The Ssion

What began eight years ago as 16-year-old small-town Kentucky boy Cody Critcheloe's rock and roll fantasy, the Ssion, has lived through multiple incarnations and seen many players come and go. Previously touted as the Kansas City Art Institute's resident rabble-rousers and Williamsburg's Next Big Thing (the group spent a semester in New York City), Critcheloe and company are now returning to punk fundamentals. "I was getting bored with keeping up the regimen of art-school aesthetic," Critcheloe tells the Pitch. Dismissed by some critics as "performance art" rather than a legitimate rock band, the group has since decided to hang up the chicken and cow suits, put away the film projector and pick up a goddamn guitar. Its live show remains a visual spectacle, but the theatrics lie in the compelling musical performance. The sound is bass-heavy disco-punk, and Critcheloe commands the audience with his frenetic delivery and David Byrne-meets-Iggy Pop gyrations. The just-released, limited-pressing 7-inch "World's Worth," on Los Angeles label Sound Virus (the Liars, Pretty Girls Make Graves) gives further proof that the Ssion is no art-kid novelty act. -- Megan Metzger