Pitchfork Forkcast: Stream: Qui: "Today Gestation" / "Freeze" [MySpace]

Stream: Qui: "Today Gestation" / "Freeze" [MySpace]

You hear David Yow's coming back, you visualize Jesus in sandals made out of broken glass and lighter fluid, with one hand behind his back holding something blunt. The two new tracks he's recorded with his latest band Qui aren't the second coming, but just a matter of hitting expectation. "Today Gestation" seems a little obvious: some coy, woozy single-note blues riffing and flat-footed drums while Yow whispers and wavers, then they dial it up for the chorus and let him wail in that tortured-but-loving-it vibrato. Of course it works; a Jesus Lizard reunion that replaced the original members with Dave Navarro and Tommy Stinson could have figured that one out.

"Freeze", though-- that's more like it. The song has the advantage of being the perfect soundtrack to anyone in the northern U.S. this week, a climbing moebius squiggle of a guitar line that's second fiddle to Yow's gurgling and foaming, before he chokes out one key phrase: "Why would anyone live here??" Before you can formulate an answer about cheap rent and good schools, Yow ends the sputtering finale with a mumbled riddle about penguins, seals, and ice cream. I've heard him tell better penguin jokes. But I'm glad he felt compelled to tell another one.

Stream: > Qui: "Today Gestation" / "Freeze" [MySpace]
[from an untitled forthcoming album on Heart of a Champion Records]

Thu: 05-15-08: 04:15 PM CDT
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