Cuz - Tamatebako
by Adrian Huggins
published: 12 / 6 / 2014
Label:
Bleeding Heart Recordings
Format: CD
intro
Exceptional eight years-in-the-making debut album from Cuz, which is the project of Mike Watt of the Minutemen and the Stooges and Sam Dook of the Go! Team
Cuz is the combined brain, musical talents and imagination of Mike Watt of the Minutemen and the Stooges and Sam Dook of the Go! Team. They’re also really hard to google. Their debut album ‘Tamatebako’ has been over eight years in the making, and the result is a wondrous melting pot of ‘Argument’-era Fugazi, Queens of the Stone Age’s more “out there” moments, Q And Not U and the Dismemberment Plan. If any of those bands appeal to you, I promise that this will be a delight to your ears. Tamatebako’ is throughout its entire length simultaneously inviting and unnerving in equal measures. It is in essence weird music for weird people, but not so weird that it’s a struggle on first listen. The album is littered with Eastern-tinted moments as is evident on the gentle ‘Thinkin’ about Thinkin’. ‘Song for Ronnie’ veers between Tom Waits and Michael Gira of Swans with its spoken word, alt-jazz leanings. Elsewhere ‘W/No Beesting’ enters further into that spoken word territory, this time powered by a mind bending bass line. ‘Slipstream’ is meanwhile an incredible, delicate and joyous song that wouldn’t sound out of place on that previously mentioned Fugazi album nor would it be far removed to imagine it being plucked out of the swinging, psychedelic 1960s. Watt and Dook have combined to make a superb album that reaches to the far edges of the imagination, but remains throughout completely accessible and enjoyable.
Track Listing:-
1 Houdini2 France Gnarl
3 Song for Ronnie
4 W/ No Bee Sting
5 Thinkin’ ‘bout Thinkin’
6 Tamatebako
7 Slipstream
8 Fickle Fortune
9 Sand and Bones
10 Spinning Basket Net
11 The Wheel and the Ring
12 The Lighthouse Keeper
Band Links:-
https://www.facebook.com/pages/CUZ/275956849235008http://www.bleedingheartrecordings.com/cuz/cuz.htm
https://www.facebook.com/wattfrompedromusic
http://mikewatt.com/
https://twitter.com/dooksam
Label Links:-
http://www.bleedingheartrecordings.com/https://www.facebook.com/Bleeding-Heart-Recordings-328767889261/
https://twitter.com/BHrecordings
most viewed articles
current edition
Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies - Sala Apolo, Barcelona, 29/11/2023 and La Paqui, Madrid, 30/11/2023Anthony Phillips - Interview
Difford and Tilbrook - Difford and Tilbrook
Rain Parade - Interview
Oldfield Youth Club - Interview
Autumn 1904 - Interview
Shaw's Trailer Park - Interview
Cafe No. 9, Sheffield and Grass Roots Venues - Comment
Pete Berwick - ‘Too Wild to Tame’: The story of the Boyzz:
Chris Hludzik - Vinyl Stories
most viewed reviews
current edition
Marika Hackman - Big SighSerious Sam Barrett - A Drop of the Morning Dew
Rod Stewart and Jools Holland - Swing Fever
Loves - True Love: The Most of The Loves
Ian M Bailey - We Live in Strange Times
Paul McCartney and Wings - Band on the Run
Autumn 1904 - Tales of Innocence
Banter - Heroes
Roberta Flack - Lost Takes
Posey Hill - No Clear Place to Fall
Pennyblackmusic Regular Contributors
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart