King Tuff

MOO by KING TUFF

After Smalltown Stardust I was a bit lost. To be honest, I had been a bit lost since 2016. Both Smalltown Stardust and The Other had been departures from my “sound”, and while they were both new sonic places that I needed to explore, neither album was really all that fun when it came to performing them live. Every show I would just be looking forward to playing my older, wilder material. It was just more enjoyable to play! Loudly! So when I decided to make a new record, it only seemed right to go back to what brings me the most joy, which is, Rock & Roll music.

I got my Tascam 388 fixed, the same tape machine I had used to record my first album, King Tuff Was Dead. It had been sitting in my parent’s house in Vermont for the past 14 years, but I had finally dragged it out to LA. The first song I recorded on it was “Twisted On A Train”, and I was shocked by how instantly I sounded, and felt, like myself again. In fact, I wrote and recorded the whole dang song in the span of a few hours, which was basically the opposite of how I had been working in the computer. Spending hours moving waveforms around like a zombie, comping vocals, second guessing, trying to make things sound not lifeless, trying to make anything sound good at all, took months. But here on the tape it was so much more alive. More like painting or collaging. More like making actual music. Every move I made stuck like super glue. It was effortless. It was pure joy.

I stopped caring if there were mistakes. 

There’s not enough mistakes. 

I played my old, blue, Gibson SG, Jazijoo, and she spewed mangled electrified gold.  

For once, I sang and I didn’t hate my voice. 

I played the drums badly and bounced them in mono to one track and it sounded like glorious shit. 

I wish it sounded even worse. 

Rock & Roll is the music of rodents and bugs. It should sound like it crept from a decrepit trashcan or a crypt or a toilet. It is not chill or vibey, autotuned or on the grid. It is not perfect, which is why it’s perfect. And I don’t care if it’s dead or alive, cool or uncool: when I hear it, and when I play it, as a chubby and balding 43 year old punk weirdo, I FEEL ENERGIZED. 

A few months before starting MOO, I fell in love. So, MOO is mostly love songs, with the exception of a song about raccoons and a song about getting an oil change. But those are actually love songs too. I suppose there’s “Stairway To Nowhere”, which is about the music industry, which I don’t love! And there’s “Delusions”, which is about thinking you’re rich and famous, but then realizing you are actually just a hoarder living in a dilapidated shack. Oh, and “Twisted On A Train” is about taking an overnight train from Tucson to LA and eating a weed gummy and freaking the fuck out and staying up all night in the observation car writing the lyrics to “Twisted On A Train”. 

MOO would turn out to be the last music I made as a resident of LA. I had been thinking of leaving for awhile, and a number of things finally sent me on my way. I moved back to Vermont and it’s been wonderful. The lyrics, and obviously the title, started to make a lot more sense once I got back east. It was like the world had been shouting “MOO” at me for years, and I finally listened.

All in all, MOO is a full circle moment. A return to form. A return to rock. A return to Vermont. A return to myself. 

Reconnecting the dots. Restarting the engine. Plugging in the stack. Finally letting King Tuff be King. Fucking. Tuff.

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Now please enjoy this poem which further highlights the various uses and features of MOO:

MOO by KING TUFF is an album that’s new

A MOO of pure joy, an album called MOO 

MOO means I love you, in the language of Cow

I MOO when I see you, I’m MOOing right now

I MOO when I miss you, MOO when I dream

MOO when I’m with you, will you MOO for me?

A personal motto, a general rule

For any occasion, a MOO multitool

MOO in the morning, MOO in your car

MOO like a madman, and wish on a star

MOO when you’re happy, or if you’ve got the flu

MOO isn’t boring, that’s why it’s MOO

MOO is a record, an energy stew

MOO is forever, an infinite MOO

MOO calls your landline, and makes you miss home

MOO makes you mutate straight into a gnome

MOO with your lover, MOO like a freak

MOO at the movies, MOO ‘tween the sheets

The past couple years were a little less MOO

A little more tender, a little more blue

But MOO, it turns out, is like riding a bike

Once you learn how, you can MOO your whole life

So when it came time to sing a new song

The MOO that emerged was steady and strong 

MOO on my 8 track, MOO on the tape

MOO like Was Dead, Tascam 388

20 years later, a beauMOOtiful sound

Guitars with phaser, and MOOs all around

MOO out on LP, CD and cassette

MOO on your boombox, best KING TUFF yet

MOO made in LA, twenty-twenty-four

A house in Mt. Washington, ‘pon the second floor

Produced by myself, and engineered too

I played most of the instruments, made all of them MOO

And after years of confusion I felt like myself again

MOO made the conclusion that I was an elf again

Now back in Vermont, we all speak in MOO

You can MOO all you want, that can be all you do

MOO for the maple, straight from the tree

MOO in the stable, MOO to be free

For sometimes you just have to MOO for no reason

Yes, a MOO is in order for every season

What else can I say? Nothing but MOO

MOO is myself, MOO is my truth

So MOO if you want, and take a big puff

And thank you for listening, to MOO by KING TUFF. -King Tuff, 2026