For the past three years, neighborhood locals Josh and Wendy Goldberger have been tearing up small venues with their rock band The Cuss. Now, with parenthood on the horizon, they're going on hiatus and bidding adieu to their fans with a show at Vinyl this Saturday night.
Curious about their musical journey and how the neighborhood has played a role in their success, we caught up with Josh and Wendy to discuss what they've learned as a local band.
Josh: "We basically formed in Wendy's parents' garage over Thanksgiving 2010. We discovered her brother Carl's old drum set, set it up, and though she'd never played before Wendy was a natural drummer. What started as us kind of goofing around got serious pretty quickly when our friend Rajeev invited us to play a show at Amnesia in May of 2011."
Wendy: "The night Josh and I met, his band played a show at mutual friends' house warming party at Broderick and Fulton. We starting dating after running into each other at a show at the Independent, and at the time we lived around the corner from each other. Little did I know that my obsession with music and years of dancing would translate into drumming skills. Once Josh lost his drummer from his old band, I stepped right in. We dressed up as Mr. and Mrs. Fox from Fantastic Mr. Fox our first Halloween together, and this inspired our band name. "
Who are your inspirations? What bands or artists inspired your sound?
Josh: "We are big music fans in general, and we go to a lot of shows, so it can be difficult to parse the bands and artists we really love from the ones that actually inspire our sound. I think The Cuss draws from The Walkmen, The Strokes, The National, Elliot Smith, and an early 80s San Francisco band called Robin & the Rocks. We are mostly inspired by dogs and bikes, which we love, and each other."
Wendy: "I'd say our favorite bands definitely inspire us, but we don't necessarily try to sound like anything specific. Josh writes the lyrics, which are often inspired by our life in SF, and the music evolves from there. If it all comes together quickly and seems to flow from the start, we know we're onto something good."
Where was your first show?
Josh: "Our first show was in San Rafael at the wedding of our good friends who now live in Zurich. Then two days later we played a show at the Knockout."
Wendy: "Before we were officially a band, we played a few songs to open for Josh's old band DoubleDouble at Waziema."
Do you have any tips for other small bands?
Josh: "Playing open mics has always been really helpful for me, because it's a safe place to gain confidence in new material, and helps you connect with venues, promoters and like-minded musicians. For us one of the best ways to get shows has been to think outside of the box in terms of venues and events. We've played some random places that don't usually have bands, like Waziema, Tank 18 Winery and the Chrome Hub in SoMa, and in the Panhandle. Most of these opportunities arose from friendly conversations with staff or proprietors, and also having a genuine appreciation for those places and wanting to contribute something unique.
"As far as practicing goes, the more the better, but it has to be fun. We have the most fun when we focus on each other and make sure that first and foremost we're enjoying ourselves.
"One pro tip is to drink less. And stick to beer. Also, get business cards for the band, and always have a few on you. You never know who you're going meet."
Wendy: "What he said."
What's next for the band members of The Cuss?
Josh: "Parenthood."
Wendy: "Lots of acoustic shows at home."
Tell us a little about your last show (for a while), which is taking place at Vinyl on Saturday.
Josh: "This definitely won't be our last show ever. But we picked Vinyl because it's a special venue for us. We had the rehearsal dinner for our wedding there, and over the years we've become very friendly with the management and staff. Since we know we're taking an extended break, we wanted this show to be intimate, low-pressure, and meaningful, and Vinyl ticked all the boxes. We'll also have band merch custom made by San Franpsycho."
Wendy: "We love Vinyl and have so many good memories there from over the years. We get to throw a free show in an intimate venue, and then walk a couple of blocks home at the end of the night—it can't get much better than that!"
The Cuss will be performing at Vinyl at 7:30pm this Saturday (August 16th). We'll see you there with dancing shoes on.
