Monica Topping
Radio Radio Radio

Quasi might be the most prolific band you haven’t heard of, releasing some 15 albums since the mid-‘90s.

Quasi’s claim to fame seems to be its band members’ connections with other bands you might have heard of, like drummer and singer Janet Weiss’s time with riot grrl band Sleater-Kinney; singer, keyboard and guitar player Sam Coomes’ work with Elliot Smith and Built to Spill; and Joanna Bolme’s bass playing with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. Both Bolme and Weiss, in fact, still play with the Jicks outside of Quasi.

The trio actually started out as a Coomes-Weiss duo, born out of the crumbling Portland three-piece Motorgoat, in 1993. After having a number of friends help out with studio recording efforts in the early days, Quasi settled on being a duo, until 2006, when Bolme came on the road with them for a tour with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, and joined as a permanent member of the band the following year.

When Coomes refers to the early days of Quasi, he talks about his and Weiss’ decision to continue playing music after Motorgoat’s bass player left.

“We just basically carried on,” he says. “(We) changed the name, changed our approach a little bit,” and released their self-titled cassette in 1993.

“Interestingly, I think maybe now that we’re a trio again, I think we’re playing music a little bit closer to the trio that we had,” says Coomes, “although at that time, I think we were trying to do something a little bit heavier.”

Bolme is a friend of Coomes and Weiss, who Coomes says they’ve known for a very long time. She joined Quasi as a result of the band’s 2006 album, “When the Going Gets Dark.”

“The last record before this one,” says Coomes, “we tracked it as a duo in the studio, but then we overdubbed bass and guitar parts onto the songs and when it came time to tour, we kind of felt like the songs really needed to have at least a bass in there, so we recruited Joanna, and it was so much fun that we just didn’t let her go.”

Quasi’s newest album, “American Gong,” was recorded as a trio and released last month on the Kill Rock Stars record label. The album unmistakably oozes the grit and melodic noise of the mid-‘90s, and with limited overdubs, should be represented pretty closely in a live setting.

The band sets off on a record release tour this week in Arcata, heads down California, over to Arizona and Texas (in time for SXSW), and back home through the Midwest, before landing back in Portland by the end of the month. They’ll be home for a couple of weeks, then head back out to the eastern U.S. and Canada and American South, before hopping on a plane to Europe in May.

Quasi will play at the HSU Depot this Tuesday, March 9, at 9 p.m. with openers, and Kill Rock Stars label-mates, Explode into Colors. There is a $5 general cover and the show is free for HSU students with their current student I.D.