The Prof. Fuzz 63
my <3’s still beatin’ but i’m DEAD2U
The Prof. Fuzz 63 hails from the land of endless sprawl and baked pavement—Dallas, Texas—which makes the sizzling rock ‘n’ roll they traffic in so damn cool. The trio takes the basic building blocks—cranked guitar, thwacked drums, fuzzed-out organ—cranks the engine and fries an egg right there in the garage. You? You’re salivating before the first song is over, the yolk bubbling, begging for salt. The Prof. Fuzz 63 is good eats, like the kind of alcohol-absorbing gut-busters you could cop for $2.50 at the local greasy spoon—the kind of mom-and-pop establishment long since destroyed by big business and their franchised paradise. The Prof. Fuzz 63 don’t cosplay as a mom-and-pop operation, they are in fact a singular family unit that eats together, walks together and rocks together—a real nuclear family that ain’t afraid to turn up the juice and tell everyone the news. Who are these blood relatives who share the gene for tinnitus? That would be Professor Fuzz on guitar and vocals, Sleepy Redhead on organ and vocals and official offspring Mr. B on drums. A self-sufficient unit, The Redhead’s paintings adorn the last few Fuzz LPs, including the newest offering. Like the Carter Family, the Danielson Family, 2000s Detroit punk rockers the Muldoons and Ornette and Denardo Coleman, the Prof. Fuzz 63 turns the ties that bind into the kind of shake, rattle and roll that is in short supply in the year 2025. Luckily, the Prof. Fuzz 63 got you covered with their new album, my <3’s still beatin’ but i’m DEAD2U.
Listen up: The Prof. Fuzz 63 is not one to sit on their hands—the trio has released seven albums in less than a decade, an impressive number by any metric. Early albums revealed an inherent rawness to the band’s presentation, but they forgo the posturing often found running rampant in garage-punk circles. The guitars are caked in grit, the rhythms hit hard and the organ has a piercing, yet tonally rich quality, but the songs are thought out, with arch lyrics that utilize word-play and several levels of irony to make their points. This is the thinking fellers’ party music. Ain’t nuttin’ wrong with getting plastered and learning a thing or two in the process. With 2020’s Owls, Prof. Fuzz 63 ratcheted up the songwriting, conjuring dense storm clouds that hinted at moody past masters like Scorched Earth Policy and Eleventh Dream Day. They also revealed an unhealthy obsession with downer-punk iconoclasts Flipper by covering two classics (“Love Canal” and “Sacrifice”), on top of updating a Ramones nugget with the biting “Sheena is a Soccer Mom.” On 2022’s Peaches & Herbicide, a version of Flipper’s “Ha Ha Ha” sounded right at home alongside head-nodding anthems like “The Forestry” and “Plastic Cup/The World (Still) Needs Nevada.” The Cinnamon Sea LP from 2023 featured smart-ass prime movers like “An Amorous History of Paper Planes” and “When Lawn Darts Are Outlawed Only Outlaws Will Have Lawn Darts.”
Now, The Prof. Fuzz 63 is DEAD2U. Recorded by Clint Niosi at Fort Worth’s Orange Otter Audio and mastered to a bruising fullness by Mario Santana, my <3’s still beatin’ but i’m DEAD2U is bursting with some of Prof. Fuzz’s best songs and performances to date. “The Amazing Adventures of Steak Knife and Biscuit” opens up the album with a big glam stomp like Slade and a certain Wray Linked up for a rumble in the concrete jungle. The Professor’s blade is out for the cutting “Edge of the World” about a kid who “got home-schooled on God and YouTube” and is “a real smart cat, I know the Earth is flat” as the band burns rubber trying to get away from this weirdo. “In The Devil’s Workshop Making Idol Hands” sports a slab of a riff that keeps the song chugging along, while “Narcoleptic Driver’s Ed Teacher” unravels as the band swerves off the road under the throes of a psych-rock trance. “Ohio as Seen on TV” is a topical song, throwing double-entendres at a particularly distasteful statement from our hateful buffoon-king. It only hurts when you laugh, they say. On my <3’s still beatin’ but i’m DEAD2U, The Prof. Fuzz 63 is cranking up the amps while they speed towards the emergency room, as good of a venue as any to shake a tail feather and get the blood pumping again.
See what’s what in the world of The Prof.Fuzz 63 family at pf63.net.
— Erick Bradshaw
Spin Age Blasters with Creamo Coyl
on WFMU
the prof.fuzz 63 