Rusty Willoughby (born June 30, 1966
Sub Pop. Accessed online 2009-10-06.) is an American musician born in

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

and currently living in

Vashon, Washington Vashon () is a census-designated place (CDP) in King County, Washington, United States. It covers an island alternately called Vashon Island or Vashon–Maury Island, the largest island in Puget Sound south of Admiralty Inlet. Before the construc ...

, a suburb of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

. , he has been vocalist, songwriter and guitarist or bass guitarist for several Seattle based bands:

Pure Joy Pure may refer to: Computing * Pure function * PureSystems, a family of computer systems introduced by IBM in 2012 * Pure Software, a company founded in 1991 by Reed Hastings to support the Purify tool * Pure-FTPd, FTP server software * Pure (pr ...

(1984–1989, 1997–2004),Rusty Willoughby

KEXP-FM KEXP-FM (90.3 FM) is a non-commercial radio station in Seattle, Washington, United States, specializing in indie music programmed by its disc jockeys. KEXP's studios are located at the Seattle Center, and the transmitter is in the city's Capi ...

live performance October 5, 2002. Accessed online 2009-10-05.

Flop Floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance in computing, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations. For such cases, it is a more accurate measur ...

(1990–1995), Llama (2005–2008), and Cobirds Unite (2010–). He also briefly played drums for the

Fastbacks Fastbacks are a Seattle, Washington, punk rock band. Formed in 1979 by songwriter/guitarist Kurt Bloch (born August 28, 1960), and friends Lulu Gargiulo (guitar and vocals, born October 12, 1960) and Kim Warnick (bass and vocals, born April 7, ...

. He also played with

Kurt Bloch Kurt Bloch (born August 28, 1960) is an American songwriter, guitarist, engineer and record producer. Music career Bloch is best known as songwriter and lead guitarist of Fastbacks, and is a member of The Young Fresh Fellows. Record Production ...

of the Fastbacks,

Jonathan Poneman Jonathan Poneman is an American record executive and co-founder of two record labels: Sub Pop and Hardly Art. He was credited by Kurt Cobain as the one who coined the term "grunge.” Early life and education The third child of Harold and Bever ...

(co-founder of the record label

Sub Pop Sub Pop is an independent record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop achieved fame in the early 1990s for signing Seattle bands such as Nirvana (band), Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the gru ...

), and Scott Sutherland (of Seattle bands

Model Rockets A model rocket is a small rocket designed to reach low altitudes (e.g., for a model) and be recovered by a variety of means. According to the United States National Association of Rocketry (NAR)'s Safety Code, model rockets are constructe ...

and

Chemistry Set A chemistry set is an educational toy allowing the user (typically a teenager) to perform simple chemistry experiments. History Forerunners The forerunners of the chemistry set were 17th-century books on "natural magick", "which all excelle ...

) in a

Cheap Trick Cheap Trick is an American rock band formed in Rockford, Illinois in 1970 by guitarist Rick Nielsen, bassist Tom Petersson, lead vocalist Robin Zander and drummer Bun E. Carlos. Their work bridged elements of '60s pop rock, guitar pop, '70s har ...

cover band called Sick Man of Europe, and appeared in the film ''

Hype! ''Hype!'' (1996) is a documentary directed by Doug Pray about the popularity of grunge rock in the early to mid-1990s United States. It incorporates interviews and rare concert footage to trace the development of the grunge scene from its early b ...

'', a documentary directed about the popularity of

grunge rock Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the U.S. state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and Olympia, and other nearby cities. Grunge fuses elements of punk ...

Musical style

In a 1999 review of Willoughby's self-titled solo album, Don Yates of

described his "

Beatlesque "Beatlesque" () or "Beatles-esque" describes a musical resemblance to the English rock band the Beatles. The term is loosely defined and has been applied inconsistently to a wide variety of disparate artists. Definitions To better explain what ...

songcraft" as "bring ngto mind the starker side of

Elliott Smith Steven Paul Smith (August 6, 1969 – October 21, 2003), known as Elliott Smith, was an American musician and singer-songwriter. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and lived much of his life in Portland, Oregon, whe ...

."Don Yates
Rusty Willoughby: Rusty Willoughby
KEXP-FM, June 15, 1999, accessed online 2009-10-05.

Discography

Solo albums

* ''Rusty Willoughby'' self-released, 1999) * ''Filament Dust'' (self-released, 2009) * ''Cobirds Unite'' (self-released, 2010) * ''Adult Soft Record'' (self-release, 2012) * ''Anti'' (self-released, 2013)

Solo singles

* "Here Come the Weakened" / "And the World Moves On" (

, 1999, 7-inch vinyl)

Flop albums

*''Flop and the Fall of the Mopsqueezer!'' (

Frontier Records Frontier Records is an independent record label, started in 1980 in Sun Valley, Los Angeles by Lisa Fancher, a former employee of BOMP! Records and writer of the liner notes for the first album by The Runaways. History Frontier Records first ...

- 1992) *'' Whenever You're Ready'' (

Sony 550 550 Music (originally known as Sony 550 Music) was a unit of Sony Music Entertainment, which operated through Sony Music's Epic Records division while in activity. Launched in 1992, the "550" name was inspired by the address of the Sony building ...

- 1993) *''World of Today'' (

- 1995)

Flop EPs and Singles

*''The Losing End'' (

Lucky Records Lucky Records is the name of several different record labels. Lucky Records – Tokyo Lucky Records of the 1930s was a record label based in Tokyo, Japan, which specialized in issuing American popular music to the Japanese audience. Lucky was f ...

- 1990) *''Drugs'' (

Dashboard Hula Girl Records A dashboard (also called dash, instrument panel or IP, or fascia) is a control panel (engineering), control panel set within the central console of a vehicle, boat, or cockpit of an aircraft or spacecraft. Usually located directly ahead of the ...

- 1990) *''Anne'' (1993) *''We Are You'' (Munster Records - 1993) *''Regrets'' (

- 1993) *''The Great Valediction'' (

- 1993) *''Act 1 Scene 1'' (Super Electro - 1995) *''Place I Love'' (1995)

Pure Joy albums and EPs

* ''Pure Joy'' (Dwindle Music, 1986, EP) * ''Carnivore'' ( PopLlama, 1989) * ''Sore Throte, Ded Goat'' (No Threes, 1989 or 1990, EP) * ''Unsung'' (Flydaddy, recorded 1987, released 1994) * ''Getz the Worm'' (Flydaddy, 1997) * ''Gelatin and Bright'' (Book Records, 2003)

Notes

External links

rustywilloughby.com
official web site
Willoughby's blog

Live performance
KEXP-FM, October 5, 2002 * Mike Baehr

Fantagraphics Books Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and (formerly) the Erotic comics, erotic Eros Comix imprint. They have managed sev ...

: page includes video of Willoughby performing at the Fantagraphics store February 7, 2009. {{DEFAULTSORT:Willoughby, Rusty American rock musicians Songwriters from Washington (state) 1966 births Living people People from Redmond, Washington Musicians from Staten Island People from Vashon, Washington