‘CUZ’ are Mike Watt (Minutemen, fIREHOSE, The Stooges) and Sam Dook (The Go! Team). A collaboration which has produced this album, ‘tamatebako’- a conversation taking place over eight years and several continents.

Weaving eclectic influence- from Japanese folklore (the ‘tamatebako’ is a Pandora-style box featured in the ‘Urashima Tar?’ legend), through ancient British landmarks, to personal loss- into a heady mix of whisky-gnarl, motoric riff, thrift-store percussion and toy synth, the effect is a tight, groovy, ever-elusive, outsider pop. Vocals come from both Watt and Dook, often within the same song, representing an unlikely pairing of throaty drawl and choir-boy purity that works magnificently. Guest vocals come in the form of the esteemed beat writer Charley Plymell, and Kaori Tsuchida (The Go! Team), amongst others.

Watt and Dook first met in Australia in 2006 when both The Stooges and The Go! Team, were playing at The Big Day Out festival. “Mike was being loud and friendly, dousing his festival food with home-made Watt Chilli sauce straight out of his chilli belt holster”. From that moment their friendship was forged, with the pair beginning a “tour diary style exchange” which turned into the sharing of home-recorded demos. The dialogue unfolds and takes shape over a series of meet-ups squeezed into pockets in tour schedules and “beer and Black Crow Skype sessions”.