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Music

Wussy Are Still Amazing Songwriters, Even When They're Playing Covers

Listen to the Cincinnati band's brilliant cover of The Twinkeyz's "Aliens in Our Midst." It's the latest single from 'What Heaven Is Like,' out May 18.
John Erhardt

Wussy, the criminally underrated Cincinnati-based indie rock band, have a new album coming out on May 18. What Heaven Is Like will be the band's seventh LP and, as ever, you'll need to listen to it four or five times to let Chuck Cleaver's raw drawl and Lisa Walker's lonesome resonance seep in. The band's 2016 album, Forever Sounds, wandered down a scuzzier, more psychedelic path, and the duo's heart-wrenching melodies were buried a little deeper in the mix. On Heaven, the air is clearer again, and the songs have that much more space to float.

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The latest single from the record, premiering below, is a cover of garage punk weirdos The Twinkeyz's 1979 single, "Aliens in Our Midst." The original, mixed so horribly that it condemned a potentially great album to also-ran status, was delivered deadpan, half-spoken. But with Cleaver on lead vocals it comes alive—he sounds overawed in the verses, ecstatic in the choruses, pointed when he gets to the philosophical breakdown about everyone wanting money and no one finding relief.

"I first discovered The Twinkeyz 45 'Aliens In Our Midst' in the late '70s when I was working for Subway Records in Cincinnati, Ohio," Cleaver wrote in a note to Noisey this morning. "White vinyl with a picture sleeve and a comic book insert (I still have it). I loved the raw simplicity of it and thought the words were particularly wonderful. Wussy started playing it in our live sets a couple of years back and it’s gotten such a positive response that we decided to record it and put it on our newest record, What Heaven Is Like. Not to slight the others, but it’s actually my favorite song on the album. And considering the current shit storm, the words are as relevant as they’ve ever been. ALL HAIL THE TWINKEYZ!!!"

Listen to "Aliens in Our Midst" below. What Heaven Is Like is out May 18 on Damnably in the UK/EU and Shake It in the US.

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