The Fuzzy Nerds

Official Fuzzy Site: www.thefuzzynerds.com

iTunes Fuzzystore: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/the-fuzzy-nerds/id188676031?ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Fuzzy Bandcamp: http://thefuzzynerds.bandcamp.com/

FuzzyTV: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGjQic4zNpgyz5OUVYcZcGw

Download Fuzzography: www.heedia.com/fuzzography

…some fuzzy talk…

“..the fuzzy nerds are better than the 70% of the greek bands that have a record release in the market at the moment and they are better than many bands in the world. The band has verified its reputation which it carries with it some years now, a reputation that says that this band is a quite unique one. Without overreacting, they are great… their influences are detectable, however they don’t overshadow the band’s personality – and what a personality! It was perhaps the first time that I liked that much unknown to me songs. It was as if I had been waiting a whole lifetime to listen to them, it was as if the time had stopped and everything was rolling around those guys… The revelation of the evening by far!”
( Difono magazine, July 2000, battle of the bands live review, Spilios Lambropoulos)

“ …you would never call their presence on stage nerveless… The truth is that you wouldn’t expect from self-taught musicians to hear tunes able to make you fly. The Fuzzy Nerds have come to prove a rule wrong.. They succeed in passing their passion through the audience in the most natural way.”
(Klik magazine, Sept. 2000, Melissanthi Mauridou)

“ While I’m writing these lines, I have already enjoyed The Fuzzy Nerds brand new work, a real diamond which deserves not to stay unexplored.”
( mirrorball zine, issue 3, 2001, taken from a fuzzy nerds interview, Theodosis Michos)

“…having contemporary influences they reflect the echoes of the experimental pop of the 00’s… and they work on them under their serious personal interventions. And it is those interventions that give on this band’s work the identity and a prominent position in what is going on in our country.”
(mic.gr, 2002, a thought about princes review)

“ ……the Lucifair e.p. contains 4 tracks which I’m sure that will make everyone who loves that kind of sound look desperately for everything that has ever been recorded by those guys. I know, I know that I sound too excited! But you know what? I am!”
(atraktos.net 2003, lucifair review, Vasilis Sintos)

“ 4 tracks, one of them on a radio edit version, which, using the plainness and the frugality of a first dish, leave a sweet taste in our mouths and at the same time they create much anticipation for the next.”
(avopolis.gr 2004, lucifair review, Paris Papavlassopoulos)

“ …especially their second and third song may have been the highlight of the whole evening. Their firm construction, pop melodies and guitar driven bursts were definitely worthy of their reputation.” (avopolis.gr, 2004, for the fuzzy nerds appearance as special guests for blackfield at Rodon Athens, Konstantinos Tsavalos)

“ Except for the powerful indie rock full of captivating melodies and guitar guided elevations, in their new album they try themselves on post rock pathways as well, and they succeed in it very well…their new album justifies them, it finds them having been advanced and it proves that they had fairly provoked quite an impression a few years ago.”
(pop & rock/rock n’ roll magazine, Mar. 2007, happy fuzzy thinkin’ review, Dimitris Argyropoulos)

“ The Fuzzy Nerds are in constant search and they don’t rely on musically. With “Happy Fuzzy Thinkin’” they create their most complete work.. Specifically, their 11 minutes long “Little Black Fairy”, one of the best songs that I have listened to this year, or “Project no 9”, prove their ability in composing..”
( Sonik magazine, Mar. 2007, happy fuzzy thinkin’ review, Gerasimos Papalambrou)

“ What is changing here is the maturity by which The Fuzzy Nerds fulfill this sound journey. There is advancing in their expressive means comparing to their last work “Lucifair”, while there is even more independence and their inspiration reaches even higher levels..”
(avopolis.gr, 2007, happy fuzzy thinkin’ review, Charis Symvoulidis)

“ At the beginning you will find them “difficult”, in the end you will find yourself captivated..”
(mic.gr, 2007, the best English-spoken, for the track “happy?”, Aris Karambeazis)

“We are treated to some particularly chilling vocals at the beginning of “Sonic Blue”, and although there are guitars and other sounds, it's the drums played in a military marching kind of way that adds to the overall flavour of the sound. I love when the heavier vibrant guitar licks kick in after a break in vocals, before combining with all the other elements. I'd like to say that I find the range and tonality of the vocals quite impressive and once again find that I have to say that each song brings a very atmospheric edge to the listener, it's like your not just listening to a song your getting an experience.”
(infused zine, Feb. 2007, happy fuzzy thinkin’ review, Gavin H.)

“Their new creation fully reflects their post rock touch and their image by which we have been familiar with many years now, however it simultaneously widely opens the doors and invades into the bright light of the land of pop. Their atmospheric melodies and the indolent as well as nostalgic vocals, the trademark of the band, are here once more, they are based though on a more multi-coloured composing basis, specifically elaborated by Clive Martin's intelligence in such a way that the whole attempt remains solid and fresh.”
(mixtape, January, 2009, top 20 greek albums for 2008, P.P.)

“Mirror Phase is the name of The Fuzzy Nerds all-fresh return and this album smells by far powerful guitars, convulsive drums, sticky bass lines and sonic youth - ing forms! The Mirror Phase outcome is really impressive, especially if we bear in mind that from their previous post-rockin' work, where they had left much of their guitars along with the high speed rhythms aside, with their new album they take not one but ten steps beyond!!”
(avopolisgreek.gr, January, 2009, Do you wanna PlayOurMusic? #11)

“ "Mirror Phase" is their most polished and firm album. The combination of pop, catchy tunes, the combination of really riveting rhythm (credits to the drummer who manages to give not only the right vibe but also the right melody!) and the remote from the greek standards Clive Martin's (The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, U2, Raining Pleasure and many others) production (although this seems to change lately…) makes listening to "Mirror Phase" something more than just an auditory pleasure.”
(mic.gr, January 2009, “mirror phase” review, Marilou P.)

"For someone to claim that The Fuzzy Nerds last work, ‘Mirror Phase’, is one of the best moments of the greek (why not of the European as well) English-speaking scene may sound exaggerated. For someone to claim that The Fuzzy Nerds have nothing to be jealous of the hundreds of indie/alternative bands that constantly emerge in the music industry globally may sound cliché. For someone to claim that the band can easily release very soon even a ‘Best of” album may sound as an overoptimistic prediction. But for someone to claim that The Fuzzy Nerds are constantly “scratching” their guitars at least for the last fifteen years offering valuable services to the music they love with consistent album releasing presence and plenty of live performances is an undeniable fact.”
(cultzine.wordpress.com, March 2009, Fuzzy's Mirror Phase, Uncle Iggy)

“Catchy melodies, accurate and well settled riffs along with a firm production create a distinctive “backbone” in every song. And up on this pedestal the vocal performance “is building” every song with patience, offering a quite tight, atmospheric and well worked on unit.…….on the second listening “Mirror Phase” has already become a part of the listener, has already marked its powerful weapons… and ultimately has already managed to succeed in gaining the number of hearings it deserves.”
(postwave.gr, April 2009, “mirror phase” review, Konstantinos Goulas)

“The Fuzzy Nerds are credited with their perseverance (as I managed to find out) on a guitar driven sound that moves on the boundaries of pop legitimacy, flirting with… somewhat avant- garde terms. If something needs to be noted from the top… this has to do with… basically, two things: namely with Petros Vyzoukis vocals and guitars… The Fuzzy Nerds pop (let us call it like that…) based in a catalytic flow in synthesis has the ability to fascinate you through the simplicity of its chords (“May I leave?”), its fuzzy twistings, its powerful – rhythmical passion (Maria Choleva, bass / Kostas Dimitriou, drums) and of course Eroc's mastering and Clive Martin's (ex-Ride, Puressence, Echobelly, Stereophonics, Raining Pleasure a.o.) untouchable, ethereal production.”
(Jazz & jazz music magazine, May 09, Fontas Troussas)

“They master the art of melody enough to elevate every aspect of it.”
(Athinorama, May 21, 2009, “mirror phase” review, Argiris Zilos)

“The Fuzzy Nerds construct a fairly tight unity of songs that maintain unaltered the elements that differentiated them from the mass of the constantly multiplied indie bands, by developing new inventions.”
(pingpongradio.com, May 2009, “mirror phase” review, Panagiotis Stathopoulos)

“From the sound and the lyrics, to the artwork and… the playing with the song titles, The Fuzzy Nerds new work forces you to study it…. having the dark element that marks them not being absent, with the guitars dominating but at the same time with sound experimentations (cello and trombone participation is excellent), they manage to create an album that stands as a voyage to personal moments.
(pop & rock/rock n’ roll magazine, June 2009, “mirror phase” review, Frixos Fintanidis)

The Fuzzy Nerds case…

The Fuzzy Nerds is a post alternative and a quite experimental indie band that has released so far 6 albums (Bloody Fat 1998, A Thought About Princes 2000, Happy Fuzzy Thinkin' 2006, Mirror Phase 2008, Covering the fuzz… 2012, Killer 13 2013), an ep. (Lucifair 2003) and a digitally distributed fuzzy b – sides compilation (B – Sides 2011) for the Fuckingreat?, Grabber Records, Psycho Puppie Records, NoisyLand Recordings and TMC Music respectively. They are nerds, they live in Nerdland and they love it…
Formed in 1994, they consist nowadays 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), as well as next to Puressence at Boxx Live Stage and 7 Tehnon Topos (March 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 & The Bad Seeds, 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 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 a music point of reference.

The Fuzzy Nerds was the first band ever that released their new album along with their last one, not only in the usual cd form or in mp3 form, but also in a totally new digital format presented for the very first time in music industry and developed by TMC Music Publishing and Adobe Systems. The Fuzzy Nerds Digital Album (or its later development, that is Beam) introduced a new digital format, a totally new application that works offline as data are included in the software. The application is 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… Download at :

http://www.heedia.com/fuzzography

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 newest fuzzy release at that point 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 the moment, the band is already working on some leftover and older songs for a future release, while planning its next tour, "Killer 13 tour Vol. II", following their "Killer 13 tour Vol. I" for their 6th full-length album release, "Killer 13", which 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…

…. enjoy the nerdland!

contact:

mail: info@thefuzzynerds.com & the_fuzzynerds@yahoo.com

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 (psycho puppie records / noisyland recordings - 2013)

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)