CUZ (band)
CUZ is an indie rock band formed in 2008 featuring Sam Dook of The Go! Team and Mike Watt of Minutemen and fIREHOSE.[1] Their debut album Tamatebako was released on May 14, 2014.[2]
CUZ | |
---|---|
Sam Dook and Mike Watt | |
Background information | |
Origin | Brighton, England[1] |
Genres | Indie rock |
Years active | 2008 | –present
Labels | Bleeding heart recordings |
Associated acts | |
Members | Sam Dook Mike Watt |
History
In 2006, Watt met Sam Dook of The Go! Team at Big Day Out.[1] Watt was intrigued by The Go! Team's use of samples.[3]
I was kind of naïve or something, I wasn’t familiar with that technology, right? I actually didn’t know, I thought they were playing all that stuff. To me, tape recorders—you play music and the tape recorder captures it. But this whole idea of samples…it’s a pretty creative tool and, you know, I wanted to explore it.[3]
Dook and Watt began corresponding via email and decided to form a band. Watt visited Dook in Brighton while The Stooges were in London and they jammed for three days.[4] Watt suggested Dook use pieces of those sessions as samples to create new songs.[4] When Watt returned home to San Pedro he sent more bass tracks to Dook. Eventually, they finished the album over email[5] and named their project "CUZ" based on a zine Richard Hell put out decades earlier.[3]
Their debut album, entitled Tamatebako, was released in 2014[1] and features guest vocals by Charles Plymell, DJ Scotch Egg, and fellow Go! Team member Kaori Tsuchida.[1] The album title references the mysterious box of Japanese legend.[6]
Discography
Albums
- Tamatebako (Bleeding Heart Recordings, 2014)
References
- Pollard, Vincent (May 12, 2014). "Mike Watt Explains the Origins of His CUZ Collaboration with the Go! Team's Sam Dook". Exclaim!. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
- Skey, Jamie (May 7, 2014). "LISTEN: Stream Cuz's Debut LP In Full". The Quietus. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
- Taylor, Tom (August 24, 2015). "Interview: Mike Watt tours new project Cuz". FCK LDN. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
- Manchester, Guy (April 22, 2014). "Louder Than War Interview: Mike Watt – ex Minutemen / fIREHOSE bassist and current bassist with The Stooges, Cuz and many, many more". Louder Than War. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
- Stires, Bob (September 8, 2014). "cuz: tamatebako". Mike Watt's Hoot Page. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
- Hudson, Alex (March 5, 2014). "Mike Watt and the Go! Team's Sam Dook Team Up as CUZ". Exclaim!. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
- Watt, Mike. "cuz 2015 tour". Mike Watt's Hoot Page. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
- Manchester, Guy (September 8, 2015). "CUZ: Thinkin' 'Bout Thinkin' – With Mike Watt And Sam Dook's Band Halfway Thru Their Tour Here's A New Video". Louder Than War. Retrieved April 15, 2019.