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
OriginBrighton, England[1]
GenresIndie rock
Years active2008 (2008)–present
LabelsBleeding heart recordings
MembersSam Dook
Mike Watt

History edit

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]

A tour in 2015 followed.[7][8]

Discography edit

Albums edit

  • Tamatebako (Bleeding Heart Recordings, 2014)

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e Pollard, Vincent (12 May 2014). "Mike Watt Explains the Origins of His CUZ Collaboration with the Go! Team's Sam Dook". Exclaim!. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  2. ^ Skey, Jamie (7 May 2014). "LISTEN: Stream Cuz's Debut LP In Full". The Quietus. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  3. ^ a b c Taylor, Tom (24 August 2015). "Interview: Mike Watt tours new project Cuz". FCK LDN. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  4. ^ a b Manchester, Guy (22 April 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 15 April 2019.
  5. ^ Stires, Bob (8 September 2014). "cuz: tamatebako". Mike Watt's Hoot Page. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  6. ^ Hudson, Alex (5 March 2014). "Mike Watt and the Go! Team's Sam Dook Team Up as CUZ". Exclaim!. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  7. ^ Watt, Mike. "cuz 2015 tour". Mike Watt's Hoot Page. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  8. ^ Manchester, Guy (8 September 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 15 April 2019.