Premiere: Nuzzle Drop New Single “Daedelus And Us”

Pre-order “No Love Like That — The Stanford Sessions 1997“HERE

Originally recorded for Die Young Stay Pretty (a shortly lived Sub Pop subsidiary), these previously unreleased recordings became the stuff of lore for fans of 90s west coast indie music. Essentially a demo and precursor to Nuzzle’s 1999 LP San Lorenzo’s Blues, these tracks are raw, energetic, and representative of Nuzzle’s live shows. Newly remixed and mastered, No Love Like That: Stanford Sessions 1997, is quintessential Nuzzle at their pinnacle. 

Nuzzle began as a trio; Nate Dalton (guitar), Simon Fabela (bass) and Ricardo Reano (drums) in Rosemead, CA in 1991 before ultimately settling in Santa Cruz. In 1993 Nate’s older brother Andrew joined on guitar and switched to vocals early in 1994, solidifying their lineup.

By the mid 90s Nuzzle had already released several 45s, their Follow, For Now LP on Youth Strike Chord, and several compilation tracks. They had also completed a successful US tour with Fisticuffs Bluff, and had become staples in a loosely knit but deeply felt west coast scene anchored by Kill Rock Stars Records in Olympia and Gravity Records in San Diego. The buzz they generated helped them find their way onto bills with bands like Evergreen, Unwound, Lync, Bikini Kill, Modest Mouse, The VSS, Clikatat Ikatowi, and more. 

In 1996 Nuzzle teamed up with friend and engineer Andy Radin to record 8 new songs at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, where Radin was recording bands during graveyard shifts from 10pm to dawn. “The legend goes that these recordings were originally meant for release on a ‘big label’ and were short-sightedly passed on,” recalls George Chen from Zum Audio. 

“We recorded to 16 tracks of Tascam DA-88, something like 8 tracks of drums, bass (direct and mic’d), and guitar (two mics) live to tape, one guitar overdub. Vocals were pretty straight; only a few doubled backing tracks. We played around with recording Nate’s harmony tracks in the echoey stone lobby. The mixdown was pretty simple; a little ‘verb, a little LA2A here and there, and a good bit of compression on the vocals,” recalls Radin. 

Nuzzle never returned to the Stanford studio for a final mixing so Radin labeled his cassette copy ‘Nuzzle Rough Mixes’ and shelved the project while the band continued to play shows up and down the CA coast in 1997 and 1998.

Bassist Simon Fabela recounts, “We re-recorded the Stanford songs with Jeff Pinn from Zilla/Hyde Street Studios in an abandoned, supposedly haunted, half-way house in San Jose. That became San Lorenzo’s Blues and was released in 1999 on Troubleman Unlimited.”

Over the years the Stanford sessions ended up being shared on cassettes among a small group of friends and insiders. They were rare recordings from a band who might have seen more notoriety if circumstances had been slightly different. Chen remembers, “Part of the charm and frustration of Nuzzle was the Bad News Bears ‘can’t catch a break’ or ‘could’ve been a contender’ aura they had.”

Chen, Radin, and the band all agree the LP on Troubleman is strong, but these Stanford sessions capture Nuzzle as they were live; raw with more plaintive urgency in the vocals. “None of us had heard it in nearly 10 years. We actually really like the recordings since they captured what Nuzzle was like live back then,” says Simon Fabela, bassist for Nuzzle (and now Duster). “I was talking with a friend recently and she was saying that none of our recordings really captured the sound, the energy, the rawness of Nuzzle as she remembers us live. Listening to the Stanford sessions, I think these recordings came the closest,” says guitarist Nate Dalton.

No Love Like That: Stanford Sessions 1997 has been remixed by Liam Andrew Nelson, remastered by Dave Gardner at Infrasonic Mastering in Los Angeles, and will be available on LP and via download in June 9th, 2023 on Solid Brass Records.

About Solid Brass Records:

Solid Brass Records’ three partners recently did an in-depth interview via No Echo HERE. The label founders are themselves influential members of the 90s underground scene and beyond (see below.) Solid Brass nods to great archival labels like Numero Group and Trust Records to properly resurrect key DIY records from the 90s-00s, as well as putting out new releases.

Solid Brass Records started in 2022 after a few friends from the 90’s DIY music scene reconnected over their shared appreciation for the community, people, and bands that influenced them 30 years prior. They decided to pool their collective knowledge and resources to start a label focused on reissuing music from that period as well as showcasing new bands similarly inspired by this scene. 

Jason Pearson lives in Los Angeles and runs the day-to-day operations of the label. He grew up in Richmond, VA and also lived in Cleveland and Chicago before spending 15+ years working in project management and customer operations roles for several tech companies in the SF/Bay Area.

Chuck Pettry lives in Los Angeles and spent the 90s and early 2000s in Oakland where he worked for Alternative Tentacles, the merchandise company Cinder Block, and ran his own label Sound On Sound. Currently he helps run Sandbag, a music merchandise company known for their work for some of the largest artists in the industry. He also plays in the metal band, Glaciers.

Justin Sinkovich lives in Chicago and is currently a Professor at Columbia College where he teaches students how to launch their own businesses. During the early dotcom era he co-founded, and sold, the music streaming site Epitonic. He also worked as the US label manager for Southern Records as well as Head of Digital at Touch and Go Records. In the 90s Justin played in Thumbnail and Atombombpocketknife. He currently plays in The Poison Arrows.

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Source: thoughtswordsaction.com