Wussy

"The Ballad of Chuck and Lisa".. by Jason Cohen, photos by Jonathan Willis (December 09) .... ..Village Voice: "On the Cheerfully Combative Noise Pop of Wussy".. by Rob Harvilla (June 09) .... Crawdaddy ..Wussy Review.. and ..Show Recap.. by Dan Weiss (June 09) .... ........WUSSY IS A BAND FROM OHIO...... We like noise. Thanks for noticing. .... ..ABOUT WUSSY.... From their records I know this great couple band nobody’s heard of to be mordant, obsessive, desperate. But having caught them live in Manhattan last year, I also know them to be urgent, funny, companionable. To be clear, they’re a two-male, two-female quartet, but only grizzled fat Chuck Cleaver and lissome tattooed Lisa Walker are a couple. What’s worrisome is that if I’m to take their latest songs autobiographically, which is hard to resist after that show, I should say they’re a couple-I-hope, not just because I want them to keep making records but because I liked them together — and because this is as brutal a relationship album as Richard & Linda Thompson’s “Shoot Out the Lights.” It starts with a miserable reunion, gets bleaker, sets the tone for its upful moments with the lively “Happiness Bleeds,” and keeps on bleeding till a spare, funereal closer with the ominous title “Las Vegas.” But there’s also good news. With Walker’s soprano simultaneously reasonable and fraught, Cleaver’s rough tenor spooked by Appalachian Cincinnati, their country-drone guitars and locked-in rhythm section never give up, not even on the slow ones. There’s hurt there always. But no discernible hate. - Robert Christgau, 2009 .... ..PRESS FOR NEW ALBUM.... .. ..NPR's Fresh Air:.. .. ..Wussy: Strong Work & Not Without Pain.. .... ..UNCUT (UK):.. 4 of 5 stars, “Recalling a roll call of adventurous boy/girl-styled indie bands – Yo La Tengo, Handsome Family, X – Wussy draws on plenty of yin/yang sexual and existential tension, a charmingly shambling, rough-hewn sound, and an army of alternately droning and jangling guitars on their sharpest outing yet.” .... .. Rolling Stone:.. 4 of 5 stars, "Cincinnati foursome make you feel their pain"...... ..SPIN:.. 8 of 10, "For exposing ordinary life's flaming weirdness, you can't beat the shabby folk rock on this witty third album" .... ..Washington Post:..: "Few bands since the Velvet-steeped heyday of the Feelies, Yo La Tengo and R.E.M. have abandoned themselves so completely to the ebbing, flowing currents of keening, droning guitars." .. .. ..wussymusic.com.. for more info. .... .. ..