Cincinnati’s Wussy has been extant for over a decade, chalking up a devoted fanbase and an abundance of critical accolades based on a steadily growing catalog. Featuring alternating guy-gal vocals spiked with harmony and infused with the right amount of grit and rhythmic oomph, they’re emotional but never soppy and sonically tough without damaging their melodic strengths. Forever Sounds is their latest, and it maintains their impressive winning streak via ten robust ditties; it’s out now on CD and digital through Shake It Records.
Wussy formed after Chuck Cleaver met Lisa Walker in 2001, the guitarist-vocalists then rounding up bassist Mark Messerly, drummer Joe Klug, and pedal steel player-guitarist John Erhardt. Cleaver’s a veteran who’s flown a little under the radar over the years; if his name rings a bell, it might be because he helped form Cincinnati’s Ass Ponys way back in 1988.
The terrific Mr. Superlove arrived on the Ohio label OKra two years later, and the Ass Ponys followed it up with one for Safe House; they inevitably landed on a major, issuing a pair of discs for A&M, and post-dalliance hooked up with Windy City enterprise Checkered Past for two albums including the splendidly titled Some Stupid with a Flare Gun.
The Ass Ponys went on hiatus in 2005, the beginning of the downtime nicely coinciding with Wussy’s emergence on record. Although many ears got hipped to the band through the nifty 2012 compilation Buckeye on the Damnably imprint, Forever Sounds is in fact Wussy’s sixth full-length, the cool half-dozen all pressed by their hometown label-record store Shake It. Debuting strongly late in ’05 with Funeral Dress they brought out Left for Dead in ’07 and a self-titled effort in ’09.
For a group with a relatively uncomplicated recipe, essentially specializing in non-hackneyed country-rock with shades of Lucinda Williams and Neil Young mingled with an Americana-indie rock hybrid brandishing enough volume and distortion to goose fans of X and Eleventh Dream Day, Wussy hasn’t stumbled in sustaining inspiration; neither 2011’s Strawberry or ’14’s Attica! suffers from longevity-based slumping, though both evidenced shades of artistic growth and enlarged scale.
They also dished out the “Rigor Mortis EP” in ’08, the “Duo” mini-LP in ’13, “Public Domain, Volume 1” (an excursion into traditional material) in April of ‘15, Funeral Dress II (an acoustic version of their first album) in ’11, and a handful of singles; earlier this year Forever Sounds’ opening track was dropped onto 45 as a pre-release teaser (copies are still available).
Loaded with waves of amp grease and an unflagging, borderline tribal drum pattern, “Dropping Houses” explores the heavier side of Wussy’s personality. Upon soaking it up the references to shoegaze make sense but shouldn’t be overstated; instead, it’s clear that Cleaver, Walker, and company understand the benefits of volume and thickness, registering as loud even at a low levels.
Forever Sounds doesn’t resonate as a My Bloody Valentine-like proposition, but “She’s Killed Hundreds” kinda hints at a merger of late ’80s Mekons and early ’90s 4AD, with Messerly’s bass possessing a throbbing hugeness recalling scores of indie releases from the same timeframe as the tune thrives on a fine balance of abrasion and catchiness.
If there is a detectable trend in recent Wussy recordings it’s a reduction of country-rock trappings and a general increase in heft. To wit; at its musical core the somewhat extended “Donny’s Death Scene” resonates like a femme-voxed pop-rock radio staple from roughly 25 years ago but given a sharp and quite beneficial kick in the can through Klug’s drumming and the gnawing guitar lines.
Completed with lyrics by Walker, “Donny’s Death Scene” directly relates to a certain pivotal plot occurrence from the Coen Brothers’ bizarro-stoner-mystery cult classic of 1998 The Big Lebowski. This subject matter should help clue in newbies to the nature of the band’s disposition, and yet the execution eschews even a trace of the zany.
Wussy often utilize up to three guitars to embolden their sound, and it’s an aspect considerably boosting the charms of “Gone,” which conjures a similarity to the blare of the Flaming Lips from right before they signed to Warner Brothers. They also enhance much of Forever Sounds with additional instrumentation, e.g. synth, stylophone, piano, mellotron, harmonium, and organ, the last figuring in the vigorously infectious “Hello, I’m a Ghost.”
The intensity gradually rising, it’s a song destined to go down a storm from the club stage, which seems to be a context informing much of this record’s approach, the band using the studio as a tool but not as a crutch. And songwriting remains crucial; even in a scenario this loud acoustic versions are still a possibility.
“Hand of God” finds Walker in breathy mode, the number again resonating as an airplay ready nugget from the midst of the Alternative era, the instrumental weight key and the swells of Walker’s overdubbed backing vocals especially attractive. Next is the Eleventh Dream Day-like stomp and racket of “Sidewalk Sale”; while avoiding the pitfall of homage, Wussy is obviously based in rock fandom, a situation articulated well through the lyric “hanging with a strawberry blonde/getting drunk as fuck on Strawberry Hill/listening to the flip of Strawberry Fields/it’ll be alright.”
“Better Days” slows the pace but gains from the vocal exchange of Cleaver and Walker; there is a recurring nod in the direction of the Lips, but with an important difference in studio tactics. And rather than predictably ramping up the momentum, “Majestic-12” showcases Walker’s expressiveness in a stripped-down setting.
Closer “My Parade” switches to Cleaver, initially in solo mode at the piano oozing ambiance a bit reminiscent of a psych-tinged and less emotionally wrung-out Daniel Johnston, though the mood changes once everybody kicks in. Forever Sounds isn’t perfect, but its flaws are minor amidst presentation refreshingly unmarred by anxieties and additives related to “making it.” That Wussy is crafting records this good this far into their existence is reason to cheer.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
