Let’s see. It’s Sunday night, easing into Monday morning, and I’m sitting here tearing through a package of generic Fig Newtons and digging Wussy’s new, free, download-only album “Berneice Huff and son Bill sings Popular Favorites” at a reasonable volume. A satisfactory scene, indeed.
In case you’re unfamiliar with Wussy – and I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if such was the case – these guys are a four-piece act out of Cincinnati, Ohio, who have been plugging along under the radar since about 2001, releasing several albums of quality stuff that really defies definition. Wikipedia calls it indie rock. What does that mean? I deem it melodic noise with pop’s ultra-catchy sensibilities.
Let me warn you now – you’re either gonna really like ‘em, or you’re gonna really dislike ‘em. I don’t see any room for middle ground. But it would be Seward’s Folly to decide one way or the other before you try them out, and “Popular Favorites” is as good a place to start as any. We’re talking 12 solid songs, and they’ll run you 100 percent less than the aforementioned generic Fig Newtons.
The album actually kicks off with the spoken-word intro to a segment NPR’s “Fresh Air” ran on the band back in 2009. Several of these little pieces from various radio broadcast interviews pepper the album. If you’re in a hurry, they’re entirely skip-able, but at about a half-minute a pop, they’re not too unreasonable of a time commitment. And the band members are really quite humorous, especially guitarist-singer Chuck Cleaver and bassist-keyboardist Mark Messerly. (“Hip hop,” Cleaver deadpans to an eruption of laughter in one clip – his response to a question regarding his stylistic influences.)
I suppose the radio bits are fitting, as an overflowing handful of the songs on the record are live-at-the-station takes on some of the band’s more popular cuts. Most of the rest are old demos that never made it onto another CD or covers of songs by other independent Ohio acts with names like Seedy Seeds and Afghan Whigs and Jenny Mae.
Check out “Sweetie Sweetie (Live on WOXY),” a Jenny Mae cover in which Cleaver talk-sings with the brilliantly weird combination of Meat Loaf’s bravado and David Bowie’s inflection over a simple, jangly roots-rock groove. It comes much closer to summing up Wussy’s un-sum-up-able-ness than any words I possess the faculties to produce.
Another definite highlight is an acoustic version of “Airborne,” which originally appeared on their 2006 debut “Funeral Dress.” It doesn’t soar quite like the electric original, but this stripped-down version gives you ample room to hear the fantastic interplay between Cleaver’s and singer-songwriter Lisa Walker’s perfectly, beautifully (here) raw vocals. And it proves these folks aren’t a bunch of Midwestern hacks hiding behind heavy guitar – underneath, or rather within the cacophony lie clever rhymes and pretty, hummable melodies.
I’m of the firm belief that the best thing about listening to Wussy is Walker’s singing voice. In fact, I’m so comfortable in my assertion that I’m gonna go ahead and deem her the best lady vocalist in music today. Not the most technically gifted by any means, but the breathiness of her pleasant-with-an-edge rasp is certainly the most authentic and consistently enjoyable.
Normally Walker splits lead vocal duties at about 50/50 with Cleaver to swell results (see above), but on “Jonah” and “All the Bugs Are Growing,” two old demos Walker recorded under the name The Magic Words, we have the pleasure of digging her all by herself. I find “All the Bugs Are Growing” the more enjoyable of the two. It’s a pleasant layering of the back porch evening sound of summer bugs off in the woods and Walker’s pretty, ethereal poetry with a gently-strummed guitar riff and some weird oscillating loop that’s more textural than audible.
By no means does it constitute Wussy’s best collection of material, but “Popular Favorites” is certainly a solid representative sample of these guys’ sound – a good chance for a zero-risk listen to see if you think they’re worth spending time pokin’ around after more.
Leading in today’s Crimson White:
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