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Good things come to those who wait. That’s what they say, isn’t it? Well, The Fuzzy Nerds seem to have stretched this old adage to breaking point with their final career release, The Fuzzy Neds Are Dead – The Final Live Show. This album acts as a sort of full stop at the end of their long and illustrious musical sentence, but it is a full stop that took nearly ten years to see the light of day. So not only is this a career retrospective of 20 years of their music making, it is a live record of a show that took place in 2014.
And this album is the document of not just any live show, this is the sound of a band going out in style, a hometown show where they were joined by their friends and fellow bands. The first seven tracks are actually those other bands – Traffic Jam, Insomnia Band, Your Painted Smile, Never Burn, The Yotas, Villagers of Ioannina City and Schema covering and putting their own spin on The Fuzzy Nerds back catalog classics. But it is, of course, the remaining portion of this 30-track release that is of the most interest to the Nerd’s aficionado.
Kicking off with “Birthday,” a song that rises from brooding minimalism into an array of squalling and squealing sonics, the song sets the tone perfectly, a great introduction to their brand of grungey-shoegazery, post-punk, post-rock, post-everything brand of rock and roll. “Clear” is one of those explosive, college-rock, loud/quiet songs that the likes of The Pixies would have wrestled you to the floor to get their hands on back in the day, “Happy” shows that the band can turn all of that high octane energy into dream-pop finesse when the mood takes them and “Getting Old” is a gnarly piece of artful, garage rock.
It’s a great album, and with so much material, such a scribbling as this can only scratch the surface. The best thing to do is get the album for yourself and revel in its full three-hour plus glory. Your life will be better for doing so, believe me, I know what I’m talking about, I do this for a living.
Did I say good things come to those who wait? Make that great things. Patience is a virtue. And this is one hell of a reward.
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