Fuzz

Living up to their name, Fuzz take influence from heavy, caustic, fuzz pedal-worshiping 1960s proto-metal and psychedelic acts like the Groundhogs, Jimi Hendrix, and Blue Cheer. Formed by Ty Segall and his sometimes-bandmember Charles Moothart, Fuzz’s albums pursue a simultaneously stripped-down and overloaded sound that could have been released in 1972, especially on their Steve Albini-recorded, eardrum-pummeling record from 2020, III. The band formed as a duo with Moothart on vocals and guitar and Segall on drums and vocals, and eventually expanded to include longtime friend Roland Cosio on bass. Their earliest recordings came in the form of immediately sold-out 7″s on In the Red and Trouble in Mind, and they followed those with a self-titled full-length in late 2013. A live EP, Live in San Francisco, followed later that year on John Dwyer’s (of Thee Oh Sees) label, Castle Face Records. Segall stepped away from the band to tend to his many other projects in 2014. With bassist Chad Ubovich of Meatbodies on board in place of Cosio, fall 2015 saw the release of Fuzz II and an American tour in support of the album. Over the next few years, the members stayed busy with other pursuits — Segall with numerous solo albums, Moothart with his band CFM, both of them with GØGGS, Ubovich with Meatbodies — and when they got back together to make more music it was with Steve Albini, whose skills as an engineer capture the powerful sound of the band playing live with minimal overdubs. The result was their heaviest, most Black Sabbath-sounding album to date, III. It was issued in October 2020 by In the Red Records. ~ Fred Thomas & Tim Sendra