WHAT THEY ARE SAYING ABOUT VARIANT CAUSE TODAY:
"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
" . . my first impression was dead wrong. Definitely not hard rock or grunge, "Excavating: Volume I" is instead a collection of eccentric rockers, ranging from throbbing, dance rhythm songs not unlike David Bowie's later material to hip alternative rockers that bring to mind bands like King Crimson, Blue Oyster Cult and Devo (yes, I said Devo).
It's a fun and fascinating ride, with the band showcasing original songwriting and admirable musicianship while the production sounds fresh and near perfect."
--- R. Scott Bolton, RoughEdge.com Jan 2008
"While the CD sleeve is quick to remind you that these forgotten oddballs once stalked the same stages as Green River, Soundgarden, and The Melvins, Variant Cause are way more interesting than just another second-rate grunge band. In fact, if anything, the songs collected here suggest that there was a lot more to the Seattle scene in the early 90's than we ever suspected. There are some loud guitars on Excavating, but there are also funk basslines, metronomic Devo beats, Oingo Boingo keyboards, and a constant stream of nice hooks from lead singer Jan Gregor. This is amazingly cheerful music coming from a region where it rains pretty much all the time.
"In fact, between all the irreverent genre-hopping and Gregor's playfully nonsensical lyrics, you could almost dub them Seattle's answer to They Might Be Giants . . ."Bad Blood Between Us" nicely channels the Replacements. Not a single song on the compilation sounds like it's repeating another, with touches like harmonica solos and terrifically elastic, original bass playing complementing the band's plus songwriting. I very much hope that there will be a Volume 2."
- Mark T. R. Donohue, Westy Gets Mail #3 2007
"This band was part of the late-‘80s Pacific Northwest music scene, rubbing shoulders with many flannel-clad faves of that era. As is often the case when a scene explodes, some worthy bands get lost in the shuffle, and Variant Cause can make a pretty compelling case that they belong with their better known brethren.
"Although this compilation showcases a driving post-punk style that shares a similarity to The Wipers, the band tried
a few different things. For example, the blues harmonica breakdown in the middle of "Push Out Your Borders" wasn't exactly trendy back in the day (or now, for that matter). I also admire the Jon Lord-esque (as in the Deep Purple guy) organ on the desperate driving rocker "She's a Moving Violation" . . . This apparently is just the beginning, as the Cause has a lot of songs in storage. I look forward to hearing more."
- Mike Bennet, FUFKIN May 2007
"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
"1980s Pacific Northwest rock that combines New Wave, bar rock, blues, jazzy weirdness, artsy aspirations and skid row-low expectations. The opening track is called "Kamikaze Cabaret," and that may as well be this band's genre. I love to hear reissues that don't fit into those categories for which countless reissues exist. Or any
category for that matter."
Roctober Magazine Fall 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. 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.
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 (can’t 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. They’ve been walking on the edge so long that they think they’re 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
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