FuzzyBio

Category: FuzzyBiography

                                                         The Fuzzy Nerds case...

The Fuzzy Nerds was a post alternative and a quite experimental indie rock band active for 20 years, with 13 official releases, hundreds of live appearances and shared the stage with lots of worldwide critically acclaimed bands and artists, from 1994 to 2014... 

They were nerds living in Nerdland and they loved it...

Formed in 1994, they consisted of four members:

- Petros Fuzzhead Vyzoukis
guitars/vocals/melody horn/noise/programming/toy piano/piano/micro korg
- Maria Choleva
guitar/bass guitar/b.vocals 
- Efthimis Sfairopoulos
bass guitar/contrabass
- Kostas Dimitriou
drums/pads/programming/xylophone

                                                           FUZZY-BIO                                     

       Formed in 1994 in Ioannina (Greece) by Andreas and Petros Vyzoukis (guitars, vocals), along with Kostas Dimitriou on drums (in the first original line-up) and the participation of several other musicians on drums and bass. Their first recording took place on a demo containing 19 of their songs, which, however, was never completed. Andreas’s death in September of ’95 ceased every activity of the band.
 
One year later the band was formed once again carrying out several gigs in lots of different regions of Greece, next to bands like Bokomolech, Closer, Lefki Symphonia etc. and recording two limited edition albums (“Bloody fat” ‘98/“A Thought About Princes” 2000) till the end of 2000, which were released by their own "fuckingreat? crew" and sold out in two week's time. During that time (from 1998 onwards) Maria Choleva on bass guitar/vocals, Alexis Stamatiadis on guitar and Diogenis Chantzopoulos on drums had already joined the band. Their next work (“Lucifair”), produced by George Priniotakis, was released on November of 2003 by grabber records, and managed to spread even more the band's great reputation as it also contained the classic now fuzzy radio hit “Anaesthesia”. Some of their recordings appeared in fanzines and music magazines compilations (i.e. “To pligma”, mirrorball, Pop & rock/rock ‘n roll etc.), while “Anaesthesia” was chosen by director Graziella Kanellou among others in her film soundtrack “The Approaching Of The Hour”.

Since September of 2003 The Fuzzy Nerds move on as a trio, appearing live in venues of Athens mostly, having also appeared live as special guests next to Βlackfield at Rodon live (November of 2004), iLiKeTRAiNS at Gagarin 205 (January 2008), Puressence at Boxx Live Stage and 7 Tehnon Topos (March 2012), The Subways at Boxx Live Stage (May 2012) as well as O.Children at Gaia Live (November 2012).

Having received the most warm welcome and reviews from audience and music press for both their recordings (i.e. atraktos.net, avopolis.gr, mic.gr etc.) as well as their live performances (mag.“Klik”, Sept. 2000, “O tempora o mores ‘zine” issue 2, “mirrorball” issue 3, “In rock” fall 2000, mag. “Difono”, July 2000, Pop & rock/rock ‘n roll mag., Nov. ‘03, mama steile lefta iss.34, sense ‘zine, rockroll.gr, avopolis.gr etc.) The Fuzzy Nerds will complete in June of 2005 the recording of “Happy Fuzzy Thinkin’”, with George Priniotakis in production which was released in the last days of 2006 by TMC Music. Two fuzzy tracks, “Since You Fell” and “Just Another Day” which were both taken out of that fuzzy album “Happy Fuzzy Thinkin’ ”, managed to reach the final top 20 of the coca-cola soundwave charts of 2007, as they were voted by the audience.

During the summer of 2008 the band (Petros Vyzoukis, Maria Choleva, Kostas Dimitriou) finished their 4th album "Mirror Phase" with Clive Martin in production, a well known british producer for his work with The Cure, U2, Sting, Nick Cave, Tears for Fears, Mark Almond, Hunters and Collectors, Crowded House, Midnight Oil, Puressence, Echobelly, Mansun, Les Negresses Vertes and Raining Pleasure among many others. "Mirror Phase" originally released by TMC Music on the 24th of November 2008. The Fuzzy Nerds 4th full length album “Mirror Phase” is undoubtedly the most successful fuzzy album. “Mirror Phase” established The Fuzzy Nerds name in the scene and reassured their great reputation, since  not only was it embraced by the audience and the music press, but it also gave the band  the opportunity to be listened by thousands of people in both Europe and U.S.A., (mainly by means of  its pioneer at that time digital publishing), something that had never happened before, at least, in that extent. Tracks like “Plastic”, “Lying Underground”,  “Beautiful”,  “Mirror Phase”, “Happy Fuzzy Thinkin'”, “Faithful”  or “117”, the music video of which was presented by the U.S. music tv show “Music Mix USA” are much played tracks in indie radios and clubs and are still a music point of reference.

The Fuzzy Nerdsat that point went on to release their new album along with their last one, not only in the usual cd physical form or in mp3 form, but also in a totally new, at that time, digital format presented and developed by TMC Music Publishing and Adobe Systems. The Fuzzy NerdsDigital Album (or its later development, that is Beam) was distributed either free or via personal unlock codes to the fans. The Fuzzy Nerds Digital Album / Beam originally released on the 9th of February 2009 by TMC Music Publishing and in the following years it comprised the whole fuzzy discography up to 2012... 

During the year 2009-2010 The Fuzzy Nerds carried out a quite successful tour under the title “Happy Fuzzy Mirror Phase Tour 0910” which led them to 10 different cities, another 2 accoustic live gigs on the radio, as well as a tv live performance at the popular tv show Radio Arvyla on the ANT1 TV Channel. From September of 2009 The Fuzzy Nerds moved on having Efthimis Sfairopoulos on bass, since Maria Choleva could no longer go on performing full-time with the band for personal reasons and since then she used to appear as a guest on selected fuzzy gigs.

The next fuzzy release after that, in April of 2011, was a b – sides compilation only digitally released and distributed by The Fuzzy Nerds own label “Psycho Puppie Records” and “TMC Music Publishing” and it featured some leftover and previously unreleased fuzzy tracks, a couple of remixes and some hidden fuzzy tracks that were previously released in their last 3 works.   

In June of 2011, The Fuzzy Nerds recorded six cover songs originally written and performed by much appreciated and respected artists such as Radiohead, Lou Reed, The Cure and others. This cover mini album titled “Covering the Fuzz...” went out again only digitally by Psycho Puppie and TMC on March of 2012.

In September of 2012, The Fuzzy Nerds announced Maria Choleva's comeback on guitar this time, after three years of fuzzy absence.

At that point, the band was already working on some leftover and older songs for a future release, as well as on some new songs. Having once again Maria in the team, the band started recording new material for what was to become their 6th full-length studio album release. "Killer 13" came out on June 13, 2013 by Psycho Puppie Records digitally and in a limited collector's edition cd form in collaboration with NoisyLand Recordings and soon after the band went on a mini tour.

In July of 2014, The Fuzzy Nerds announced the ending of the band after 20 years of being around by throwing an exclusive live stream gig in noisyland studios and finally by giving one final live show under the title "The Fuzzy nerds are Dead (1994-2014)... 20 years of fuzzy love..." in their hometown, with the participation of friends, artists and bands (such as the Villagers of Ioannina City and Never Burn among many others) on stage on Saturday the 27^th of September 2014.

At the same date they announced as well one final studio album release - “The Fuzzy Nerds are Dead (1994-2014)” Vol. I-IV –a 4/Volume compilation album containing some of the nerds' best moments, along with a couple of previously unreleased songs and a couple of new tracks as well. The fourth volume of this final studio album release is a bonus compilation album featuring 13 fuzzy covers made by some great friends, artists and bands with a wide variety of musical styles (such as the Berlin Brides, My Wet Calvin, Radioaisle and Dans Mon Salon among others) who honored The Fuzzy Nerds by covering fuzzy songs exclusively for this project.

The final chapter, as it has been announced, will be a live album and a documentary-like film/DVD featuring live footage taken from that final fuzzy live show, along with fuzzy archives, previously unreleased fuzzy video footage, amateur material and many more.

                                                                              .... enjoy the nerdland!

contact:

mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. & This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

releases:

a. 94 - 95 demo ( previously unreleased )

b. 96 demo, the fuzzy nerds

c. 97 demo, demo-lition

d. 98 demo, nerdland

e. bloody fat (the fuckingreat? crew - 1998)

f. a thought about princes (the fuckingreat? crew - 2000)

g. lucifair (grabber records - 2003)

h. happy fuzzy thinkin' (tmc music / psycho puppie rec. - 2006)

i. mirror phase (tmc music / psycho puppie rec. - 2009)

j. b – sides (psycho puppie rec. / tmc music - 2011)

k. covering the fuzz... (psycho puppie rec. / tmc music - 2012)

l. "killer 13" promo (tmc music / psycho puppie rec. - 2012)

m. killer 13 (psycho puppie records / noisyland recordings – 2013)

n. the fuzzy nerds are dead (1994-2014) Vol. I-IV (psycho puppie records / noisyland recordings – 2014)

compilations:

a. "129 A.i.d." & "bleeding tension" (taken from "bloody fat" for the pligma 'zine compilation of May '98)

b. "megafuck" (taken from a thought about princes for the mirrorball 'zine compilation of 2001, iss.3)

c. "anaesthesia" (taken from "lucifair" for the pop & rock/rock n' roll mag. compilation of Sept. 2003)

d. "anaesthesia"(taken from "lucifair" for the soundtrack of the film "the approaching of the hour" shown at theatres in 2005)

e. "anaesthesia" (piano version) (taken from "lucifair" for the compilation made by my wet Calvin for a video presentation of the department of architecture of the University of Thessalia, Fall of 2005)

f. "happy?" (taken from " happy fuzzy thinkin' " for the Sonik magazine compilation of Nov. 2006)
 
g. "anaesthesia" (taken from "lucifair" for the film "the approaching of the hour" which was released in dvd form by sonicplayground records, December of 2007)

h. "since you fell" (taken from " happy fuzzy thinkin' " for the soundtrack of the film "the approaching of the hour" which was released in audio cd form by sonicplayground records, December of 2007)

i. “faithful” (taken from "mirror phase" for the Muzine # 07 magazine compilation, Jan. - Mar. 2009)

j. “lying underground (my Wet Leon strings mix)” for the e-magazine postwave.gr compilation “Audiobook 5” / April 2009. “Lying underground” original mix appears in the 4th Fuzzy Nerds album “mirror phase” (tmc music / psycho puppie rec. - 2009)

k. “τίποτα δεν με κρατάει εδώ” (the fuzzy nerds mix on the track titled "τίποτα δεν με κρατάει εδώ" by the electro duo “Chromata”, which was released by Coo Records, December 2010 / Chromata band remix album)

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