Live: Wussy @ Mercury Lounge 8.11.12

pic by acidjack, stolen w/apologies

Wussy shows are not generally missed by the JS-NYC franchise and as this run through town ended up being at NYC's best live venue, pains were taken to insure our presence, especially in light of our heroes being inexplicable openers for Philly's (unkn)own Low Cut Connie. Props should be given to LCG for facilitating Wussy's presence, as evidently they had some issues getting noticed/booked at Mercury previously.

I would venture it won't be an issue next time, as Wussy filled the room with equal parts fan and rock in their usual time-honored fashion. Col and I rolled in, said hi to the lovely Essie and posted up just before things jumped off for a ten song run with Funeral Dress. The opening slot precluded things stretching out, but Chuck did offer to show his pecker (quote) to a guy celebrating his birthday, so the teaser set wasn't a total loss. The new Strawberry got a decent amount of love, including a pretty aces swing through Grand Champion Steer. Sadly, no Little Miami, but I expect we'll get Wussy back for a headlining slot soon, especially after their run of dates opening for The Afghan Whigs.

If you missed the show, hopes are high for your having one hell of a good excuse, but you can ease the pain by grabbing the recording the estimable NYCTaper has kindly made available for your downloading pleasure. Get the recording here and use this link keep track of all other things Wussy.

R

Wussy, Bob Christgau, and PopMatters JS-NYC lovefest

JS-NYC Massive:

It should not to be new to you that the new Wussy record is called Strawberry and exceedingly awesome. Read how I liked it for PopMatters here and try and contemplate the personal nerd back-patting going on at JS-NYC HQ with the advent of a pull quote on the Wussy web presence next to Bob Christgau. Long live the cranky with taste!

R

Live: Wussy @ Cake Shop 3.3.12

Ah, lifestyle issues. I love Wussy and was excited to see them again at Cake Shop. Hell, it was even a good time (more on that in a second), but I'll add the lack of ticket stubs in this day and age to the cauldron of denial I sup from and thank Nyctaper for posting the show and reminding me that I had gone and should probably blather a bit about it. Alright then.

So this was a four band bill, with Versus in the headlining slot that should have been held by The Figgs. Wussy played clean-up, knocking out an ultimately way too short 40 minute set. You can blame Cake Shop and the late show, as Wussy offered serious value for your indie rock dollar. In their continued attention to detail, and to better approximate the more expansive sound of their latest recorded effort Strawberry, Wussy have expanded to a quintet and added former Ass Pony John Erhardt to the fold. Sonically, things worked out fine, but the last thing anyone needed was another person in the basement of Cake Shop. Packed in cheek to jowl, it seems to speak to the idea like people are getting behind the new record in general and Wussy in particular. That's a good thing, and hopefully an eventuality that means we'll see them in a bigger room, maybe even with a stage, sometime soon. Ten songs total, pretty much half from the new record, with some chestnuts sprinkled in to keep it interesting. Hear it for yourself here, courtesy of the modern day saint nyctaper.

R

Wussy - Strawberry

So like I said earlier, I've been out of the loop on Wussy as of late. I missed out on the acoustic version of Funeral Dress initially, then doubled down on the brain farting with my overlooking of the release of full-length number three from Ohio's finest. That rectified, know that it's called Strawberry and continues the Wussy trend of their kicking your ass in a pronounced fashion. Coming as per usual from the good folk of Shake It! the one-two punch of gentle giant Chuck Cleaver and his lady Lisa Walker fires on all cylinders here. Everything is almost uniformly good here, but tracks like Magnolia have a Bettie Serveert-y swagger that dissipates the hate that most things evoke in my old age nicely. The uninitiated should think a Columbus version of X, while the converted should make haste (if they haven't already) to the Wussy web presence and snap Strawberry up with the quickness.

R

Wussy - Funeral Dress II

When I saw Dave Bierling at Christmas, he mentioned that he and his lady would be down for a Wussy show. You would think that the mention would burn through my lifestyle issues and get me to check on what was going on with Columbus' finest, but I spaced and only recently found that Team Wussy has been a wee bit more active lately than I would have thought, with a new record called Strawberry coming down the pike. While that is great news, further perusal of the Wussy web presence has brought to light that the band has re-recorded Funeral Dress in its entirety acoustically. 500 copies were pressed up for Record Store Day and sold through Shake It! I'm still working through the new record, but the acoustic Funeral Dress II is without question pretty fucking aces. No radical rearrangements, just further assertion that Funeral Dress is a great record and Wussy a great band. Find out for yourself here and look for them here in NYC on 3/3.

R

Live: Wussy with The Fervor @ Cake Shop 4.16.10

The rumored Hold Steady shows had taken precedence as I approached what I considered my own personal birthday weekend. While that is somewhat selfish (and with apologies to Sizzla, Brandon So Hideous, and my cousin Tom) I rarely indulge in such things, so others of the prospectively offended demographic are invited to litigate acccordingly. As said weekend approached, I happened to realize that the good folk of Wussy were passing through for another one of what is becoming regular Cake Shop shows.

I've spent a lot of time at Cake Shop in the last year or so and I can aver two things: they book good shows, and getting caught in the line of fire of their PA speakers is one of the harshest things I've ever encountered in a club. You have to work for it, but location is everything there. I arrived at the tail end of The Fervor and was pretty impressed. They got a little jammy, but the female who fronts the band (as well as playing keys) sure can sing. There is evidently a split with our Wussy heroes that sounds like it's well worth picking up.

Wussy were up in fairly short order and proceeded to throw down in their time-honored fashion. Chuck and Lisa are quite a couple, both visually and musically, and the chemistry seems to be working for the band. They've been breaking in a new drummer for a bit, but you wouldn't know it by listening. The gender change is a little more obvious, but it certainly hasn't impacted Wussy to the negative. They drew a decent crowd and got a couple encores, so it would appear that I'm not the only one in NYC beside Bob Christgau who is sweet on these kids. The set list is below. It, along with the photo above and the recording of the show you can get here were all stolen from the estimable nyctaper, whose site you should peruse early and often. Thanks and apologies to him. Once you get back from there, head on over to the Wussy web presence here and see if you're lucky enough to have the kids coming through your town soon.

R

01 Funeral Dress [false start]

02 Funeral Dress

03 Happiness Bleeds

04 [banter]

05 Crooked

06 [banter]

07 Sun Giant Says Hey

08 Do Do Do Do

09 [banter]

10 Breakfast in Bed (Hinton/Fritts)

11 [banter/monitors]

12 Death By Misadventure

13 Muscle Cars

14 Airborne

15 Yellow Cotton Dress

16 Fly Fly Fly

17 Rigor Mortis

18 [encore break/banter]

19 Soak It Up

20 [banter]

21 Jonah

22 [banter]

23 Maglite

24 [second encore break]

25 Don't Leave Just Now

Live Link

Wussy tonight and tomorrow!

Hey Kids:

If you have ears (and aren't training a Yorkie or something) you should seriously consider seeing the mighty Wussy play in town tonight at Cake Shop and tomorrow out in Brooklyn at Union Hall. Buy the new record while you're at it.

R

new Wussy!!

It's shaping up to be a pretty good spring for new releases, evinced in no small part by the fact that Columbus, OH purveyors of awesomeness Wussy have a new record out on Shake It!. Full-length number three is simply called Wussy. There are a dozen songs this time around, none of which do anything to dispel the notion that Wussy is the Midwest version of X. Chuck still isn't Sam Cooke, but why would you want him to be? Lisa's voice is the Coke to his Jack and the two are just as lovely together.

There have been some minor line-up changes in Team Wussy since their last release, with drummer Dawn Burman leaving and Joe Klug from Staggering Statistics stepping into the breach. The switch hasn't changed the Wussy sound much from it's bedrock awesomeness. If you liked them before, there is still a good amount of Velvet Underground drone and reverb action to go with the soaring slide sweeps, especially on Magic Words. Wussy is good, really good in fact. Look forward to me writing this up as much as I can. 

Once it relaunches, there will be something on the new Skyscraper web presence about Wussy, so I won't go too much into the specifics, but suffice to say that there are songs called This Will Not End Well, Maglite, and Misadventure. Anyone familiar with the Wussy catalog will take these titles as comfortable thematic signs. Oh, and if you're an older Ass Ponys fan that's on the fence, know that Maglite features a crossbow pretty prominently in the narrative. Wussy will be on tour behind Wussy starting the end of May. They'll be at Cake Shop with Chris Brokaw on 5/16 and Union Hall at 5/17, so mark your calendars. If you feel the need to try it before you buy it, you can listen to tracks from Wussy here. Why postpone joy, you can pick up a copy like JS-NYC did via this handy link. Thank me later and look out for the Skyscraper review soon.

R