Quicksand

What, you’ve never heard of Quicksand? Post-hardcore band out of New York, early nineties?

Okay. Here’s the best song of 1993, and why some of us didn’t care about Nirvana and grunge.

I couldn’t get enough of that song when I first heard it. PolyGram sent my store a promo copy, which one of the other drones played on the overhead stereo as I checked in product. I briefly stopped pretending to be an assistant manager, and mistook it for Primus. Hard, good Primus, like Sausage without the silly.

The second track on Quicksand’s debut album, Slip, is nearly as spectacular as the opener. That is Sergio Vega on bass, and Walter Schreifels on vocals and guitar, formerly of the legendary Gorilla Biscuits, and Youth Of Today.

As much as I love Slip, I have a feeling it would have sold better as a double album, or even cut into two, and released a short time apart. “Dine Alone”, the third track, is the one the label picked to sell as a single. It’s alright, but it pales compared to the first two tracks. The band’s energy is so intense it’s hard to take twelve songs at a single sitting. I was sold by the end of the first track.

Quicksand’s next and final album to date, 1995’s Manic Compression, is widely considered to be even better than Slip; I just don’t have a copy. Otherwise, I’d be posting songs from it here. I think my friend George has it, if you want to track him down and listen to it. I recommend it (the album, not pestering George).