Various – Fuzz Fest ’84

Recorded live in NYC 1984, includes previously unreleased concert, insert with interviews, quotes and rare pictures! Fuzztones, Cheapskates, Tryfles, Vipers, Outta Place, etc. “Ever since I was a half-formed whelp with a head full of bad wiring and reckless dreams, I’ve been obsessed with the glorious anarchy of Monterey Pop and the raw, lawless hedonism of Woodstock. Masses of sweating, wide-eyed lunatics – freaks, prophets, and burnouts of every persuasion – converging in a cosmic explosion distortion and Dionysian abandon of sound and psychedelia, writhing under a shared hallucination of musical excess. This was no simple concert – it was a tribal rite, a collective mind-meld fueled by distortion and Dionysian abandon. By the ’70s, we were already deep in the trenches, detonating eardrums with ungodly sonic assaults three, four bands a night, peeling paint from the walls, shaking the bones of every poor bastard lucky enough to stumble into the blast radius. But in the spring of ’84, the time had come to push the whole mad experiment to its logical extreme. New York City needed a gathering of its own – a full-scale garage inferno. Six bands. Premier DJs. A carnival of unhinged characters dragged from the seediest corners of the East Village, all packed into one roaring, riotous night. A beautiful, filthy,amphetamine – laced catastrophe in the making. And now, forty years down the line, I look back and see it for what it was: a goddamn high-water mark. A moment where circuits burned white-hot, and everything bled together in a frenzy of screaming guitars and shattered nerves. This LP is the time machine – an artifact of pure, unfiltered chaos. Every time I press play, the beast stirs. I close my eyes, and suddenly it’s June 30th, 1984 – midtown Manhattan, a neon jungle throbbing with danger and delirium. Bowl cuts and Beatle boots. Fuzz boxes and paisley shirts. Thigh-high go-go boots and organs shrieking like a maniac in a padded room. Vox guitars slashing through the night. Beautiful girls with bad ideas. Dangerous men with nothing to lose. And the music – my God, the music – howling through the air like some unholy spirit set loose on the city. Hit play. Feel it. Let the waves of raw, electric lunacy fry your brain. The machine is cranked, the switch is flipped – come with me, and let’s ride the lightning straight back to Fuzz Fest ’84. – Elan, 2/21/25

01. THE TRYFLES – GOOD TIMES 02. THE TRYFLES – SAY NO MORE 03. THE TRYFLES – IN THE END 04. THE CHEEPSKATES – TAKE IT EASY 05. THE CHEEPSKATES – RUN BETTER RUN 06. THE CHEEPSKATES – GONE FOR GOOD 07. THE OUTTA PLACE – DIRTY OLD MAN 08. THE OUTTA PLACE – HE’S WAITING 09. THE OUTTA PLACE – WRONG TYME 10. THE FUZZTONES – EPITAPH FOR A HEAD 11. THE FUZZTONES – 1523 BLAIR 12. THE FUZZTONES – BAD NEWS TRAVEL FAST 13. THE VIPERS – I’LL COME AGAIN 14. THE VIPERS – NOTHING’S FROM TODAY 15. THE VIPERS – WE’RE OUTTA HERE 16. THE MOSQUITOS – DARN WELL 17. THE MOSQUITOS – DO YOU WANT TO HURT ME? 18. THE MOSQUITOS – PUT YOUR FOOT DOWN 19. THE MOSQUITOS – HIPPY HIPPY SHAKE