of conformity. A rock generation above the grunge groups that eventually put Seattle on the rock map, 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 them performing their neoteric rock somewhere: 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.
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