Mike Baggetta of mssv Part 3

Zig At The Gig podcast

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.

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