Tsunami
Loud Is As
NUMERO GROUP
The shred-filled wall-of-sound of Tsunami is that of two activist-space housemates cozying up to each other’s harmony-not-harmony vocals, finding awe in the other’s quick-to-learn instrumental prowess and shared razor-sharp wit, and, in retrospect, surprising listeners with the bittersweet melodies they possessed (or that possessed them) across three albums and a handful of singles. The icy twin guitars and potently poignant vocals of Jenny Toomey and Kristin Thomson are truly only matched by each of these women’s unerring DIY dedication throughout the 1990s as Simple Machines label magnates, likely informing who the two became in their adulthood: directors of the private Ford Foundation Catalyst Fund for human welfare (Toomey) and the Media Democracy Fund for an open, equitable internet (Thomson).
The first necessity, then, of Numero Group’s five-album box Loud Is As is to put much of Tsunami’s out-of-print catalog out into the world where it belongs: 1993’s Deep End, 1994’s The Heart’s Tremolo, 1997’s A Brilliant Mistake, a load of all-but-lost singles, B-sides, and compilation tracks, and zine freebies (most of which was initially captured on 1995’s World Tour & Other Destinations compilation). Part two of the marvel that is Loud As Is comes in sounding the call for how powerful and singular Toomey and Thomson were as songwriters (listen to the three-in-a-row triumph of “David Foster Wallace,” “Hockey,” and “PBS” on the band’s final album) and offbeat, choral-esque vocal harmonists (think Kate and Cindy of The B-52’s after screaming for a full hour, then drinking milk). Their layered, dense-yet-airy fuzztone guitars and ticklishly contagious hooks were subtle enough to keep them in the ultra-indie world, but keenly memorable enough to have made the chart competitive if they’d ever chosen the pop band route.
For the sake of big, catchy melody, “Lucky” stands out from their first album, as does “Genius of Crack” on World Tour, and, of course, The Heart Tremolo’s wry finest such as “Loud Is as Loud Does,” “Fits and Starts,” and the title track. Needless to say, Numero’s usual box design superiority captures the ’90s look of Tsunami with its hostage-taking clip art and wonky fonts and its era-appropriate capture of tattered punk fanzines. Interestingly, though, the grouchy dynamics of Tsunami’s sound aren’t remastered and cleaned-up to a fault on Loud As Is. Instead, their hot-breeze atmospheres, fluid punky rhythms, and co-joined voices sound as knife’s-edged and un-slick as ever.
