mssv, Hottt Probs, The Mothballs

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Bob Loewenberg

The three members of mmsv.

mssv

$20 ($15 adv.).

media release: On And On is the 3rd studio album from the post-genre power trio mssv featuring the legendary rhythm team of drummer Stephen Hodges (Tom Waits, Mavis Staples, David Lynch) and bassist mike watt (MINUTEMEN, fIREHOSE, Stooges) alongside the unique and iconoclastic guitar of its genre-bending bandleader, Mike Baggetta. On And On features brand new songs that were written by Baggetta before their 58-show 2023 US tour and performed every night, recorded and produced by Chris Schlarb at BIG EGO Studio in Long Beach, CA immediately after. The album comes out on BIG EGO Records on 12” LP vinyl, digital download and streaming services on Friday, March 7, 2025 and features artwork by John Herndon (Tortoise). 

Featured in the works on this album is a band-improvised song and, on the vinyl issue only, six more band-improvised interludes. These improvised, then recomposed, instrumentals had their parts recorded separately by each member, then edited down, recombined and recomposed by Baggetta’. They serve as an important connective tissue between the songs on each side, turning On And On into an exciting and trippy psychedelic fever dream of a concept album. This serves to really bring out the story of On And On: at its heart it is an album where all the works combine to create an endless episodic journey through the temporal and seemingly fleeting nature of society, personality, music, and life and death on Earth, only to realize that all of these are also endlessly repeating.

Seven of the eight new songs feature vocals from Baggetta, now much more comfortable in his vocal role from the previous mssv album Human Reaction. The wordcraft heard here in On And On goes a lot deeper than his previous lyric writing, while still remaining wholly individual in its exploratory playfulness. The subject matter here, while being universally relatable, is rife with personal references, stories of his and the band’s friends and relationships, and one song “Despair & Hilarity” including lyrics written by one of Baggetta’s most important musical collaborators Steve Gigante (7 Year Rabbit Cycle, W-S Burn, THETEETHE). 

Continuing to explore the seemingly endless depths of Hodges’ and watt’s musicianship and skill over the many tours and albums in mssv has grown an instantly identifiable sound from Baggetta’s songwriting for this band. But the trust that has formed between them, that comes from long-running musical partnerships, has also made it possible for mssv to explore more interesting ways to incorporate improvised music into the lives of their songs, innovating their music in new ways while still keeping the fearless nature of each musician and this band fully intact. On And On skillfully combines all of these elements into a newly evolved lens for the music of mssv, deftly displayed in this album as a high concept love letter to everyday life.