Wussy is one of those bands that music nerds like me just love talking about as much as we like listening to (and we listen plenty). As Robert Christgau wrote in 2012, “Wussy have been the best band in America since they released the first of their five superb albums in 2005, only nobody knows it except me and my friends. I’m oversimplifying, of course. Wussy are a moderately big deal in their unhip Cincinnati hometown, and in part because so many of my friends are rock critics, their 2011 Strawberry finished 109th in the 2011 Pazz & Jop Critics’ Poll — not bad for a band never once mentioned in Pitchfork. (Ever.) Nevertheless, they remain dishearteningly obscure.”

Having put out seven albums over its career, including the excellent new album Attica!,  (now raved about in Pitchfork) the now-five piece band from Cincinnati is embarking on a tour that will take them across much of the west coast, including playing tonight at El Corazon. You should go. The band melds power pop hooks with offbeat rock and/or roll, including some droning guitar parts. And I just love the way that Lisa Walker and Chuck Cleaver sing and write lyrics.

I spoke with Chuck Cleaver while the band was making a stop on their drive between shows in St. Paul, MN and Wenatchee, WA. He called from Butte, MT and we talked about all things Wussy.

I want to first ask about your new album, Attica!, and what had gone into making it?

I remember writing some of the songs on our last west coast tour a couple of years ago. I think our aim was to make it as immediate and as close to how we play live as possible. We did do some overdubbing but we wanted to make the initial tracks as close to first takes as we possibly could to get more of a live feel to it, or whatever. I think we were pretty successful. Some friends of ours who have been listening to our albums since the beginning said that it’s most like how we sound live of any record we’ve made. So we were pretty happy with it.

We worked with John Curley, the bass player for the Afghan Whigs, in his studio and we really enjoy working with him. We’ve made all of our records but one with him.

Is there anything you did with Attica! that is new to your process?

We tried to keep all of the initial tracks. It wasn’t all first takes but not having to overdub anything was the initial goal. The keyboards and a few other things here and there we had to retouch because no one in the band plays keyboards live but we wanted to make it more of an organic process, or something, without sounding too much like a hippie.

When we make our records, we kind of go in with our fingers crossed. There’s not a lot of talk or planning that goes into it.

Is there a process that you go through when you’re making new music?

I think we sync well enough with everybody that we don’t have to discuss things a lot. We just sort of go in and do it.

As far as songwriting, either Lisa or I come in with a skeleton of a song and we flesh it out. Sometimes we goof around on a couple of chords until we find something that we like. We try to include everyone in the entire process because if someone is included in it, they sort of care about it more. It’s sort of everybody’s thing, you know?

I know Lisa sings it, but can I ask a little bit about the “Teenage Wasteland” song that begins Attica? I think it’s one of my favorite Wussy songs right now, out of many.

I was playing that initial thing and goofing around with my vibrato and doing a finger-pick thing to get that opening thing. I was really messing around and not intending it to be anything. When I stopped, Lisa said to keep playing that. We came up with the instrumental part of it but we didn’t know what the words were going to be until she sang them in the studio.

She tends to keep fragments of things around and then at the last moment surprises us with them. When she went in and sang the vocal track of that song, we never really heard what she was singing before. She would mumble some words to get a feel for the song, or whatever, but when she sang it [in the studio] we were all looking at each other like, “Damn, where’d that come from?” It’s good to be surprised like that. We were all standing around the studio with our jaws agape.

That song had been called “Paul Westerberg” up until when she put lyrics into it because we didn’t have a title for it.

How’s this tour going for you, compared to your last tour?

It’s still too new to tell. We’ve only done three dates but the venues have been a little nicer and the crowds have been a little bigger. We’re selling a little bit more merchandise. It seems like it’s growing a little bit.

I know that the woman who booked this tour for us said it wasn’t as hard to book this time. A few more people seem to know who we are.

Do you think the support you’ve gotten from writers like Robert Christgau has helped get the word out about Wussy?

Oh yeah, definitely. With people who are inside music and the public at large, I don’t have any delusions or anything, we’re still a relatively unknown band. But it does feel like this has a little bit of a higher profile than anything else we’ve ever done.

Have you noticed a progression where Wussy gets a little bit bigger with each release, and you pick up a few more fans with each new album?

I think so. For better or worse, we’ve always been a word-of-mouth band. That’s alright. We’re used to it and anything seems better than nothing.

Does Wussy have any plans after you finish the tour and the sort of cycle for Attica!?

I think we’re going to see how things play out. I wish I could tell you something more exciting but we don’t really plan too much. I’m working on writing some things for a new record and I know Lisa is working on some new stuff. We were messing around with some stuff in our practice space. We like to keep working. We’ve put out seven records in about twelve years, so I don’t think that’s too bad of a track record. I mean some of the releases were Record Store Day-only releases.

I think it’s business as usual and we’re just going to see what happens. You’ll occasionally hear something like there’s a label interested in you or something, but I try not to hold my breath. What happens will happen and we’ll just figure it out as we go.