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LP Review: “Twins” (Ty Segall)

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Release Date: 10-9-2012
Label: Drag City

Comments: There are a few ways to examine Twins, which amounts to be Ty Segall’s sixth solo album. One approach would be to first make note that this is the third musical project of 2012 that has the Ty Segall name slapped on it in some form. The other approach would ignore those releases and treat this as the follow-up to 2011’s Goodbye Bread. The former approach seems to work best with Twins. Without having Ty Segall Band’s Slaughterhouse in mind, I am pretty sure several people (whose last Ty listening experience is Goodbye Bread) would be confused with Twins – whoa, Ty became 90% incapacitating guitar riffs? Sure, Goodbye Bread featured some real jams – “You Make The Sun Fry,” “My Head Explodes,” to name two, and 2010’s Melted is full o’ fuzz, but the difference is that Twins does a significantly more noticeable attempt at getting to the heart of the song – fast and with little left to spare. Slaughterhouse did this exceptionally well and it does seem like Ty had some similar ideas in mind in the crafting of Twins. There’s that fuzz pedal and that guitar solo – which we heard about well before this release.

“Thank God For Sinners” is an an affirmation that Ty is going full throttle again. Then there’s the fastest song on the record, “You’re The Doctor,” with increasingly dynamite fuzz, layers of solo, and some drumming that must have reminded Ty of his old days pounding on the “Skin” recording. Fans of older Ty (which is weird to say given the man’s youth) might be even more receptive to “Inside Your Heart,” which has some piano, but some mid-song jamming that is just three words away from Slaughterhouse “Tell Me What’s Inside Your Heart.” The thing that I love about Ty is that he is not quite recycling old riffs and song structures – he is innovative. Like having Brigid Dawson sing on “The Hill” while a rampage is going on in the background. Twins poppiest moments at this point come on “Would You Be My Love.” The bass-line is killer and the general sludge that probably doesn’t only have me thinking Nirvana. Only on “Ghost” does Ty restrain himself from the kind of electric indulgence that is apparent on the previous five tracks. The result is mixed, but that is hardly a knock. “They Told Me Too” is the opposite sounding – Ty feasts himself on his effects pedals. “Love Fuzz” is another pop oriented tune – it would not be out of place before or after a Black Keys number on the radio. The fuzz comes in the form of a repetitive rhythm section, bolstering the onslaught of the lead near the end. I got to give a shout out to “Handglams” for going the extra distance. Ty had done a similar thing vocally/stylistically with “I Am With You” from Goodbye, but here he really cranks things up and departs from that nicey nicey entrance, adding some good stuff in there that we just haven’t really heard from the man. Acoustic guitar and no drums make up “Gold On The Shore” before Ty finishes things with “There Is No Tomorrow,” a mid-tempo closer.

With Twins, there is not as much cohesion in sound here as on Hair, Slaughterhouse, or maybe even any Ty release post-Lemons. Ty has reached new levels of sonic exploration, though, and it is abundantly clear that he can really do the heavy almost pseudo-metal stuff just as well as the slower tempo output. There are several tunes on Twins that are the most ‘this’ or the most ‘that’ in the grand scheme of Ty Segall. As I have expected on more than one occasion this year, I expect a broader crowd to be turned onto Ty.  It’s not like the stuff he did before 2012 did not lend itself to more ears, but his music is proving he is not a mere ‘garage wunderkind’ – which seems to be a pretty damn awesome thing to be in itself! It seems fairly fitting that NME [9 out of 10] and the like are giving their high praise – maybe they have not seen a dude like this since Alex Turner (who has name dropped Ty as someone whose stuff he is really into). But Turner can’t say he has released three fantastic albums in a seven month span. Nor can too many musicians at all.

concert review, Music, Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Ty Segall Band

Concert Review: Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, K-Holes @ The Well (9/22/12)

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Bands: Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, K-Holes
Date: September 22, 2012
Venue: The Well (Brooklyn, New York)

Comments: Heading far away from Beantown to see show isn’t a frequent occurrence for us at KLYAM, but when we do, it always ends up being a fun time. When I first saw in June that Ty and Thee Oh Sees were playing in Brooklyn, but not in Boston (or Portland or Providence), it was a no-brainer to make the voyage. Not to mention that Nobunny shortly thereafter announced a date in Brooklyn for the night before. So yeah, what a nice weekend.



Act I – K-Holes – By the time the K-Holes hit the stage, The Well had filled right up. I could tell the crowd didn’t want to miss any of the action, and why would they? K-Holes are what I call mainstays as openers for some of the rock ‘n roll underground’s bigger bands. I’ve seen them open for Black Lips twice in New York and once for King Khan and the Shrines in Boston. They’ve certainly built up a reputation as a band that brings all they’ve got to the stage. On this night, the stage is quite large for them (“I feel like I’m at the Emmys” singer/guitarist Jack Hines informs us), but this of course doesn’t change their performance. They plow right through several dark, saxophone crazed songs, which to me sound even better than in the past. Also, I’ve never seen a band with their set-up (saxophone, vocalist/tambourine, guitar, bass, a drum kit with three floor toms). They are interesting. I enjoyed closer “Rats,” off their most recent LP Dismania [Hardly Art], the most. It’s a full steam ahead ass-kicker, fitting in perfectly with what’s to come.


Act II – Thee Oh Sees – Finally! It took me three years (approximately) to see these guys and finally I can say it…I saw them. Seeing a lot of live footage on YouTube and hearing people rave incessantly about the live shows – not to mention my very many listens to the records – all of this is awesome, but you’ve got to be there. So I was there along with about a thousand others and we witnessed the same thing. A band that truly has it together and quite easily engages the audience’s attention to something that makes blue shirted security guards want to join in on the fun. Thee Oh Sees got it started with “The Dream,” which is an insane tune, but there’s so much more build-up in the live setting that it is really hard to describe to be honest. After that we were blessed with “Lupine Dominus,” a stand-out off just released Putrifiers II. Then came that song that sounds like “Have Love Will Travel” — oh yes — “Tidal Wave,” which is just as cool as it sounds. They also got in “Carrion Crawler/The Dream,” the wild and quintessential sing-along “I Was Denied,” the superbly lengthy a-a-a-a-a-ah-ah-ha-ha-ha-a-a-a-a of “Contraption/Soul Desert,” and some others which I can’t quite remember right now. Either way, this was one performance that I will surely remember and I can not wait to see them again. It would be cool to catch them in a littler place, but they are at the point where they’ve got a pretty sizable and energetic fan base so I’m not sure what’s to come. No one does.


Act III – Ty Segall – Ty (and band) – if you read this site, you know there is a whole bunch o’ coverage, so disregard the obvious – are near the top of the charts as far as the kind of music I really love. It’s not even one sound – it’s more of the experience and variety of selections that gets me pumped. Whether it is the cuts from Slaughterhouse that they opened with, a throwback classic like “Standing at the Station,” or the many Melted jams “Imaginary Person,” “Finger,” “My Sunshine,” “Caesar,” “Girlfriend,” the current Ty set is all over the place categorically, but it’s all marked by an unbeatable combination of loudness, fuzz, and pop. It is no wonder why more and more people are being turned onto Ty and his band. And they’ll continue to be. The heavy rains that came during “Finger” seemed to coincide with the intensity of the song and they never really stopped. I was pleasantly surprised by “My Head Explodes,” my favorite from Goodbye Bread, which the band hasn’t really played too often. You could say more surprises came with a little “Sweet Home Alabama” and an encore of The Doors “The End”. It should be said that the first couple of rows represented a danger zone for crowd surfers. There was one fan who took a particularly gruesome fall near the stage that drew the concern of Ty, who requested medical attention for the man. We all hope he is okay. Ty shows shouldn’t be dangerous and apart from that incident, everything went pretty smoothly. There were also several photographers and a cameraman on hand – and they were having just as great of a time as the crowd. It was a cool sight!  Back to the songs. Closer “Wave Goodbye” and oldie “Skin” bear mentioning along with the finale of all finales, “The Drag”. Hope to see these guys soon in Boston, but you know, if New York is the only option, New York is the only option. That’s easy.

Music, Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall

Castleface Releasing ‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’ Tribute LP

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From Castleface’s Website:

“Full album cover of the classic Velvet Underground record, featuring reimaginations by Kelley Stoltz, Warm Soda, Ty Segall, Blasted Canyons (featuring Jeremy Cox of Royal Baths), White Fence, The Fresh & Onlys, Burnt Ones, The Mallard, Here Comes the Here Comes, K Dylan Edrich, and Thee Oh Sees!!! Limited to 1000 copies EVER. On Banana Yellow vinyl, with original art by David Shrigley. Only available through this site and from the bands at shows, no distro.”

1. Kelley Stoltz: “Sunday Morning”
2. Warm Soda: “I’m Waiting For The Man”
3. Ty Segall: “Femme Fatale”
4. Blasted Canyons feat. Jeremy Cox (of Royal Baths): “Venus In Furs”
5. White Fence: “Run Run Run”
6. The Fresh & Onlys: “All Tomorrow’s Parties”
7. Burnt Ones: “Heroin”
8. The Mallard: “There She Goes Again”
9. Here Comes The Here Comes: “I’ll Be Your Mirror”
10. K. Dylan + The Black Angel’s Death Songsmen: “The Black Angel’s Death Song”
11. Thee Oh Sees: “European Son”

Music, Ty Segall, Ty Segall Band

Watch Ty Segall’s Pitchfork Set

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Ty’s set begins at 1:19:25. Click play on the video below and then the ‘Ty Segall’ button or just skip to the time.

Set-List:
“Death”
“I Bought My Eyes”
“Slaughterhouse”
“Finger”
“Imaginary Person”
“Standing at the Station”
“Doctor Doctor”
“You Make The Sun Fry”
–Cover–
“Skin”
“The Floor”
“Girlfriend”
“Wave Goodbye”