Monday, April 30, 2012

The Hussy on Eradicator Records



Today's single is from Wisconsin big shots, The Hussy. I ended up getting this one from Bobby himself (on green!) out of the backseat of his car in the pouring rain after their ridiculously awesome set at The Archeron. He told me the craziest story about this blurred out double exposed sleeve photo, which involved not being able to sleep, nudity and found photos scattered all over the floor. Now that I'm looking at it it could also be medical textbook documentation of a 'weed seizure', the title of their full length I've been steadily spinning since that fateful almost Great White show...a little tip...beer and lighter fluid just spreads the flames...ALL OVER THE FLOOR!

A-Side's "Stab Me" is off their latest on Tic Tac Totally and it deserves to have it's own special highlight A-Side here, completely blows the doors off as usual... The Hussy on this whole new record finds them tighter than anything previously and makes all the gritty, raw guitar sound slick as hell. It also looks like Bobby has been recording and mixing everything of The Hussy's lately, including some bands on his own Kind Turkey Records.
He's distilled Weed Seizure into a really concise pop punk right down to every bell chime? There's some weird things happening just under the surface of these tracks but when you've battle tested every chord by the time you get to recording, you've probably got an idea of what this should sound like better than anyone else.
So I imagine Heather and Bobby (after a weed seizure of course) saying "Hey I wonder if we could get away with a flute sound mirroring this guitar track on the right channel?" Nestled among the handclaps and doubled vocal, greasy guitar, kicked out boom drums, it sounds like... yes you can.
That's why when you get to Turkatron, you're hearing for The Hussy what is the equivalent of a 4track cassette demo for crying out loud. It's got all the attention to detail of the bigger tracks, but the physical whallop is more restrained, and it's what makes b-sides throughout history so god damn important. Here's an early incarnation of this massive sound, but how they get from there to "Undefined" is anyone's guess. Heather gets familiar with the reverb back off in the distance under a little thinner drum track and takes the reins on this brief number.

B-Side's "Hard to Erase" is back into their greaser onslaught, what makes this feel kind of B-movie Cramps is the sheer enthusiasm they approach these tracks on their records. Bobby's belting out these vocals, and I'm not just thinking of the live show, they're dedicated to this chorus sound, and catching as much... straining as much sound out of that duo archetype, every last wave, every note.. crash and scuzz is compacted down into power pop punk. Ending with a bang.
"Molly Molly" is a Midwest Beat cover with that crazy echo on the vocal, everything is incredibly dense with possibly even some synth on this one. They always avoid that repetitive trap, by not letting it continue long enough to ever hear it really come back again but Bobby isn't resting on just any three chords, he always feels like he's packing the limits of melodies into a single measure. Solo the sam hill out of this section over here.

A crazy solid entry point from Eradicator Records if you still need proof positive to get on that larger format for a seizure inducing dose of...The Hussy. 4 colors still available!

3 comments:

  1. Paul L.9:00 PM

    They are coming to Tacoma, Wa soon. I'll wait to buy this then. Hopefully out of the back of a van and on green vinyl.

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  2. Bobby, save Paul a green one! Oh and bring flame retardant clothing.

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  3. I will save Paul one!

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