Guitarist Mike Baggetta, bassist Mike Watt, and drummer Stephen Hodges comprise the trio mssv. Their latest LP is On and On, available now on vinyl in an edition of 500 copies and digital through BIG EGO Records. The digital release offers eight tracks and the LP adds six band-improvised link pieces to the eight selections to create two continuous and sweetly psychedelic album sides. The vividly twisted cover art by John Herndon of Tortoise complements these atmospheres very nicely. mssv is currently touring and play tonight 4/3 in Washington, DC at the Pearl Street Warehouse.
mssv describe themselves as a post-genre power trio. This essentially means they roam around a lot stylistically, which fits given the band’s diversity of background. Baggetta comes from the jazz scene where he’s part of a contemporary guitar renaissance of sorts. Hodges has recorded extensively as a session drummer with recurring credits in the discographies of Tom Waits and Mavis Staples. And Watt is the highest profile member of mssv, having played a crucial role in the Minutemen, fIREHOSE, and the reunited Stooges plus solo work and additional band projects and session gigs of his own.
Naturally, there is some overlap in the backgrounds that’s pertinent to the formation of mssv. Hodges was one third of the band that recorded Watt’s 1997 album Contemplating the Engine Room. Guitarist Nels Cline completed the Engine Room trio; he joined mssv for a 2-song 45 released in 2022. Most importantly, in 2019 Baggetta and Watt cut the Wall of Flowers album with Jim Keltner on drums. Keltner doesn’t tour, so Hodges stepped in for the live shows, which resulted in Live Flowers, a 2019 CD credited to main steam stop valve (or mssv for short).
From there, mssv has cut three studio full-lengths, Main Steam Stop Valve (2020), Human Reaction (2023), and now, On and On. Two additional 45s, “Media Kittens” b/w “When the Hoarding Has Ended” (2020) and “The Scott Aicher EP” (2021) complete the mssv discography. Baggetta, Keltner, and Watt also released a second album, Everywhen You Go (2022).
On and On’s opening title track is the record’s most melodic, slice of old school indie rock with a zesty Dinosaur Jr.-style guitar solo. Baggetta sings, as he does on six more of the album’s eight core tracks. The next cut “Super Dumb,” loaded as it is with wah-pedal scorch, provides a sharp contrast, backing up the post-genre label, as the post-Beat word slinging by Baggetta could get some heavy-duty Watt enthusiasts thinking of the Unknown Instructors or more recently, Tone Scientists (to name two Watt band projects with a poetic edge).
“On Its Face” offers a robust current of psych-jazz with more poetic syllables from Baggetta, but with “Boat Song” Watt delivers some ruminations on the touring life for one song complete with sung interjections by Baggetta as Hodges gets the chance to shine. Side two opens with “Careful What You Wish For,” a heavy expansionist rock burner offering up some of the best bass thunder on the record amid an impressive display of group dynamics (and an additional vocal contribution by Watt).
“Tiny Pipes” brings another jazzy excursion to the table; it’s the place where all three members get to strut forth with their stuff minus wanking and no vocals (as the record’s sole instrumental). “Despair and Hilarity” drifts into post-rock territory and “OK to Change” is a fleet burst of raw energy for the close. Throughout On and On, mssv solidify their transcendence of categorical confines without a hitch. They are engagingly unpredictable and can’t be pinned down.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
