V.A.: A Fistful Of Fuzz

Late-1960s garage-psych featuring fuzz guitar

True to its name, A Fistful of Fuzz delivers a lot of fuzz-drenched material. Rather than being garage punk, however, most of the tracks on this compilation are late-1960s heavy psych, with the fuzz being mainly the acid rock variety- The greatest influences on the material presented are the trippier side of the San Francisco sound, especially the Jefferson Airplane and the acid rock of Blue Cheer, as well as the Iron Butterfly along with a little Doors influence thrown in as well. The themes of most of the songs are hippie concerns: drugs ("Travel Agent Man" by the Sound Apparatus, "White Ship" by the Denims and "Speed Freak" by the Ritual"), sex ("She Needs Love" by Tapestry Garden), the generation gap ("She Doesn't Understand" by the Ruins and "Synthetic People" by the Journey Back), spirituality ("That Was Just His Thing" by the In-Keepers and "Bless Me Father" by Loos Foos and the Fiberglass Cornflake), doing your own thing ("Reality" by the Prodigal) and generally freaking out. A Fistful of Fuzz contains heavy cover versions of "Purple Haze," "Season of the Witch," "You Really Got Me," and the album closes with a seven-minute freaked out version of "Tobacco Road" featuring a theremin. The most pop-sounding track on A Fistful of Fuzz, "That Was Just His Thing" by the In-Keepers, is in some ways the strangest track in this collection. The reference in the title is to Jesus, who "lived and died by the hammer and nail. I guess that was just his thing." Deadly serious spoken word interludes proclaim, "go out into all the world and say these things. And everyone that heareth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man." A Fistful of Fuzz is an all-around good compilation—efficient track notes, better-than-expected audio quality, and most of the tracks on A Fistful of Fuzz are unique to this compilation.


UN PUÑADO DE FUZZZ.....