Chuck Cleaver

Chuck Cleaver spent years working as a stonemason in southwestern Ohio before music became his main job, and he quit masonry only when his chiropractor told him his back would not take much more. By then he had already led the Cincinnati band Ass Ponys through six albums of odd, funny and unsettling rock songs, and he was about to form the band that would earn him his greatest acclaim, Wussy.

He was born on June 6, 1959, in rural southwestern Ohio, before sunrise, by the time astrologers have on file. Gemini is rising, and his Sun and Mercury, both in Gemini, sit in the first house, with the Moon, also in Gemini, just behind the Ascendant in the twelfth. Gemini is a placement of storytelling and wit, and with that much of it gathered around the rising degree, language is central to his identity. Cleaver is admired above all as a lyricist, writing songs full of strange details, dark humor and vivid characters drawn from small-town Ohio life.

Venus, in the last degree of Cancer, and Mars and Uranus in Leo sit in his third house of songwriting, communication and local surroundings. Venus in Cancer brings tenderness and nostalgia, and Mars in Leo adds a performer's boldness. Cleaver's songs often combine affection for ordinary Midwestern places with a sense that something in them is a little off.

Ass Ponys, which he founded in 1988, released albums including Mr. Superlove and Electric Rock Music on independent and major labels and earned a cult following. The singer-songwriter Freedy Johnston called Cleaver one of the best songwriters in America, and critics compared his cracked, high voice to those of Michael Stipe and Wayne Coyne.

Saturn, retrograde in Capricorn, falls in his seventh house, the house of partners, describing commitments that are slow to form and built to last. Cleaver has never become a household name, and he has spent much of his life balancing music with other work, including buying and selling records with his bandmate Lisa Walker.

Jupiter and Neptune, both retrograde in Scorpio, lie in his sixth house of routine labor, describing a dark, mysterious imagination channeled through steady effort. Pluto in Virgo falls in his fourth house, tied to his hometown roots.

In 2001 Cleaver met Walker, and together they formed Wussy, sharing songwriting and lead vocals. Wussy's albums, including Funeral Dress, Strawberry, Attica! and Forever Sounds, won passionate reviews, and the critic Robert Christgau repeatedly championed them as one of the best bands in America.

Cleaver has said he likes music with "something a little messed up with it," naming Sparklehorse and Tom Waits as favorites. The Gemini planets in his first house made him a storyteller; the Saturn in his seventh found him the partner to keep working with through the lean years.