Satellite Farm interviews Wussy at Red Light Cafe
by V.C.
There’s an old saying in rock and roll that you need to have ten to twelve great reasons (read: songs) to shove yourself and your band mates into a van and tour the country, hoping that at the end of it all you remain somewhat financially solvent–meaning that you’ve sold enough merch you at least break even and most importantly, that you still have the band intact. Cincinnati’s Wussy has well over ten to twelve great “reasons” to pile into a van for the most extensive tour they have done to date. In fact, they have five albums worth of material that are light years ahead of anything their contemporaries are putting out. Don’t believe me? How about reading what famed Village Voice rock critic, Robert Christgau, had to say about them. Christgau is a man of few words. His open “love letter” to the band is the length equivalent of War and Peace for him, where he writes of Wussy: “We’re talking Beatles-Stones consistency here. I love the music…” For Christgau to declare “love” for a band is no small feat. No doubt that Wussy is one of those bands whose sum of it parts is greater than the individuals who are in the band, they continuously create intelligent, well-written rock songs with hooks and melodies that you find creeping into your daily life, days and weeks after you’ve heard them.
Recently, I witnessed Wussy live and it is a site to behold. Wussy’s van pulled into Atlanta’s Red Light Cafe on August 2nd for the final show of their tour in support of their jaw dropping album “Attica”. It is doubtful Wussy will ever fill big arenas and that is truly sad because one thing Wussy does better than a thousand bands out there right now selling out places twenty times bigger than what this obscure band is accustomed to, is they fill every inch of a venue’s space with music. Music that rattles ceilings, music that hits you at every level, music that leaves you speechless, and music that has the ability to alter your Musical DNA if you allow yourself to take it in.
Witness it for yourself in this Satellite Farm Exclusive:
If you are among the ones who already know what Wussy is capable of, then nothing else needs to be said. If you are not, I can only hope they tour again in a city near you and that you go check them out live–and hey, invest in a little shcwag while you are at it! And if you want a first hand account of what it’s like to be a touring band on a day-to-day basis, I highly recommend reading Wussy bassist, Mark Messerly’s blog. It’s not all limousines, private jets, and assistants, and to be honest, I doubt Wussy is the type of band who holds those things dear.
Rather what one garners from Mark’s writing is the collective beating of five hearts + a dedicated tour manager. The five hearts that make up what is known as Wussy, a band whose members are about a decade and half older than most of what’s out there now and whose day jobs include teaching, stone masonary, construction work/bartending and waiting tables. However they are a band in the truest sense of the word. They create music first as fans and then as a “tribe.” And maybe that’s what is at the core of Wussy: a “tribe” mentality that believes so deeply in what they are doing that they will squeeze into a van and point it onto the highways of this country… Mark Messerly says it best, in our Satellite Farm exclusive interview: “It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. Ya know, go out and play shows and meet people and have adventures … It’s hard in a lot of ways but I can’t imagine someone putting this out on the table and, like, ‘yes or no?’ Saying ‘no’; I’ve yet to find the inclination to say ‘no’ to the adventure…”
Check out the full interview clip here:
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