The Knights of Fuzz – The Garage and Psychedelic Music Explosion from 1980 to Now – Review

dvd-theknightsoffuzz200The Knights of Fuzz

The Garage and Psychedelic Music Explosion from 1980 to Now
with Timothy Gassen
Directed by Timothy Gassen
(Dionysus)
by Craig Regala

The guy who put this together, Timothy Gassen, “knows,” and I know he knows, ’cause I was there. I bought the Chesterfield Kings first LP, (on LP) from the singer Greg at the House of Guitars in Rochester NY in ’82. He said, “Do you really want this?” I said “uh, YEAH!” He signed it “long live ’66!” It pisses me off it’s gone, but that’s what being a fuck-up does to ya. So what do we have here? A DVD of a buncha clips from bands that dug a buncha cool stuff book-ended by ’62 -’68. They fed off it and were usually amped and fueled by the concurrent snot punk and power pop stuff swirling around. It’s narrated by Tim himself, and it’s a-fucking-okay. Here’re some names: Fuzztones, Miracle Workers, Girl Trouble, Plasticland, Les Breastfeeders (with a great snot-punkraver), the Cynics, and Tim’s band, Marshmallow Overcoat. Add another nine, and that’s Volume 1: The United States and Canada.

I was privileged to see one of the greats of the genre, The Boys From Nowhere, many a time (and conned those jokers into recording a tune for me), as well as four of the bands on the DVD. I’ve spent many a moment with garage rock compilations (Pebbles, Back From The Grave), and rock bands fueled by the stuff; Nomads, Lime Spiders, DMZ, as well as punk ID’d units feeding off it; The New Bomb Turks, and the Hives. I do it ’cause the stuff rocks out in a fun, funny, and personal way. You don’t do this to cash in, ya’know? What seals the deal is chucking the disc in the computer and tapping into the 26-tune comp, an e-version of the Knights of Fuzz book, and a ton and a half of pics and articles.
(www.dionysusrecords.com)