suss

"ambient country" group SUSS prep expanded edition of debut (listen to "Laramie")

Bob Holmes used to be in ’80s new wave band Rubber Rodeo and now heads up successful digital agency Sudden Design, but he’s still making music. Currently he leads SUSS, who make self-described “ambient country music” and the band also includes his old Rubber Rodeo bandmate Gary Leib (who you may know from his comic Idiotland), guitarists Pat Irwin (who scored episodes of Nickelodeon shows Rocko’s Modern LifeSpongebob Squarepants, and others) and William Garrett, and pedal steel player Jonathan Gregg. Their goal was to create ambient music using traditional instruments, somewhere between traditional country and Americana and, say, Boards of Canada. (Brian Eno’s Apollo is also a touchstone here.) “In our old band Rubber Rodeo,” says Holmes, “Gary and I were well-known as the guys who mashed-up Dolly Parton and Devo — but you could see the stitches. This time, we wanted to make music where you couldn’t see the stitches.”

SUSS self-released their debut, Ghost Box, earlier this year digitally and it’s now coming out in physical formats as an expanded edition via Northern Spy on November 16. We’ve got the premiere of bonus track “Laramie” from the album and you can listen to that, as well as the original version of “Ghost Box,” below.

The band will celebrate the new version of Ghost Box with a show at Brooklyn’s Park Church Co-Op on November 17 and tickets are on sale.