 "When you play music and you're a person on a stage, sometimes people can put you on a pedestal, and that can do a lot of things to your head. And... what if it actually exploded all over the walls during a show?" That's Ty Segall speaking to SF Weekly earlier this year about his 2011 song, "My Head Explodes". It's a fairly straightforward description of a song that isn't terribly complicated. Guy sings. People watch. Guy's head explodes. It's not hard to picture Segall's head exploding. He sings hard and loud and with the shrill fury of a castrated animal. And he does this a lot. Since quitting his band, Epsilons, less than four years ago, Segall has become arguably the most exciting and probably the most prolific member of San Francisco's evolving garage rock scene, which also includes Thee Oh Sees, the Fresh & Onlys, and Sic Alps (with whom Segall formerly played). Since going solo, he's released five albums of original material; two split LPs; a live album; a cassette-only compilation; eight 7"s; four split EPs; a collaborative album with Mikal Cronin; and appeared on four compilation albums. The man is prolific. Trying to keep up will, if not enough make your head explode, at least incite heavy migraines.
This year's Goodbye Bread, his first release for Drag City, is easily his best, the accumulation of learned songwriting tricks and a developing melodic sense, with an emphasis on sonic clarity and the influence of some august icons, notably John Lennon and Marc Bolan. (Oh yeah, Segall recorded a tribute EP to Bolan's T. Rex this year, too.) In the afterglow of Goodbye's success, Memphis label Goner Records, Segall's former home, has compiled Singles 2007-2010, a sort of refresher course and unheard odds-and-ends set that serves as a tenacious, temporary portrait of Segall. There are hints everywhere at the songwriter Segall would become, but Singles is much more about the flail of youth than honoring tradition. In a few years, he's garnered comparisons to a wide swath of artists, from Nuggets-friendly English bands like the Troggs and the Pretty Things, to working-class American menace-peddlers like the Stooges and Ramones, to early recordings by the White Stripes (especially prevalent on this comp), down to the late Jay Reatard, a significant guidepost for Segall....full text |
| Singles 2007-2010 is chock full o’ Ty Segall oldies. From demos to stand-alones to covers, this is a hard rocking compilation of pre-Goodbye Bread goodies. One thing that can be said about Ty’s music pre-Goodbye days (which as you can see was as recently as 2010) is that it, by and large, was characterized by fuzzy guitars and fuzzy vocals. For many songs, this sound works quite well — like the very best of Ty on here: “Dating,” “Lovely One,” the Simply Saucer cover “Bullet Proof Nothing,” “Caesar,” and “My Sunshine”. As far as the rest, my gripes aren’t too numerous. After all, Ty is one of my favorites of this day and age. So I guess from an honest fan point of view, there are several songs that sound like the early relative to other, better Ty songs, whether it’s just a chord progression or some random part (the ending of “Judy” = “Die Tonite”). The main thing that I’m trying to say is that these songs are noticeably and reasonably early cuts and non-albums. It’s interesting to see how a lot of these songs took shape and it’s safe to say Ty always has had a knack for song-writing. There’s no bad songs on here. There are ones that made me think “I’ve heard better” or “that was really weird,” but no, nothing bad. I wouldn’t show a first timer this compilation as a point of recommendation, but it does serve as a valuable look into Ty’s past discography (for those of us who’ve been listening to him for a while)....full text |
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