BIG027 | mssv | Human Reaction
BIG027 | mssv | Human Reaction
Artist: mssv
Description: mssv is releasing their second studio album Human Reaction in their typical style: with a 58-show tour in the U.S. and parts of Canada. The band, composed of guitarist Mike Baggetta, Stephen Hodges on drums and mike watt on bass, creates music that is a heretofore unimagined hybrid of a punk power-trio and a dreamy experimental rock band, though they prefer the term “post-genre.” Human Reaction is being released on BIG EGO Records as a digital download, 12” LP vinyl, and via streaming platforms on September 1.
Their latest full-length album finds the oddly memorable hooks of their noir-tinged adventure music with a lot more vocals from the Main Steam Stop Valve leader Baggetta, adding more personality than ever before, alongside his bandmates, Hodges and watt, who also share in the vocal duties throughout the album.
While working out the new music on the previous mssv tour in 2022 (48 shows in 48 days to celebrate their self-titled debut), Baggetta felt it important to take the step of singing his own words every night, rather than assigning them to anyone else, with a lot of support and encouragement from Stephen and mike.
Recorded mostly on May Day immediately following that last tour, Human Reaction traverses a deeply broad sonic landscape, as expected from this nearly unclassifiable group, though with even deeper twists and turns. With inventively churning drum textures from Hodges (an instantly identifiable sound honed in his days with Tom Waits and David Lynch) and the full-steam-ahead all-in attitude from watt, (as he’s displayed throughout his storied career with MINUTEMEN, fIREHOSE, and The Stooges), there is still the impression of “pressure, combustion, power, and hissing clouds of sonic poetry,” as Premier Guitar said. Also evident is the more fearless exploring that comes from a band that has spent a lot of time together crafting their vision, as well as making room for guests like J Mascis, Petra Haden and Nels Cline on some of their previous releases.
Baggetta has had the pleasure to work all over the world with a wide range of visionary musicians across many generations including David Torn, Jim Keltner, Nels Cline, Psychic Temple, Jeff Coffin, Henry Kaiser, Petra Haden, Rev. Fred Lane, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Joseph C. Philips’ Numinous with Imani Uzuri, Viktor Krauss, Jerome Harris, David Wax Museum, Jon Irabagon, Eivind Opsvik and Ruth Brown among many others.
Even though Baggetta wrote all the songs specifically for these bandmates to play, there’s no telling which way the band will turn at any given moment, a proposition that becomes a promise when they break down and reassemble these songs live, with an instinct for restraint and an openness to anarchy.
This album is also included in our 2023 Record Club subscription.
Release Date: September 1, 2023
Track Listing:
Side A
Say What You Gotta Say
French Road Drifters
Baby Ghosts
Pillow Talk
Side B
Human Reaction
Junk Haiku
Pity Parody
In This Moment
Musicians Featured:
Mike Baggetta - guitars, lead vocals
Stephen Hodges - drums, vocals
Mike Watt - bass, vocals
Cover Artwork:
All photos by Devin O’Brien
Layout by David J. Woodruff
Liner Notes from the Road:
from baggetta:
good sun in the boat
D Boon talk on shuffle, wow
good people dancing
prayer flags in the wind
maybe tornado omen?
Watt's mic, donated
swift creek, early spring
knee brace acquired for me
lots of good people
short sleep, good coffee
another donated mic
i alone sing lead
the end of this tour
standing next to Hodge and Watt
i'm truly grateful
not enough of time
to say all the things i want
never enough time
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from hodge:
many many train horns going by, love me some trains and train horns.
we are making major strides in our music
we are lucky to have really
caring people
that open their homes to us.
arrived at the gig early had time
to roam the streets...
found a cool barbershop
my barber was from Egypt
i like how he cut it.
made me look like my little
dog cosmo, cosmo always has
great hair!!
after the gig we load all my gear on watt's shine cart
wheel across this major 4 lane city street on the green light.
so many bits and pieces working in our
favor.
whole band
stayed up till it was april 1st
d boon's birthday
so much love and respect for that man!!!!
woke up did some yoga
later
miss hiyori and I
walked to kay's place
for breakfast
talked about john bonham's drum tuning
miss hiyori plays drums too...
___
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from watt:
I tell mike about my ma's grandpa carlo and grandma guistina coming from italy to a town called dines (pronounced different than 'dines!) in the west part of this state. twenty minutes later we're on our way over the rockies on I-80 west, two hands on the wheel the whole time cuz of the blaster gusts. hey, mike's writing a tune for jer... via an email from wasco in cleveland who was talking w/jer about his big hellhurt w/the allergy pass out on the boat during last week - wasco told me he asked him "what can I do you for you, jer?" - something like that and jer's answer was "write me a song" - well, nothing to do w/wasco but that's what mike is doing right now in the seat next to me... that's what music's about people - it don't have to be background noise to some bullshit, it can actually have a focus and a reason, a fabric to help bring us together.
we cross the continental divide (6,930 feet up the sign says) at twenty after noon, first time since new mexico how many fucking gigs ago?! crimony for real. not much after, during a stretch of construction where the road narrows to one lane each, oncoming traffic kicked up a rock that hit the windshield, 'pert-near right in front of me behind the wheel. crimony! in rock springs I pull us over at a "flying j" ($4.26/gallon) to fuel up the boat and get some super glue to arrest that fucking windshield crack.
about twentyeight miles from the border I finally found it: the actual french road, crimony! damn if it don't look like a "frontage road" too... when us more-younger minutemen were first touring, we had no idea that term "frontage road" was a generic way of speaking about a road that paralleled the highway - we thought that was its actual name and couldn't believe how fuckin long it was - we'd see a sign w/"frontage road" on it and say to each other, "there's that fuckin road again!" thinking it was the stretch of fuckin whatever... damn if weren't real dumbfucks, huh? slow learners... I still am!