What the Fuzz?

In my previous article on Kaleo I mentioned how much I love this new postmodern trend of “copying” the old sound of the sixties and seventies and letting different influences from rock history blend together. It’s like the music you wanted to hear from Black Sabbath or MC5 but they never got the chance to record it. Still there is always something by which you can distinguish these new bands from the old ones. Maybe it’s the post-modern mix itself, I don’t know, but I like it. Coming from California, US, “Fuzz” is just the band I described. They even admit that they wanted to make something that sounded old. Regarding the band's origins, vocalist and guitarist Charles Moothart noted that the project began at his home: "I was sitting in my house one day, before I was in Ty's band or anything, wondering how hard it would be to write a [hard rock song]. I was trying to figure out if it'd be ridiculous, or sound like shit. I just tried and then eventually showed the stuff to Ty. He was stoked on it and then we tried to jam together. It was really more to have fun. He mentioned playing drums. We wanted to play music like that, just to see if it was possible." Created as an outlet for Moothart's affection for hard rock riffs, Fuzz began as collaboration between him and Ty Segall. The band released two singles, "This Time I Got a Reason" and "Sleigh Ride", and were joined by bass guitarist Roland Cosio.

In October 2013, the band released its self-titled debut album, Fuzz. While touring the album, Chad Ubovich replaced Cosio on bass and started contributing for the next Fuzz album, called simply “II.” Ubovich noted that the writing process for II differed from their previous collaborations and projects with one another: “We all kind of did something we’ve never done before, which was write together as a band. That was a first for all of us. Usually in our respective projects it’s all about writing on our own, and that process. This time we tried something definitely new.".

Both of the albums sound exciting and powerful, with lots of blues influences and heavy, fuzzy riffs. Well, they are Fuzz, it would be strange if they were not fuzzy.