Wussy’s release today of its latest album, What Heaven Is Like, is notable for numerous reasons, including the fact it’s the first time the Cincinnati band has included covers on one of its regular albums.
One of those, “Aliens In Our Midst,” has become the album’s early breakout track, garnering national airplay. It was originally done by The Twinkeyz, a Sacramento garage band, in the late 1970s. The other cover is of “Oblivion” by Kath Bloom, an Alternative Folk singer whose lovely “Come Here” was featured in a pivotal scene in the 1995 film Before Sunrise.
Recognizing the significance of this, the website Cover Me asked Wussy’s Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker to participate in its Pick Five series, where significant artists choose their favorite covers by other musicians.
“And they did, times two,” Cover Me says, in introducing the results. “The series is called Pick Five, but really this one is a Pick Ten, as they each sent in thoughtful and funny insights into five gems.” You can see the full story here.
Cleaver chose fellow Cincinnati band Afghan Whigs’ cover of “Mr. Superlove,” which originally was done by his own Ass Ponys, but he didn’t mean it as a self-referential joke.
“Admittedly a bit of bygone self promotion, but the Whigs were the first to cover an Ass Ponys song. I teared up a bit the first time I heard it. Truth be told, I like it better than our version,” he says.
Here’s the video:
Also on his list were Mallard’s cover of the great Texas songwriter Guy Clark’s “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” Dinosaur Jr.’s raucous take on The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven,” Hüsker Dü’s version of The Byrds’ “Eight Miles High,” and Wussy’s own take of Dusty Springfield’s “Breakfast in Bed,” which originally was recorded as part of a Shake It tribute to songwriter Eddie Hinton. CityBeat wrote about it at the time; you can read the story here.
Walker also picked a giant of Texas songwriting (and close friend of Guy Clark), Townes Van Zandt, as a favorite cover artist for his version of the Rolling Stones’ “Dead Flowers.” It first turned up on a 1991 live album by Van Zandt, but it is most familiar from its use in The Big Lebowski.
“This song takes on a whole new meaning filtered through Van Zandt’s lens and faltering voice, which frankly suits it better than the Stones’ swagger,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong… I love Sticky Fingers as if it were part of some sort of holy canon. But I can’t escape the feeling that ‘Dead Flowers’ is a song meant for Townes, and the Stones are just the ones covering it, rather than the other way around. Kinda like ‘Wild Horses’ belongs to the Burritos in a way.”
Here it is:
Her other choices were The Fall’s version of The Kinks’ “Victoria,” Cat Power’s take on the eccentric folk singer Michael Hurley’s “Werewolf,” Scrawl’s interpretation of Public Image Ltd.’s “Public Image,” and Dinosaur Jr. again, covering an originally-overlooked 1968 song by Elyse Weinberg called “Houses.” Her original version, which included an assist from Neil Young on guitar, gained attention when her album was reissued in 2015.
“I realize Chuck also has a Dinosaur Jr. cover in his, but oh well… so be it,” Walker says. “The original version of this 1968 Elyse song is so great that it’s hard to understand why it wasn’t an FM radio hit in its day. But it’s become a cult classic now, so we can all enjoy it thanks to the magic of reissues and the internet. Vetiver does a perfectly passable (mostly-acoustic) cover, but frankly it’s more fun to hear Neil Young’s guitar lead given the Mascis treatment. Ya know?”
The Cover Me feature includes links to all the songs chosen by Chuck and Lisa. The site, which is devoted to cover versions, does stories like this regularly and is highly recommended. Its creator, Ray Padgett, also wrote a fascinating book last year called Cover Me: The Stories Behind the Greatest Cover Songs of All Time. Maybe “Aliens In Our Midst” will be added to the second addition.
This article appears in May 16-23, 2018.