Joel Cuzzi leaves us Footprints to follow into a better day.

Posted on October 8, 2019 by Joseph Timmons in Artist / Musician, Artist News, Label News, Music News, Music Reviews, New Albums, New Faces New sounds, news, Reviews // 0 Comments

IndiePulse Reviews Footprints by Joel Cuzzi.

Californian native singer songwriter Joel Cuzzi, whom after living off punk rock throughout his youth, has marshaled his energy into acoustic compositions that retain an edgy sensibility who carries an undeniable hardcore punk ethos and stamp on his signature sound.

In his musical work, Joel Cuzzi has worked with many artists, one such artist and friend was Tony Sly of hardcore punk icons No Use for a Name. Joel Cuzzi played under the moniker Full Time Beret and supported singer-songwriter and No Use for a Name front man Tony Sly on three tours. He also contributed signature session work to several Sly albums. Following Sly’s tragic death, Joel goes by his given name and is focused on live performances of new material from his forthcoming vinyl issue Footprints which is a dedication to Tony, the passing of this friend and compatriot hit Joel deeply, and now, after much work and soulful creativity a sense of living life is renewed and flourishes.

In Review: Footprints by singer / songwriter Joel Cuzzi has a duality, a harsher edge than most would consider as “Folk Music”, but there is a anthem style, he sounds as a balladeer, singing praises of battles won, battles lost, great knights in victory and of the loss of a thousand souls in war. His lyrics are deep and emotional, but have a lighthearted tenderness.

Joel’s guitar work is beautiful and simplistic, the raw acoustic sound when mixed with electric and drums fuels something inside the listener and brings the message home. My favorite track is the title track “Footprints” it is aggressive and rebellious, reminiscent of the early rock / punk scene of my youth in NY, but it also has a kinship to the early 80’s new wave, almost an R.E.M meets Ramones, but there is strength in it…. Every song on this album has flair.

The new record also features vocal appearances from musicians Jared Stinson of Sic Waiting and Morty Lopez of the Kegels.

Engineered in Oakland by Ben Bernstein, and mastered at The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Footprints has already been called a tour de force of folk rock by many in the industry and is gathering high praise for its value in creativity.

“My departed friend and musician Tony Sly was a huge inspiration for this record. A lot of the music was influenced by him. It is dedicated in his memory.”- Joel Cuzzi

Writing about Joel Cuzzi’s pedigree, Streetlight Records observed, “here is another fan of hardcore who turned to more intimate music, with a spot of crunch left in it”.