OK, tell me all about Wussy

Recently heard an interview with one of the guys from this band and it became pretty clear he doesn't like leaving the house, so there you go.

I wonder if we're in for a new era of Iron Maiden-esque songs about movies and tv shows.

Tracks so far are pleasant enough. Looking forward to the album.

So I wouldn’t have asked for this Beatles cover but...

afghan whigs cover is a bold choice but sounds good!

Is this the new album you're talking about?

I was talking about title track of new EP. Is new album out?

I think the new album comes out next month.

The new one is out and it is predictably excellent. It's a continuation of the noisy sound they developed on Forever Sounds, but the songs are stronger this time around.

I miss their pop moments.

Finally caught up with the not-new-anymore LP and EP. Except for "Dropping Houses," my favourite song of last year, the last one made no impression on me whatsoever. So I think I was intentionally slow getting to Heaven.

Didn't get anything out of the first three songs, but my interest picked up when Lisa Walker came in with "Look away, look away, don't watch me" on "Tall Weeds." After that, except for the pedestrian "Oblivian," excellent. "Firefly" and "Black Hole," the two slow ones from Lisa, are great. "Aliens in Our Midst" is a shameless copy of "Brimful of Asha," and as such, it's insanely catchy. I really like "Nope," and "Skip"..."Skip" is a masterpiece. I can't think of anybody--no American band, anyway; maybe there's some Loveless in there--who's ever made music that sounds like "Skip." If I die in the next couple of years, it'll be in a fiery car crash--single-vehicle, no else involved--because I was playing "Skip" too loud and ran into a tree.

Great "Getting Better" cover on the EP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvsQO1UTSfM

I still need to give it another listen, but I liked "Aliens in Our Midst" the first time through (and I certainly like it better than "Brimful of Asha").

"Heaven" is much more engaging than "Forever Sounds". The opener, "One Per Customer" grabbed me and everything flows really well.

I'll give it another listen for sure at the end of the year when I rank albums, but this was to me the boringest of Wussy albums -- the only one from which I kept not a single tune.

I didn’t care for it much on first listen but it’s grown on me.

The opener, "One Per Customer" grabbed me and everything flows really well.

Played those first three songs again in the car this morning; "Cake" and "Gloria" still seemed a little ordinary, but yeah, "One Per Customer" has a really spacey appeal, even if they missed (or, more likely, resisted) the most obvious rhyme in the world, "Knievel" with "appeal."

I'm not a big lyrics guy, but I usually take notice of certain lines and phrases from Wussy. "Aliens in Our Midst" has a verse about a friend who dresses up in his sister's clothes and gets a beating from his dad, and you can also hear the word "dreamers"; it might be a Trump song, unless it's about actual aliens.

The Wussy mix-CD I give to friends gets better and better; I'll probably bump three songs from it to make room for "Skip," "Black Hole," and "Getting Better."

Aliens in Our Midst is a cover https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44bkhkBYrew

Ha! Never read too much into a song... (I won't discount that they made a Trump connection from the title, though.)

What is everyone's favorite Wussy album?

The eponymous album or Attica!

Yeah, those but still like Funeral Dress a lot as well.

Left For Dead could be mine

I would have said Attica! or Wussy, but, initial excitement being what it is, I might pick Heaven today. (I'm absolutely certain that last year's was their worst.)

Funeral Dress plays like a greatest hits, it's ridiculous.

I'm digging the new one, much more than 'Forever Sounds'-and hell, even looking at that I see it has 'Majestic 12' and 'Hello I'm a Ghost'.
"Aliens' is such a brilliant cover, I saw them perform it a couple of tours ago, it's so great. and the second-half in particular is so back-loaded, I'm having a moment here with 'Nope'.

i love Forever Sounds

Strawberry gets overlooked, but it's great as well.

(xpost) "Nope" is great. They stole the melody of the verses from somewhere--driving me up the wall trying to figure out where--but that's okay.

the west coast has the sunshine and the girls all get so tan

Sort of! That works, but I think I'm thinking of something else (maybe a song that copied "California Girls" so Wussy could copy that song). It has to do with the way Chuck sings those verses too--the combination of that melody and that timbre, I'm sure I've heard it elsewhere.

Yeah I'm not sure California Girls is 100% it but it's close. There's something closer, though.

I do know they got sued by the Undertones for allegedly taking the melody of Teenage Kicks for the song Funeral Dress.

Somebody's Wussy collection:

http://wussycollection.blogspot.com/?fbclid=IwAR3fplnE9MZnihAMzyPQ_YHhyZ6CZuNoQPn9az79Ikz-vyUNkrMp0k0rLRg

Also, the mix-CD I made for a friend recently:

1. airborne (2005)
2. crooked (2005)
3. bought it again (2005)
4. millie christine (2007)
5. tiny spiders (2007)
6. sun giant says hey (2007)
7. melody ranch (2007)
8. vivian girls (2007)
9. gone missing (2009)
10. all the bugs are growing (2009)
11. pizza king (2011)
12. little miami (2011)
13. teenage wasteland (2014)
14. halloween (2014)
15. home (2014)
16. beautiful (2014)
17. dropping houses (2016)
18. skip (2018)
19. black hole (2018)
20. getting better (2018)

"Getting Better" was mostly there to reel him in (I do like it); if it were for my own use, I'd replace that with "Aliens in Our Midst."

Geez, no Rigor Mortis or Grand Champion Steer? Those are two of my very favroites.

I think you mentioned that when I posted a different mix-tape a few years ago...I can't retrieve either in my mind, but I didn't save them on my hard-drive, so I guess I decided I didn't like them enough at the time.

Ha! I like to stay on message with all Wussy-related things. You should definitely give those another chance as they are quite possibly my two favorite. Another is the acoustic version of Crooked from Funeral Dress 2.

Re-listened to "Rigor Mortis" and "Grand Champion" off YouTube. Like them both. They've got so many good songs, an 80-minute CD isn't quite enough. But two 80-minute CDs would be too much...with the possible exception of Neil Young, there's nobody who could sustain two 80-minute CDs for me without drifting off into songs I like but don't love.

interesting list clemenza. love that you included the delightful and bizarre 'Sun Giant Says Hey'.
'Motorcycle' or 'Beautiful' are the two I'm most likely to pass on when friends ask about Wussy.

My favorite Wussy song has been "Airborne" from the first moment I heard them, and if you polled a hundred fans, I'd hazard a guess that that would almost certainly end up on top. But the last few months, "Melody Ranch" has been right there with it. It makes me think of Billy Altman's great description of "Black Dog" in the Rolling Stone Illustrated History: "indescribably chaotic."

Wussy does indescribably chaotic as well as anyone. Shunt and Pulverized certainly qualify. And Rigor Mortis maybe most of all.

I'm not so sure they do chaotic as well as anyone-if they did 'Forever Sounds' would be better.

This is a band that I initially thought, "Well I like this one album". Then as I started listening back I kept saying "I like this one, too, I'm all set" - until I had picked them all up. And now I compiled all their non-lp tracks (at least I think I've got them all):

Rigor Mortis EP
Breakfast In Bed - Dangerous Highway Vol. 3
Duo EP
Popular Favorites EP
Public Domain Vol. 1 EP
Folk Night At Fucky's - Dropping Houses 7"
Ceremony 7"
Getting Better EP

It's all very consistent, so much fun!

(xposts) Agree with both of you--sometimes they lose me when they get heavy and chaotic (like most of Forever Sounds), sometimes those are my very favourite songs ("Melody Ranch," "Dropping Houses," "Skip").

"Nope" is great. They stole the melody of the verses from somewhere--driving me up the wall trying to figure out where--but that's okay.

This may be what I had buried in my head, I don't know...the resemblance isn't as strong as I thought (no lawsuits pending), but I can hear it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1FQEcRayK0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovKGSyXADYg

clemenza, I kind of hear something going on with the verse lyric as well, but can't place it either.
this song, jesus.

Thanks for the David Blue post! Somebody I always used to mean to check out, 'til he gradually faded from my mind (long RIP, right?).
Getting into What Heaven much more on second listen, though sound quality (of mp3 promo) is a bit distracting, for a whole album, even though I don't mind it on the Record Store Day EPs---anybody got the CD?? I'm getting hooked on those...

I'm getting used to it, but still wondering how CD sound compares. Good stuff anyway!

Chuck Cleaver
Send Aid
Shake It
19 July 2019

Chuck Cleaver (Wussy, Ass Ponys) has been writing and performing his thoughtful, idiosyncratic songs for over thirty years, developing a cult following of devoted fans across the United States, Europe and beyond. However, this summer’s upcoming Send Aid LP (on Shake It Records) marks his first recorded solo output.

According to Cleaver, “folks have been trying to get me to do a solo record for years now”, but the thought of recording without his regular bandmates had always left him feeling a bit out-of-step. But then a prolific writing streak came along, and after Wussy had assembled their latest LPs (Forever Sounds and What Heaven Is Like), he was left with a near-album’s worth of extra material. He characterizes these solo tracks as “primarily Wussy rejects, although I wrote a couple just for this beast.”

And so.. with one track already in tow from the Wussy sessions at Ultrasuede, Cleaver aimed to craft the remaining songs with a more DIY approach that he describes as “somewhere between John Prine and Big Stick”. On Send Aid, he set out to fully explore his love of noise mixed with a stripped-down aesthetic.. then topping it off with a healthy dose of treated/doubled vocals. While a natural performer, Cleaver has always had a Lennon-esque disdain for his own singing voice, placing him in the role of reluctant frontman. But it is this vulnerability that shines through the layers of distortion and tape-delay.

Many of the off-the-cuff performances were recorded as first takes in practice spaces, engineered by frequent Wussy collaborator John Hoffman. The record’s fuzzed out edges are occasionally softened with the addition of cello, accordion, sitar or mandolin from Cleaver’s rotating backing band of friends and neighbors, who just happen to be among the best of Cincinnati’s thriving punk, indie rock and folk communities. The roster includes some of his Wussy bandmates, as well as appearances from members of Lung, Vacation, Dawg Yawp, Swim Team, Notches and Mardou. This record also marks Chuck’s final collaboration with the late (and greatly missed) mastering engineer Dave Davis; the two had worked together since the 1990s on multiple Ass Ponys and Wussy releases.

Much of Cleaver’s writing on Send Aid details the mundanity and memories of daily life, with other tracks unfolding as harrowing fictional narratives (two of Cleaver’s noted strengths). His struggles with self-doubt and pessimism are often laid bare in cheery three-chord pop format, as evidenced on the self-loathing opener “Terrible Friend”, as well as in “Bed”, in which he wards off thoughts of impending mortality with sleep: And as my time decreases / I’m sitting listening to “I Fall to Pieces” / And while the words are winding through my head / I think of all the things I should have said / Then I give up and go to bed.

Send Aid’s first single is “Anything”, an anthem to failed relationships, in which Cleaver laments, “It’s impossible, it seems, to not romanticize the past.” As if confirming his suspicions, he does just that in the final verse: Had it been a meaningless exchange, I don’t suppose I’d care / But the fuses all were lit, and bits of us were scattered everywhere / Though it’s really just my luck that I would try to find some comfort there / But I would do anything, I would do anything.

But not all is doom and gloom: In the sweet and instantly singable album closer “Folk Night at Fucky’s”, Cleaver recollects dancing around the house with his daughter as they listened to Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping”. Throughout the record, emotions range from despair to joy.. and everything in between. There are odes to bullets dodged (“Mess”, “Devil May Care”), megalomaniacs in positions of power (“Children of the Corn”), and the dual nature of passion (“Flowers and the Devil”).

No Cleaver record would be complete without a couple of tales from haunted small-town-Ohio, which always reside somewhere between reality and horror. His ominous “The Weekend That It Happened” details a fictional account of kidnapping and murder rooted in his real-life suspicion that “bad things always happen on the weekend”. Later on the album, “The Night We Missed the Horror Show” is a riff off of a Joe Lansdale short story title with one word altered. “I really just used the title,” he explains. “The song itself has nothing to do with the story. Except that there’s an element of overwhelming dread in the original – and a similar sense of dread in the song. But it’s about being afraid of things to come. It’s kind of a toss up as to what’s more horrific – the story or real life.”

The album’s cover photos were taken by his daughter Anna Stockton, and were discovered in a moment of kismet. Cleaver had been having difficulty deciding on a cover image, when she happened to send him a batch of photos she had recently taken of his hometown Clarksville, Ohio. The first image he pulled up was of a now-defunct business well-known to him from his childhood. He knew immediately it would be the cover. According to Cleaver, “It’s a former furniture store that just happened to be where I was waiting on the school bus one morning in the 70s, when the owner asked if I could go up the street to check on the town barber. I found him, but he was long dead and catfish-grey. It was not a pleasant memory.” As for the title, it “came from a sign that’s on the door. It’s still there.”

The back cover, also a photo by Stockton, depicts the decaying remains of Valley Steel, also in Clarksville – a once thriving mill that ceased to exist when the railroad disappeared from the region. “It’s by the #8 trestle” according to Cleaver (Ass Ponys fans may recognize “trestle eight” from the song “Grim”). “It’s a sad ass state of affairs.”

Cleaver, along with Wussy bandmates Lisa Walker and Mark Messerly, will be combining forces for a solo tour throughout the East Coast, New England and the Midwest in Summer 2019. The in-the-round style shows will feature material from Send Aid, as well as from Walker’s and Messerly’s recently-released solo albums (under the monikers The Magic Words and INERT, respectively). The trio will perform in a combination of one-, two- and three-person setups, sharing stories behind the songs as time permits. Some stripped-down Wussy numbers will be included in the set (a la Funeral Dress II and Public Domain), interspersed with new solo and duo material.

If you have any questions, contact riotactmedia.com.

Lisa Walker sings the majority of my more recent favourite Wussy songs, but I will still get hold of this soon.

I saw the three of them doing their solo stuff as support for Wussy when they played Glasgow last year. It was kind of shambolic at times but still very charming.
Hopefully the Chuck Cleaver record will be easier to get hold of than the Magic Words tape release or the INERT CD. I only managed to get the tape from the merch stand at the gig. I still don't have the INERT release.

The Chuck Cleaver record is out and it sounds excellent on first listen. It's his catchiest batch of songs since Attica. The production is just OK but his guitar and vocals are always so strong.

Agree. (Only took me eight months to buy it.) I love "Flowers & the Devil": "I'm so happy that I found you/I can't stand to be around you" is a great line.

I've never watched one of these, but Lisa and Chuck are doing a live Facebook thing right now.

http://www.facebook.com/wussymusic/videos/218542789408976/?v=218542789408976¬if_id=1586559423577212¬if_t=live_video