O-HI-O

Since I’ve lived in Southern Ohio for only 10 months, I’ve been holding off on writing about a Cincinnati band. But I can’t resist any longer. I’m no longer a Queen City greenhorne, so on one of my recent trips to Shake It Records, I succumbed and finally picked up a copy of Wussy’s 2005 release Funeral Dress.

Released this past December on the Shake It label, Funeral Dress isn’t an enormous departure from Chuck Cleaver’s other band, the Ass Ponys, it’s still off-kilter roots rock, but just a little less off-kilter. Maybe it’s the addition of drummer Dawn Burman or jack-of-all- intruments Mark Messerly, or maybe it’s splitting the vocal and songwriting duties with newcomer Lisa Walker, but whatever it is, it works just fine.