VA: FUZZ FEST’ 84 LP

Description

Ever since I was a half-formed whelp with a head full of bad wiring and reckless dreams, I’ve been obsessed with the glorious anarchy of Monterey Pop and the raw, lawless hedonism of Woodstock. Masses of sweating, wide-eyed lunatics—freaks, prophets, and burnouts of every persuasion—converging in a cosmic explosion of sound and psychedelia, writhing under a shared hallucination of musical excess.
This was no simple concert—it was a tribal rite, a collective mind-meld fueled by distortion and Dionysian abandon.

By the ’70s, we were already deep in the trenches, detonating eardrums with ungodly sonic assaults—three, four bands a night—peeling paint from the walls, shaking the bones of every poor bastard lucky enough to stumble into the blast radius.
But in the spring of ’84, the time had come to push the whole mad experiment to its logical extreme. New York City needed a gathering of its own—a full-scale garage inferno. Six bands. Premier DJs. A carnival of unhinged characters dragged from the seediest corners of the East Village, all packed into one roaring, riotous night.
A beautiful, filthy, amphetamine-laced catastrophe in the making.

And now, forty years down the line, I look back and see it for what it was: a goddamn high-water mark.
A moment when circuits burned white-hot and everything bled together in a frenzy of screaming guitars and shattered nerves.
This LP is the time machine—an artifact of pure, unfiltered chaos. Every time I press play, the beast stirs.
I close my eyes, and suddenly it’s June 30th, 1984—midtown Manhattan, a neon jungle throbbing with danger and delirium.
Bowl cuts and Beatle boots. Fuzz boxes and paisley shirts. Thigh-high go-go boots and organs shrieking like maniacs in padded rooms. Vox guitars slashing through the night.
Beautiful girls with bad ideas. Dangerous men with nothing to lose.
And the music—my God, the music—howling through the air like some unholy spirit set loose on the city.

Hit play. Feel it.
Let the waves of raw, electric lunacy fry your brain.
The machine is cranked, the switch is flipped—come with me, and let’s ride the lightning straight back to Fuzz Fest ’84.

—Elan, 2/21/25

You may have heard about it, but you haven’t really heard it—until now!
That legendary night way back when… Fuzz Fest ’84!

Crammed together on a single hot & sweaty stage, The Fuzztones, Outta Place, Vipers, Tryfles, Mosquitos, and Cheepskates deliver a six-course, ear-splitting banquet unsurpassed in NYC garage history.
Recorded, mixed, and produced by Elan Portnoy of The Fuzztones & The Headless Horsemen: 19 steaming, previously unreleased tracks, fully ultra-mastered for a super-high fidelity audiophile experience.
Includes loads of previously unseen photos, quotes, liner notes—and much, much mo’!!!

A rare, raw, and positively ELECTRIFYING trip, brought to you exclusively by Teen Sound Records!

Be sure to order it now—this won’t last long!

Tracklist:
SIDE 1
1 – WNYU Radio Spot (June 10th, 1984) / Good Times – THE TRYFLES
2 – No See More – THE TRYFLES
3 – In The End – THE TRYFLES
4 – Take It Easy – THE CHEEPSKATES
5 – Run Better Run – THE CHEEPSKATES
6 – Gone For Good – THE CHEEPSKATES
7 – Dirty Old Man – THE OUTTA PLACE
8 – He’s Waiting – THE OUTTA PLACE
9 – Wrong Tyme – THE OUTTA PLACE

SIDE 2
1 – Epitaph For A Head – THE FUZZTONES
2 – 1523 Blair – THE FUZZTONES
3 – Bad News Travels Fast – THE FUZZTONES
4 – I’ll Come Again – THE VIPERS
5 – Nothing’s From Today – THE VIPERS
6 – We’re Outta Here – THE VIPERS
7 – Darn Well – THE MOSQUITOS
8 – Put Your Foot Down – THE MOSQUITOS
9 – Do You Want To Hurt Me – THE MOSQUITOS
10 – Hippy Hippy Shake – THE MOSQUITOS