24 Questions with Mike Baggetta of mssv

When it comes to music, do you consider yourself an adventurous listener? Do you seek out and often appreciate challenging artists who openly strive to defy convention and instead of slaving to create some sort of polished, pop perfection, aim instead to aggressively blend disparate genres ― or ignore altogether the artificial constraints created by such arbitrary definitions?

Do you have “big ears”?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you might have found yourself standing as close to the low stage at downtown Savannah’s El Rocko Lounge as humanly possible a few nights ago, on March 31, when our fair city played host to the area’s first-ever live appearance by mssv, the critically-lauded rock/punk/jazz/psychedelic/spoken word power trio led by guitarist and frontman Mike Baggetta and featuring bassist (and occasional vocalist) Mike Watt and drummer and percussionist Stephen Hodges.

I was heartbroken to have been out of town for this rare chance to enjoy what was likely the very best $15 an adventurous listener could spend in the Historic District this year. Had I been around, I would have considered it an infinitesimally small investment in my spiritual and emotional well-being.

Truth be told, Baggetta (the cat who conceived the band, composes the vast majority of the material and invited the other two guys to join) won’t be too awfully thrilled with me describing the group as I did a couple of paragraphs above. I used words like “rock” and “punk” and “jazz,” while he essentially resists being pigeonholed into any of those categories. Instead, he and his compatriots have coined the phrase “post-genre power trio” as their preferred descriptor.

“I like thinking of it (that way),” he told a PBS cameraman a couple of years ago at a live taping of one of the group’s shows. “We’re three people, with three equal parts and three equal voices in the band. And one thing I get from both of these guys ―and have gotten for years before I even got to know them― was the fact that you don’t have to have these divisions in music. The best thing about music is when you don’t have these dividing lines and you can make something new and original out of it. So, that’s what this band is about.”

If you are unfamiliar with the music and history of mssv (short for “main steam stop valve”), don’t feel bad, as despite recording and releasing one live album and three studio albums, this fairly under-the-radar group of extraordinarily baaddass instrumentalists exists almost entirely on the fringe of popular culture. Which is likely just as they envisioned. It’s where they can most thrive, without the type of artistic compromise or creative intervention which has traditionally been part and parcel of the commercial music biz.

The entire approach and repertoire of mssv is almost completely anathema to whatever most people are looking for out of an electric guitar, electric bass, two vocal mics and a trap drum kit. And these guys know it! The dip and sway and skronk and groove their way around melody and dissonance and spank and tickle like word jazz godfather Ken Nordine showing up unannounced at a vintage James Blood Ulmer or Sonny Sharrock gig.

The pedigree of the players involved speaks volumes to those with even a cursory knowledge of their back catalogs.

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