{"id":20323,"date":"2021-01-28T05:30:56","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T10:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=20323"},"modified":"2020-12-09T09:49:13","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T14:49:13","slug":"album-review-the-fuzztones-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/01\/28\/album-review-the-fuzztones-nyc\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: The Fuzztones — NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Though they first came on the scene in the middle of the \u201880s garage rock revival, The Fuzztones<\/a> have endured. And they\u2019ve remained busy this past decade and a half. Not even considering the three books Rudi Protrudi has authored \u2013 nor the documentary film that\u2019s been in development \u2013 there\u2019s been a steady stream of material from the band.<\/p>\n

Way back in 2006 there was Illegitimate Spawn<\/i><\/a>, a various-artists tribute to the Fuzztones. Horny as Hell<\/i><\/a> took the raw, elemental garage rock aesthetic and added brass (and it actually worked<\/i>). Preaching to the Perverted<\/i><\/a> from 2011 was the first album of all-new material from the group since its relocation to Berlin. IN 2013 there was another Fuzztones tribute, In Fuzz We Trust<\/i><\/a>. That same year, Sna<\/i>k<\/i>e Oil<\/i> was a well-curated odds and sods collection, and 2016\u2019s Alive and Deadly<\/i> was a Germany-only live release with a fiery set list straight outta Nuggets<\/i>.<\/p>\n

So in terms of doing something different, in terms of coming up with a concept or central idea upon which to build a new album, what remains?<\/p>\n

NYC<\/em>; that\u2019s what. Four decades after its founding, the band led by Rudi Protrudi goes (figuratively if not literally) back to its Noo Yawk roots. NYC is a collection of fifteen new tracks, all covers of songs from acts whose work informed, inspired and\/or influenced the Fuzztones.<\/p>\n

That said, the album starts off with a very left-field choice: \u201cNew York, New York.\u201d While the choice may seem sacrilege to some, the recasting of the tune works surprisingly well, with Lana Loveland<\/a>\u2019s spirited piano work helping bridge the gap between garage and old-school adult pop. Not than anyone asked for such a thing, y\u2019understand. But ultimately it does work, and far better than (for example) Sid Vicious\u2019 \u201cMy Way.\u201d<\/p>\n

A cover of \u201cFlip Your Wig\u201d waxed in 1976 by Wayne County and the Backstreet Boys (the original ones) finds the Fuzztones back in more familiar territory; they stomp their way through the tune, managing to make it more melodic without altering its sleazy, glam-punk character.<\/p>\n

The same approach is applied to the Cramps\u2019 New Kind of Kick,\u201d the Ramones\u2019 \u201c53rd<\/sup> & 3rd<\/sup>,\u201d the Dead Boys\u2019 \u201cHigh Tension Wires,\u201d Mink DeVille\u2019s \u201cLet Me Dream,\u201d a searing reading of the New York Dolls\u2019 \u201cBabylon,\u201d Richard Hell\u2019s \u201cYou Gotta Lose\u201d and so on. The Fuzztones make these songs \u2013 classics all, though few were commercial hits in any sort of meaningful way \u2013 their own.<\/p>\n

But the Fuzztones understand that \u201870s New York music was about more than punk. The attitude \u2013 if not the sound \u2013 carried through to other acts and other periods. They acknowledge that fact by covering the Fugs (\u201cSkin Flowers\u201d), Blue \u00d6yster Cult (\u201cTransmaniacon MC,\u201d suggesting what the tune might have sounded like in the hands of Sean Bonniwell\u2019s Music Machine<\/a>) and Wave<\/i>-era Patti Smith (\u201cDancing Barefoot\u201d).<\/p>\n

And the band doesn\u2019t allow itself to be painted into a corner instrument-wise; the Fuzztones bend the songs to their aesthetic, using piano more than on any of their recent recordings. Listeners who have followed the Fuzztones in recent years won\u2019t be put off by the band\u2019s refusal to be hemmed in by outdated ideas concerning what is or isn\u2019t \u201cgarage rock.\u201d In their hands, these songs \u2013 many of which have been forgotten \u2013 gain new life. And that means that NYC<\/em> is a creative success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though they first came on the scene in the middle of the \u201880s garage rock revival, The Fuzztones have endured. And they\u2019ve remained busy this past decade and a half. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,49,59,62,65],"tags":[873],"class_list":["post-20323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-garage","category-new-release","category-punk","category-rawk","category-review","tag-fuzztones","cat-33-id","cat-49-id","cat-59-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20325,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20323\/revisions\/20325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}