Wussy: 4 Albums

 

Wussy is an American four-piece indie rock band formed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2001. The band consists of Chuck Cleaver (vocals/guitar), Lisa Walker (vocals/guitar), Joe Klug (drums) and Mark

Messerly (bass). Former members include Dawn Burman (drums) and John Erhardt (pedal steel). Cleaver and Walker write most of the songs and either alternate lead vocals or sing them in harmony. Live performances feature the two vocalists having a "combative rapport". They have released seven albums, one live album, two EPs, one mini LP and a number of singles. The group has received critical acclaim from Rolling Stone, Robert Christgau, Chicago, and SPIN.
                 

Wussy are one of the most celebrated independent bands in the American Midwest, a group whose idiosyncratically thoughtful songs and atmospheric, forceful guitar attack have won them a fervent cult following and a growing stack of rave reviews. Built around the sweet and sour mix of vocalists Lisa

Walker and Chuck Cleaver, Wussy came together in 2001 when the two singers and songwriters casually performed together at an event in their native Cincinnati, Ohio, and soon the duo expanded into a full band. In 2005, Wussy released their debut album, Funeral Dress, and while they toured and recorded at a casual pace, between excellent reviews and positive word of mouth, albums like 2009's Wussy, 2011's Strawberry, and 2014's Attica! found an audience as the band began to edge out of the indie rock underground towards the boundaries of mainstream recognition.
               

Wussy were formed by guitarist and singer Chuck Cleaver, who had enjoyed modest success in the '90s

as a member of the Cincinnati-based band the Ass Ponys. After releasing the album Lohio in 2001, Cleaver decided to break up the band, believing he'd said all he had to say within their format. Not long after, Cleaver was asked to perform at a local music awards event, and he was nervous about appearing on stage alone; Lisa Walker, a fellow Cincinnati singer and songwriter, volunteered to perform with Cleaver, and they were pleased enough with the results that they continued working together.
                       

Adopting the name Wussy, Cleaver and Walker expanded the duo into a full band in 2002 with the addition of bassist Mark Messerly and drummer Dawn Burman. The group delivered its first album in

2005, Funeral Dress, which was released by Shake-It Records, an independent offshoot of a Cincinnati record shop. The celebrated rock critic Robert Christgau gave Funeral Dress an A rating in his column in The Village Voice, and became one of Wussy's most outspoken champions, in 2012 declaring "Wussy have been the best band in America since they released the first of their five superb albums in 2005."
                    

In 2009, around the time Wussy released their self-titled third album, Dawn Burman left the group, and

Joe Klug became their new drummer. After the release of Strawberry in 2011, the group had become popular enough to stage short tours of the East Coast as well as playing regularly in the Midwest, and in 2012 they headed to the West Coast for the first time, as well as opening for the Afghan Whigs on their well-received reunion tour. (Whigs bassist John Curley also produced several albums for Wussy.) By this time, Wussy had grown into a quintet with former Ass Ponys guitarist John Erhardt joining in on pedal steel and keyboards.
                   

In 2014, Wussy released Attica!, their fifth studio album and one of their best-reviewed projects to date, which Christgau awarded a rare A+ rating, while Spin Magazine named it one of the 50 best albums of

the year. It also became Wussy's first album to be released in the U.K., when Damnably picked it up for British distribution. In 2016, Wussy returned to action with the album Forever Sounds. For 2018's What Heaven Is Like, for the first time Wussy included two covers ("Aliens in Our Midst," originally recorded by the Twinkeyz, and "Oblivion," written by Kath Bloom) alongside eight fresh original songs. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

LINE - UP
                       

Chuck Cleaver - vocals / guitar / etc
Lisa Walker - vocals / guitar / etc
Mark Messerly - bass / keys / etc
Joe Klug - drums / keys / etc
John Erhardt - pedal steel / guitar / etc

Past: Dawn Burman - drums

WUSSY - FUNERAL DRESS 2005

                          

Funeral Dress, the debut album by Wussy, was released on December 6, 2005. The label, Shake It

Records, released the album on CD format only. The album received mostly positive reviews. It was chosen as the 4th greatest album of the decade by prominent critic Robert Christgau. In 2015, SPIN ranked Funeral Dress #252 on their list of the 300 best albums of the last 30 years.

Wussy – Funeral Dress
Label: Shake It! Records – 541
Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: 2005
Genre: Rock
Style: Indie Rock

TRACKS

                          

01. Airborne   3:16
02. Funeral Dress   3:58
03. Soak It Up   2:54
04. Shunt   3:17
05. Conversation Lags   3:07
06. Crooked   3:12
07. Humanbrained Horse   3:46
08. Motorcycle   3:56
09. Yellow Cotton Dress   2:16
10. Bought It Again   3:43
11. Don't Leave Just Now   3:46

MP3 @ 320 Size: 90 MB
Flac  Size: 264 MB

WUSSY - ATTICA! 2014

                              

The album is a compelling reminder that Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker are a pair of top-shelf songwriters who have learned how to make the most of their mixed feelings about the world around them, and their collaborators John Erhardt, Joe Klug, and Mark Messerly have created some beautiful

and forbidding soundscapes that are an ideal match for the emotional terrain of these melodies. Wussy never sound bummed out for its own sake on Attica!.
As vocalists, Cleaver and Walker are perfectly cast for their songs -- the gritty wobble of Cleaver's voice and the weathered beauty of Walker's instrument give their songs a dramatic color that suits them well -- and Erhardt's pedal steel avoids the usual country clichés and invests these melodies with a rich range of ghostly wails and peals.

Wussy – Attica!
Label: Damnably – DAMNABLY031
Format: CD, Album
Country: UK
Released: 2014
Genre: Rock
Style: Alternative Rock, Indie Rock

TRACKS

                       

01. Teenage Wasteland   4:39
02. Rainbows & Butterflies  3:17
03. Bug  5:03
04. North Sea Girls   3:20
05. Acetylene   3:53
06. To The Lightning   3:38
07. Halloween   3:47
08. Gene, I Dream   3:50
09. Attica!   3:14
10. Home   3:41
11. Beautiful   4:23

MP3 @ 320 Size: 105 MB
Flac  Size: 290 MB

WUSSY - FOREVER SOUNDS 2016

                       

Wussy have worked hard. They’ve made five other albums before this one, and toured with lots of  indie heroes – the Breeders, Shonen Knife, Afghan Whigs, Yo La Tengo, Jeffrey Lewis. I mention this,

because all that work builds muscle, and you can hear that 15 years of sweat pay off in their latest, Forever Sounds. These are the songs of a band who know how alt-rock songs should go, not as a formula but as a code of ethics: burly riffs, Chuck Cleaver’s earnest oddball vocals intertwined with Lisa Warner’s wizened siren ones, lyrics that glide between post-mortem rumors and friendly spirits. Dependably catchy and odd in equal measure, Wussy embody the correct way to bring back the Nineties.

Wussy – Forever Sounds
Label:S hake It! Records – SHAKE580, Shake It! Records – SHAKE1280
Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: Mar 4, 2016
Genre: Rock
Style: Alternative Rock

TRACKS

                        

01. Dropping Houses    4:16
02. She's Killed Hundreds    2:46
03. Donny's Death Scene    5:11
04. Gone    3:16
05. Hello, I'm A Ghost    3:52
06. Hand Of God    3:47
07. Sidewalk Sale    2:44
08. Better Days    3:39
09. Majestic-12    4:21
10. My Parade    4:22

MP3 @ 320 Size: 92 MB
Flac  Size: 257 MB

WUSSY - WHAT HEAVEN IS 2018

                              

Released in 2018, What Heaven Is Like doesn't necessarily represent a new high-water mark for this band, but it's not a step backwards, either. For a band that can take justifiable pride in its songwriting, it's surprising to see Wussy record a pair of covers, but in each case, the band brings something very

much its own to these recordings. The spare acoustic folk of Kath Bloom's "Oblivion" is transformed into something considerably more forbidding when the band adds its layers of guitar and Walker's world-weary voice, and the Twinkeyz's lo-fi new wave chestnut "Aliens in Our Midst" (also covered by Game Theory) gains a whole new level of paranoid insistence thanks to the wobbly fervor of Cleaver's singing. With What Heaven Is Like, Wussy have made it clear they're not giving up their status as one of America's greatest indie bands just yet, and this is another dark but compelling album that deserves your attention.

Wussy – What Heaven Is Like
Label: Shake It! Records – SHAKE 585
Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: May 18, 2018
Genre: Rock
Style: Alternative

TRACKS

                             

01. One Per Customer    4:46
02. Cake    3:32
03. Gloria    4:37
04. Tall Weeds    4:19
05. Firefly    4:52
06. Aliens In Our Midst    4:01
07. Skip    3:52
08. Oblivion    3:40
09. Nope    4:54
10. Black Hole    4:20

MP3 @ 320 Size: 104 MB
Flac  Size: 273 MB