On the surface, The Hussy seems to draw inspiration from a number of like-minded groups to forge its particular brand of Garage Psych Punk mayhem. The Madison, Wisc., guy/girl duo shares a structural blueprint with The White Stripes, right down to guy on guitar and vocals up front/girl on drums and vocals at the back.
And then there’s the whole faux-surname, band/gang aesthetic of The Ramones, unless by some wild what-the-fuckery their names really are Bobby Hussy and Heather Hussy. (His could be; hers was apparently Sawyer when they began in 2008. Married bandmates, too? No confirmation of that so far).
On the musical end, things get a little fuzzier, not to mention more lysergic, for The Hussy. Over the past five years, three mini-albums (2011’s Cement Tomb Mind Control, 2012’s Weed Seizure and the just-released Pagan Hiss) and a healthy number of EPs and singles, The Hussy has concocted a nut-kick sound that rivals the fist-pumping dumbass Rock anthemics of The Dictators, the howling mad Psych squall of Reigning Sound and the sloppily channeled spirits of a thousand British Invasion-influenced Garage Rock melodicists.
The Hussy’s songs rarely barrel past the two-minute mark and they often end with the breathtaking finality of the police pulling the plug on a loud-in-the-next-county block party. One minute the Hussy is thundering like the bastard twin of The Stooges and The Nomads and the next it bops around like The B-52s if they’d envisioned “Rock Lobster” as a brutal, lo-fi Punk manifesto.
The Hussy’s blistering studio intensity is outpaced only by its raw, visceral live approach. If you’re not a fan going into The Hussy show, you’ll be sporting their cauterized brand when they carry you out.
THE HUSSY plays Monday, June 24 at The Chameleon in Northside.
This article appears in Jun 12-18, 2013.