[ aquarius records — Rock Pop ]

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Showing results 14201 through 14250 of 19388.

One man with a four-track and a crappy casio keyboard. Lush and lofi (sorry!) At the same time; reminiscent of early Sebadoh in a good way. Not to be confused with Bay Area band Sea Saw, who have obligingly changed their name to Swandive.

Everyone should own these two records. If you don't already have them you should get this new reissue of both on one cd. The fucking kings of garage. The Seeds are tough and menacing with sneering vocals and a rad style. They are one of the all time great

RealAudio clip: Pushin Too hard
RealAudio clip: Cant Seem to Make You Mine

New six-track Seefeel.

We made the cd reissue of this a Record Of The Week back on list #265... then Too Pure let it go out of print again (twice)! But now, it's been reissued on vinyl by Modern Classics, a subsidiary of Medical Records, yay. Please read on to find out why picked it as a ROTW: God, we love this record! We've never stopped loving it. In the years since it was first released in 1993, it's never sounded tired or dated to us. Can't say that for a whole lot of other electronica records. So we are really glad to see our good old friend back in print again... We have been playing this daily since we got it, and we're surprised how many folks have never heard of Seefeel or experienced their incredible ocean of sound. So what is all the fuss about, you say? Well, Seefeel at their peak were one of the main players that spawned the nineties electronica genre, at a time when there were only Dance and Rock sections in most music stores. Their sound was a delirious mash-up between the shoe-gazing swirl of My Bloody Valentine, the machinic rhythm programming of Autechre, the ambient chill of Aphex Twin and the driving pulse of Stereolab, with an early hint toward the looping repetitions of William Basinski. They bridged ambient techno and indie rock by foregoing rock music's verse and chorus structures in favor of beats and loops wrapped inside icy motorik rhythms, industrial whirs, blurbs of female vocals and dubby bass lines. Like the best work of minimal composers, Seefeel's long-form compositions create a warmly hypnotic form of static movement that refused to fit neatly into music for either dance floors or chill out lounges. Quique was their head-turning debut following two EP releases featuring remixes by Aphex Twin. That connection surely gained them a bigger following, but Seefeel was always one of those bands that should have been bigger. Of course such a potent and influential debut would lead to many of their contemporaries, bands such as Bowery Electric, Labradford, Boards Of Canada and Flying Saucer Attack, to take Seefeel's initial explorations in sound further into Post-Rock, Trip Hop, IDM and Neo-Psych territories, leaving Seefeel at a bit of a loss for a follow-up. Signing to Warp, they delved further into a dark ambient direction in the vein of groups like Main, Ice and Scorn, that was just too stark for a wider audience to appreciate. They put out two more albums before splintering off into various side projects such as Scala, Disjecta and Sneakster. Listening to Quique now, it has lost none of its powerful splendor and warmly chilled charm. Add this to the list of favorite one really really good record bands like My Bloody Valentine and Stone Roses. So amazingly awesome!

MPEG stream: Climatic Phase #3
MPEG stream: Plainsong
MPEG stream: Filter Dub
MPEG stream: Signals

God, we love this record! We've never stopped loving it. In its fourteen years of existence, it's never sounded tired or dated. Can't say that for a whole lot of other electronica records. So we are really glad to see our good old friend back in print again with this super nice 2cd deluxe re-issue. If you missed this the first time around, then you are in for a real treat, and if you bought this the first time around, you may just need to buy it again to get the whole extra disc of unreleased tracks and alternate mixes. We have been playing this daily since we got it, and we're surprised how many folks have never heard of Seefeel or experienced their incredible ocean of sound. So what is all the fuss about, you say? Well, Seefeel at their peak were one of the main players that spawned the nineties electronica genre, at a time when there were only Dance and Rock sections in most music stores. Their sound was a delirious mash-up between the shoe-gazing swirl of My Bloody Valentine, the machinic rhythm programming of Autechre, the ambient chill of Aphex Twin and the driving pulse of Stereolab, with an early hint toward the looping repetitions of William Basinski. They bridged ambient techno and indie rock by foregoing rock music's verse and chorus structures in favor of beats and loops wrapped inside icy motorik rhythms, industrial whirs, blurbs of female vocals and dubby bass lines. Like the best work of minimal composers, Seefeel's long-form compositions create a warmly hypnotic form of static movement that refused to fit neatly into music for either dance floors or chill out lounges. Quique was their head-turning debut following two EP releases featuring remixes by Aphex Twin. That connection surely gained them a bigger following, but Seefeel was always one of those bands that should have been bigger. Of course such a potent and influential debut would lead to many of their contemporaries, bands such as Bowery Electric, Labradford, Boards Of Canada and Flying Saucer Attack, to take Seefeel's initial explorations in sound further into Post-Rock, Trip Hop, IDM and Neo-Psych territories, leaving Seefeel at a bit of a loss for a follow-up. Signing to Warp, they delved further into a dark ambient direction in the vein of groups like Main, Ice and Scorn, that was just too stark for a wider audience to appreciate. They put out two more albums before splintering off into various side projects such as Scala, Disjecta and Sneakster. The bonus disc contains six previously unreleased tracks, and three alternate mixes from a limited white label 12" and two ambient compilations. Out of the unreleased tracks, "Clique" sounds like it just barely missed the cut from the original album line-up while "Silent Pool" is a longer version of Quique's closing track "Signals". "My Super 20" and "Is It Now?" are long beat-less swims that are a warmer hint at their future direction and the two other unreleased tracks are versions of opening track "Climatic Phase #3, and "Time to Find Me" from their first EP. It might sound like at first listen that there is some repetition between the two discs, but it's really more in line with classic ambient music's infatuation with the Dub tradition of versioning, the adding or removing of various elements in a song to give it a totally different spin. Each version really does give a different feel even if the basic structures seem similar. Seriously, the second disc is just more of what you love already, and gives us a little more of the stuff we've been missing for ages. Listening to Quique fourteen years later, it has lost none of its powerful splendor and warmly chilled charm. Add this to the list of favorite one record bands like My Bloody Valentine and Stone Roses. So Amazingly Awesome!!!! Reissue of the year so far and so totally recommended!!!!!!!!!

MPEG stream: Climatic Phase #3
MPEG stream: Plainsong
MPEG stream: Filter Dub
MPEG stream: Signals

It's been nearly 15 years since we last heard from seminal electronic shoegazers Seefeel, and nearly 18 years since their breathtaking debut Qique. During the nineties, few could touch Seefeel, their sound a glorious mash up of Stereolab, My Bloody Valentine, Autechre and Aphex Twin, warm and hypnotic, dubby and drifty, programmed beats, and swirling psychedelic textures, lush minimal female vox, industrial buzz, glitchy electronics, austere atmospheres, haunting and mysterious and otherworldly, a sound that today still sounds fresh and original and miles beyond most modern electronic outfits. We had no idea what to expect, after such a long absence, and without Mark Van Hoen, who went on to do Locust (not THE Locust) after Seefeel. Obviously we would have loved another Qique, but at the same time, it would have been rather anticlimactic to wait all that time for more of the same, especially when we have a legion of groups doing their best Seefeel already. So it seems, the band have returned with a whole new sound, and while not ditching their old sound, it is a pretty drastic shift, right from the start, a thick, gristly bit of tangled glitch and spacey effects, giving way to a spare robotic beat, laced with distorted shards of melody, a strangely stuttery, crunchy, aggressive chunk of abstract, electrophunk, underpinned by a warm fluid bassline, and some softly swirling chordal swells, some ethereal vox, the sound gradually gaining cohesion, blossoming into a fantastically hypnotic, softly psychedelic bit of stuttery shoegaze glitch. After a brief bit of electronic buzz and shimmer, comes the record's single, released as a 10" a few months back, hazy female vox, over another super minimal beat, wrapped around some deep low end warble, all wreathed in a halo of electronic crackle, a strange alien groove, subtly warped and warbly, laced with sun dappled streaks of melody, the group once again creating their own sort of electronic shoegaze, something at once beholden to the sound they pioneered, and simultaneously sounding fresh and new, and very little like anything else. Sci-fi lazer blasts drift over tinkling melodies and video game bleeps and bloops, thick washed out swirls of prismatic shimmer whirl around shuffling industrial rhythms, waves of warm guitar wash over skeletal beats, chiming glimmering melodies rain down like sunflakes glistening in winter sunlight, dubsteppy bass warbles wrap around jagged synths and breathy dreampop vox, the sounds crunchy and glitchy, warm and whirring, lush and layered, ever shifting soundscapes of fragmented pop and fractured abstract electronica, of fuzzed out psychedelic shoegaze, and downtempo dreamlike drift, a gorgeous collection of fantastically ethereal, ephemeral, buzzy electro bliss. Incredible.

MPEG stream: Dead Guitars
MPEG stream: Faults
MPEG stream: Rip-Run

Obscure reissues like this really make our day. This disc brings to light German brothers Eckhart und Wolf-J.'s experiments in instrumental electronic music circa 1971-73, a la early Kraftwerk, Kluster, Conrad Schnitzler, and the Silver Apples... Short, freeky pieces done with home-built synths in some Dusseldorf basement. Give me weirdo D.I.Y. krautrock electronics like this over the output of today's laptop dorks any day!

MPEG stream: Overture - Jeder Ist Heutzutage Glucklich
MPEG stream: Speedy Achmed

This is the second singles collection from ultra prolific glam-psych garage-popper Ty Segall, a sequel to the first, which came out in 2010 and was available only on cassette. $ingle$ 2 takes up right where the first volume left off, and unlike that one, this time it's available on all the different formats, and gathers up tracks from out of print 7"s and compilations, various songs from songs from 2011-2013, and includes all sorts of killer B-sides as well as some awesome covers (GG Allin, Velvet Underground, the Groundhogs). First up is all three tracks from 2011's Spiders 7" on Drag City. Which at first blush sounds like some crazy heavy noisy freakout, the title track opening with SUPER distorted guitar, all crunchy and in the red, which proves to be just a false start, but then the main riff comes in, and it too is totally heavy and sludgey, and when we first spun the single, we were convinced it was playing at the wrong speed, but no, this is just a dense slab of psychedelic garage pop heaviness, all murky and dirgey and almost doomy sounding, distorted echoey vox over that churning blown out riffage as well as some rad psychedelic guitar. The second track ("Hand Glams") also has a bit of a false start, and while a bit more traditionally psychedelic and garage poppy, it too is petty noisy and distorted, lots of feedback, still a killer pop song, like the first one, just slathered in noisy distortion, and it sort of suits him. "Cherry Red", the Groundhogs cover, is way more groovy and sixties garage rock sounding, fuzzy and poppy with a killer chorus that definitely reminds us of Segall pal Mikal Cronin's aQ Record Of The Week. Up next come two different B-sides to the I Can't Feel It 7" (at the time we didn't realize there were multiple versions), "Falling Hair" a laid back psychedelic groover, a bit of a glammy dirge/ballad, a bit Beatles-esque, hazy and psychedelic, with a slow build, hard rocking second half, while "Children Of Paul" has a sun soaked and dusty quality that smolders with a slow summery sizzle. Basking in some serious '60s and '70s psych vibes, echoes of Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson, and Moby Grape abound. Next up is a track from Segall's split with French garage pop dirge punks Feeling Of Love, which we never even got, and it's another retro-psych groover, all warm shimmery strum, and reverie jangle, reminding us of Redd Kross actually, with the same sort of paisley pop feel, but with a cool, and very weird almost mathy, and noise poppy bridge. Then we have the B side from The Hill single on S & F, a swirly, glammy, fuzz pop gem, with a total Bowie vibe going on, hooky and heavy, fuzzy and jangly. Which leads directly into the B side from the Would You Be My Love 7", and another slab of sixties pop, but super stripped down and acoustic, some dreamy hippy psych pop, all dreamy harmony vocals, steel string strum, and even some whistling at the end. Not hard to imagine this song distorted and supercharged, and fitting perfectly on Segall's Twins full length, but in it's acoustic form, it's pretty much perfect. Up next, Segall's track from the Group Flex II flex disc set on Castle Face, a super distorted blast of howl and pound laced with plenty of horns and sax bleat, followed by a killer cover of "Femme Fatale" from the Castle Face comp Velvet Underground & Nico by Castleface And Friends,with Segall adding lots of feedback, and some Stoogesy swagger to the original, the result noisy and chaotic and super rocking. Then we have something more recent, Segall's track from the Famous Class split with Chad & The Meatbodies, on which he lays down a super funky drum track, swaddles it in organ, then some super distorted percussion, bongos maybe, conjuring up a wild rhythmic freak out, that gets more and more wild and distorted as it goes, bursts of psych-squall noisiness, ultra distorted leads, all somehow wound up into a dense slab of cinematic psychedelic groovery!! And finally, Segall's GG Allin cover, from a 7" of GG Allin covers called Rated G.G., which also featured the Mountain Goats, Fucked up, Ben Gibbard and Ted Leo, and which we also never even had. And as you might imagine, it's about the punkest thing we've heard from Segall, the vocals distorted and doused in FX, the guitars blowout and in-the-red, a galloping noise punk blowout, that somehow manages to still sound like Segall, or maybe more like his hard rocking 'other' project Fuzz, heady and heavy, swaggery and snarly, and still tripped out and plenty psychedelic. All killer stuff, and an easy way to get caught up on all the TS singles stuff you might have missed!

MPEG stream: Spiders
MPEG stream: Children Of Paul
MPEG stream: Fucked Up Motherfucker
MPEG stream: Pettin The Dog

Another blast of fuzzy jangle rock bliss from aQ fave Ty Segall, two killer jams of stripped down warped garage pop. The A side, taken from Ty's recent Lemons album, starts out all strummy and jangly, with some seriously fuzzy bass, the vocals a reverbed croon, shifting into a falsetto here and there, at one point getting all tangled up in effects in a twisted distorted psychedelic freakout. There's even a super rocking PIANO SOLO! But all that stuff is just icing, on what is a killer hook, and a crazy catchy jam. The B side is a little more grimy and buzzy than the first track, sounding almost like the Stooges "Search And Destroy" slowed down to a garagey dirge, but again, Segall wraps that jangle and crunch around a hook most bands would kill for. Awesome. It's about time someone took all these 7"s and compiled them on a single collection, cuz like all the rest, this one is limited too, and will likely be gone before you know it.

Good time to love the damaged and super charged garage prowess of Ty Segall as he's got great songs just gushing forth with a whole slew of new releases, most of which are of course crazy limited. There's his split with Thee Oh Sees, two new 7"s of his own, a split 12" with Black Time and a brand new full length coming soon on Goner. We were slow on the draw on the last round of TS 7"s which are sadly already out of print, so we're happy we were able to grab some of these before they disappeared too. "Cents" is one of Segall's best songs yet and it'll probably be on his forthcoming full length too. Packed with infectious raw and dirty guitar and those slightly distorted yet crisp vocals, all coming together to make your body do the herky jerky. The 'b' side has two great fast and furious pop nuggets that are as timeless and potent as perfectly crafted garage rock gets. The kid is on fire!

Latest blast of sixties styled psychedelic glam stomp from this longtime aQ fave, and while the sound is pretty similar to previous records, Segall's songwriting somehow just keeps getting better and better, which is even more notable this time around, cuz he also seems to have upped the weirdness quotient, adding plenty of twisted WTF filigree, and messing with all sorts of craziness, somehow only making it that much more catchy. Case in point, "California Hills", with its weird little shreddy wild psych blurts that will get lodged in your head just as much as the hooks proper. The whole record is like that - what in other hands might be perfect pop songs, here are doused in wild distorted guitars, or buried beneath tons of layers, and multiple melodies. Some songs devolve into droned out jams, others get almost new wave-y, and still others sound like some warped strain of industrial / coldwave via flowery sixties psych. But really, at its heart, Emotional Mugger is a genius mix of super charged paisley pop, loose limbed garage rock, and home brewed psych, all informed by Segalls's wickedly cracked pop smarts and twisted, masterful songsmithery. And even though we want to, it's hard to claim this as Segall's best, or even our favorite, but it could be both, and it's definitely the weirdest.

MPEG stream: Squealer
MPEG stream: Emotional Mugger / Leopard Priestess
MPEG stream: Breakfast Eggs

After having spent the last year kicking out the heavy psych jams with his power trio Fuzz, Ty Segall returns with a new solo single, which somehow manages to fuse the dirgey retro rock of Fuzz, with the glam pop of his last few solo records, the A side is a stunner, anchored by some thick fuzzed out bass churn, and eventually some fierce riffage, Segall tempers that urgent rock crunch with some ethereal steel string strum, and heavenly falsetto vox, for a gloriously catchy, and strangely heavy chunk of psychedelic glam pop that is as good as anything on the last full length, and definitely has us hankering for more. As does the B side, which dips back into the woozy, wasted glam-folk of Sleeper, with Segall channeling Marc Bolan and T-Rex into a lazy, acoustic groover, laid back, a little wasted, dreamy vocals over softly swaggery acoustic guitars, all sun dappled and dreamy. So good.

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Ty's demos for Twins. Unfortunately, vinyl only and horrendously limited.

Album number four, from San Francisco's garage-pop mastermind Ty Segall. It wasn't that long ago when we talked about how much promise this young guy named Ty seemed to have, and now he's an internationally renowned force to be reckoned with, and this just happens to be his debut full length for Drag City. Segall has been climbing up the musical ladder the righteous way, not by hype or gimmicks, but by touring his ass off and releasing one great record after another. Goodbye Bread, finds Ty continuing to really focus on being a songwriter who doesn't rely on feedback or distortion to create cool songs, but instead the skeletal core of these songs is where the real meat is stored. Many of these jams show a slower paced, more laid back and almost paisley psych-pop disposition. Sounding like a scrappy cross between Syd Barrett, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, and Roky Erikson, yet none of it feeling like a put on and all of it delivered with an understated ease. Not to worry, there are still wonderful moments of fuzz and distortion, maybe more than ever, but those moments accent the album instead of shape it. Ty has found ways to stay raw and spirited without having to hide behind a simple means of recording and playing. He's more than proved his mettle as one of the most captivating and commanding songwriters around. And no matter if the songs are slow or fast (we love how the last ten seconds of "My Head Explodes" morphs into the guitar shredding intensity of an early '80s hardcore-punk song) they all stick in our heads like crazy. It's funny that this is the most sneering and agitated recording he has made. Taking advantage of a slower pace in songs to amplify the moments of tension and release. It sounds so corporate rock magazine of us to say, but this really does sound like an amazing combination of Kurt Cobain's aesthetic and introspection mixed with Jack White's musical prowess and garage rock roots appreciation. But damn, just because they were/are huge doesn't mean being compared to Nirvana and The White Stripes is a bad thing, in fact it's fucking rad! Once again, Ty hits the mark RIGHT ON.

MPEG stream: Goodbye Bread
MPEG stream: California Commercial
MPEG stream: I Can't Feel It

Awesome odds and ends collection from mighty lo-fi garage rocker, Ty Segall. Horn The Unicorn includes his first cassette which forecasted the fucked up brilliance to come, as well as the recent and way out of print Skin 7" which we never managed to get. Also within the grooves of Horn The Unicorn, you'll find Segall's songs from a split cassette with Superstitions, as well as a few tracks that have never appeared anywhere else before. By this point you probably already know that when it comes to impassioned, stripped to its core and way in the red garage rock it just doesn't get a whole lot better or more exciting then Ty Segall. It's pretty awesome to see how hard Segall is working, playing shows in town almost every week solo or in one of his bands, and busting out new songs at the same ferocious speed without sacrificing quality. You might recognize a few of these tracks even if you didn't get to hear them in their original incarnations the first time around, as some of them have been re-recorded and reworked on both of Segall's proper albums. We have to say though, that we kind of love how those songs sound here in their original even more raw form. While this collection gives folks a chance to grab so many songs that have gone out of print, there's no saying how long this vinyl collection will stay in print itself so better act fast to avoid losing out again.

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. These two killer Ty Segall records now reissued on cassette! Here's our review of Horn The Unicorn, when we first reviewed the lp back in 2009: Awesome odds and ends collection from mighty lo-fi garage rocker, Ty Segall. Horn The Unicorn includes his first cassette which forecasted the fucked up brilliance to come, as well as the recent and way out of print Skin 7" which we never managed to get. Also within the grooves of Horn The Unicorn, you'll find Segall's songs from a split cassette with Superstitions, as well as a few tracks that have never appeared anywhere else before. By this point you probably already know that when it comes to impassioned, stripped to its core and way in the red garage rock it just doesn't get a whole lot better or more exciting then Ty Segall. It's pretty awesome to see how hard Segall is working, playing shows in town almost every week solo or in one of his bands, and busting out new songs at the same ferocious speed without sacrificing quality. You might recognize a few of these tracks even if you didn't get to hear them in their original incarnations the first time around, as some of them have been re-recorded and reworked on both of Segall's proper albums. We have to say though, that we kind of love how those songs sound here in their original even more raw form. While this collection gives folks a chance to grab so many songs that have gone out of print, there's no saying how long this vinyl collection will stay in print itself so better act fast to avoid losing out again. And here's our review of Live In Aisle 5 from when we reviewed the lp in 2011: At this point we really don't need to go on and on about why we love Ty Segall so much. If you go back to all the records we've reviewed you'll get a sense of how much his raw, impassioned garage rock really moves us. With the release of his first proper live album, we can reflect on how lucky we are being right here in SF and getting so many chances to see him play, so this record is a chance for everyone else to hear what they've been missing... Whether its a house party, a small club, or an impromptu jam, whenever Segall plays live he lays it all on the line. Being able to perfectly mix his impeccable guitar playing alongside unhinged spirit and sparks of kinetic energy. Recorded live in the summer of 2010 just down the street from aQ, at Amnesia, this is a perfect representation of the fierce power of the Ty Segall live experience. The set-list pulls from Ty's three previous albums as well as a brand new jam and a couple scuzzy covers of tracks by G.G. Allin and the Vibrators.

Just in time for summertime, it's two new jams from San Francisco's finest garage rock wunderkid, Ty Segall. Both of these tracks prove once again that Ty doesn't even need to be lo-fi or or in the red to sound super rad, cuz the fact is he can write seriously and undeniably damn good songs. Both of these tracks have a sun soaked and dusty quality that burns with such a nice slow sizzle. Hot on the heels of his record store day release of T. Rex covers, you can tell Ty's been basking in some '60s and '70s psych glory as of late. There are nice echoes of Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson, and Moby Grape in these two tracks. Whether his songs are full throttle rockers or more mellow and spaced out like these two are, they always sound so damn good!

We've been in love with the raw passionate sounds of Ty Segall ever since we first heard him, his sound channeling the best of garage punk's past while sounding so immediate and charismatic and heartfelt, with a distinctive style all his own. Lemons is his newest full length and it once again proves that we're going to be hearing great music from TS for so many years to come. One of those rare examples of someone who has both technical talent (a shredder on the guitar, perhaps that's why he's recently been recruited as a member of Sic Alps!), but he also understands that less can be so much more than, well... more! Stripping away the fat and keeping only the notes and sounds that matter, stripped down and urgent, lean and mean. While Lemons does contain the fast and blasting way blown out sound that he's become known for, we're also happy to hear a few slower songs that demonstrate he can really write strong and irresistible songs that get jammed in your head. Lots of Lemons has us imagining raw demos of Nirvana jamming out covers of the Sonics and tracks from the first Redd Kross record. Whether soaked in psychedelic fuzzed out acid garage rock or bursting with infectious melody and surf rock undertones, all the disparate elements on Lemons come together for such a potent result. Much like his buddies Thee Oh Sees, Segall's massive output of totally great songs of late proves that the he is still totally on fire! FYI, for a limited time, we're selling the cd at a special discount, $2 less than normal retail price ($11.98 instead of $13.98)!! Through July 31st, 2009 only.

MPEG stream: Standing At The Station
MPEG stream: Lovely One
MPEG stream: Cents
MPEG stream: Die Tonight
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At this point we really don't need to go on and on about why we love Ty Segall so much. If you go back to all the records we've reviewed you'll get a sense of how much his raw, impassioned garage rock really moves us. With the release of his first proper live album, we can reflect on how lucky we are being right here in SF and getting so many chances to see him play, so this record is a chance for everyone else to hear what they've been missing... Whether its a house party, a small club, or an impromptu jam, whenever Segall plays live he lays it all on the line. Being able to perfectly mix his impeccable guitar playing alongside unhinged spirit and sparks of kinetic energy. Recorded live this past summer just down the street from aQ, at Amnesia, this is a perfect representation of the fierce power of the Ty Segall live experience. The set-list pulls from Ty's three albums as well as a brand new jam and a couple scuzzy covers of tracks by G.G. Allin and the Vibrators. Limited to 1,000 copies, best to jump on this before its too late.

Before we get into this new Ty Segall record, we should probably state right up front, that we thought about making this a Record Of The Week. And then didn't cuz we ALWAYS make Segall's records Record Of The Week. And on first listen, we didn't immediately dig this quite as much as the last few, but if we've learned anything, we can almost guarantee that in a week or two, after repeated listens, we'll probably be losing our shit and proclaiming this his best yet. So bear that in mind, and consider this a probably could/would/should have been Record Of The Week. Cuz even if it doesn't have the immediate appeal of say, Twins, or Sleep, or even the Fuzz record, it's still pretty goddamn great, overflowing with impossibly catchy songs, a little bit fuzz poppy, a little bit garage rocky, still pretty glammy, the sound lush and dizzyingly ambitious sonically, with some songs sounding like a straight up rock band, others like pure studio concoctions, with most landing somewhere right in between, and even writing this review, and finally hearing this record for the first time on headphones, not in the store, we're having second thoughts again about this NOT being a Record Of The Week. Just have a listen to the samples below, if you're new to the world of Ty Segall, odds are it won't take long for you to be on over, and if you're already a fan, like us, you'll immediately feel right at home. The opener/title track is all organ driven fuzz, with Segall effortlessly slipping into a falsetto, wound around multiple instruments harmonizing, buzzing and jangly and very retro sixties pop by way of modern garage rock, not unlike many of his contemporaries, but then there's "Tall Man, Skinny Lady" which sounds like nobody else, urgently strummed acoustic guitars wound around groovy drums, everything wreathed in a cloud of effects, the vocals drenched in echo and reverb, the falsetto in full effect, total glam rock swagger, and then when the super distorted fuzz guitar kicks in, especially the wild shredding psychedelic leads, it's divine. And hell, we're only two tracks in. Instead of going track by track, just know, that if you dig the sound samples below, odds are there's pretty much nothing here you won't dig like crazy, whether it's all torch songy garage rock balladry, or fuzzed out heavy psych, or buzz heavy almost metallic distorto crunch, or grandiose baroque retro-pop, or the tons of gradations in-between. We're gonna stop now, before we change our minds and make this Record Of The Week anyway. Which we might still do anyway. Needless to say, way Way WAY recommended!!

MPEG stream: Manipulator
MPEG stream: Tall Man, Skinny Lady
MPEG stream: The Singer
MPEG stream: It's Over

While Ty Segall may be as prolific as they come when it comes to 7"s, splits, and collaborations, a new one seemingly coming out monthly, weekly even, faster then we can keep up with, there's still something so special, thought out, and so damn satisfying about Segall's full-length albums proper. Especially this new one. No longer can you just reduce a summarization of his music as 'way blown out lo-fi garage radness.' Although that's definitely some of it, but Segall has begun to widen his scope in such thrilling ways. Melted finds his sound more punchy, a dizzying mix of psychedelic, pop, surf, gritty rhythm & blues, punk rock, in fact the album opener is a perfect example, it begins all fey and jangly, but then the guitar kicks in, surprisingly heavy and crunchy, swaggery and sorta bad ass, big loud drums, and then suddenly, a super tripped out squiggly synth solo! The second track too, begins all acoustic guitar, until in comes a groovy walking bassline, and it's total sixties jangle pop that finishes off in a flurry of fluttery flutes.... From the very beginning of the record, the whole thing takes such awesome twists and turns, getting all tweaked and super far out right when you might expect straight ahead jangle, and getting all poppy and heartfelt, right when it sounds like it was gonna explode into chaotic whatthefuckness. Alongside influences like The Gories, Thee Headcoats, and The Sonics, you can even hear some Led Zeppelin, albeit stripped of its excess and indulgence and boiled down to its primitive and riveting core, kind of what it felt like when we heard The White Stripes for the first time. Not reinventing the wheel for sure, but instead pressing the pedal to the metal and spinning all four wheels in a frenzy of unfettered creativity, OWNING these sounds, making totally original music out of borrowed bits, and blowing away so many of the bands around him in the process. Along with that intensity, Segall has a crazy knack for incredible hooks, deep rooted melodies, crafting perfect pop all wrapped up in fiery, fierce rocking crunch. "Girlfriend" may just be song of the year! It's impossible not to listen to it over and over from the beginning with Ty growling and then it bursting into one of the most catchy, sweat inducing, body shaking songs ever, the sort of jam you would want to put on every mix tape you make. As always, Segall writes and plays just about every note of music himself on the album, but there are some nice moments where his friends lend a helping hand, like John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees laying down some FLUTE on "Caesar", and Mike Donovan from Sic Alps adding vox, as well as some guitar on a couple tracks, including the absurd blown out brilliance of the simple yet so totally addictive "Mike D's Coke". And on tracks like "Imaginary Person" it's like this awesome blend of early Adam & The Ants crossed with The Misfits for an all out sonic showdown. Segall has a found a way to bring together primitive and powerful stripped down Bo Diddley-like energy and a very honest and sincere emotional undercurrent in his songs that convinces us that once this latest lo-fi garage revival dies down, Segall will still be making engaging, moving and truthful sounds. He is for real!

MPEG stream: Finger
MPEG stream: Ceasar
MPEG stream: Girlfriend
MPEG stream: Mike D's Coke

Grab one while you can, the latest from psychedelic garage pop phenom Ty Segall, who now calls LA home, but remains near and dear to our musical hearts, and on Mr. Face, he doesn't mix up his formula too much, just another batch of fantastically catchy, glammy garage, the title track mostly acoustic (minus some distorto leads), sounding like it was transported straight from the sixties, not that far removed from the last couple records. "Circles" cranks up the volume a bit, with noisy guitar, some wild drumming, and a hook to die for, a song that would have been right at home on any of Segall's recent records proper. no throwaways here, just crunch, catchy, fuzzy, groovy, garagey glam psych. And that's just the first 7". Single number two starts out with the awesomely titled "Drug Mugger", a slinky groover, with some funky drumming, some falsetto vox, slithery basslines, but like most of Segall's jams, tethered to an impossibly catchy chorus. And finally there's "The Picture", a sweet slab of psychedelic soul, that almost sounds like it could have been on that Forge Your Own Chains comp, hiking guitars, a slow groove shimmy, jangly and hazy and dreamy and so good. The packaging is pretty over the top too. The whole full color gatefold sleeve might look blurry at first, but that's cuz it's in 3-D, and it just so happens that one of the singles is clear red vinyl, and the other clear blue, so by holding them both up to your face, and looking through the parts of the singles with no grooves, they act like a giant set of 3-D glasses! So cool! And of course, this is SO LIMITED!! Also includes a download code as well!

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY.

Even though we reviewed a lot of em, we had no idea Segall had been cranking out singles at such a crazy clip, nearly 20 tracks from 2007-2010, and that's not even counting the full lengths. And if you're a faithful reader of the aQ list, you probably already know we're a huge fan of Segall's fuzzed out jangle and crunchy garage rock stomp, and it's kind of great to have em all gathered up in one place, especially considering that we somehow missed a whole bunch of these. Just check out the opening salvo, "Where We Go", 90 seconds of fuzzy, murky jangle and pound, all murky and fuzzy, with some weird percussion and some reverby sing along vox... then there's "It", which is also pretty far out, super lo-fi, and way dynamic, with a strange stop start arrangement, and a KILLER chorus. And then "Sweets" which is of a classic garage groover, but if those three songs don't knock your socks off, well, there must be something wrong with you. We could go track by track, but pretty much everything here kills, some highlights include "Caesar", which, starts out all strummy and jangly, with some seriously fuzzy bass, the vocals a reverbed croon, shifting into a falsetto here and there, at one point getting all tangled up in effects in a twisted distorted psychedelic freakout. There's even a super rocking PIANO SOLO! But all that stuff is just icing, on what is a killer hook, and a crazy catchy jam. And the B side from that 7", "Bullet Proof Nothing", which is a Simply Saucer cover, is a little more grimy and buzzy than "Caesar", sounding almost like the Stooges "Search And Destroy" slowed down to a garagey dirge, but again, Segall wraps that jangle and crunch around a hook most bands would kill for. There's also Segall's cover of Thee Oh Sees' "Maria Stacks", a song which might just be Andee's favorite Oh Sees jam, not just cuz it's hooky and catchy, but it also immortalizes AQ pal and amazing artist/zine-maker Maria Forde. Ty finds a way to make the song a bit more lo-fi and fucked up sounding while still holding on to the great melody that makes the original stick like it does. We also dig "Cents", which still ranks as one of our favorite Segall jams ever, but there's also "Booksmarts", which we had never heard before, but is definitely now also in the running for best Segall jam, in fact, the more we listen to this, the more contenders there seem to be. Lots of the A sides from various singles did end up on the full lengths, but some of these versions are pretty dramatically different. Segall also does a pretty killer version of the Gories' "I Think I've Had It", with some chiming jangly guitars, lo-fi drum pound, and some crazily distorted vox. In addition to the singles, there are also a handful of demo tracks, which are gloriously low fidelity, the yelped reverbed vox super reminiscent of Thee Oh Sees, which makes sense as Segall and Thee Oh Sees have shared numerous stages and records, and all except one have never popped up anywhere before, and even in their raw form, sound as good as anything else here. Obviously if you dig Thee Oh Sees and Mikal Cronin and Bare Wires and the rest of that Bay Area garage rock crew, you probably already own most of Segall's records proper, and need this too (trust us), but if you somehow don't, this is as good a place to start as any! NB. This is specially priced at $12.98 instead of the normal $13.98 for the next few weeks only!

MPEG stream: Where We Go
MPEG stream: It
MPEG stream: Sweets
MPEG stream: Son Of Sam (Chain Gang)
MPEG stream: Bullet Proof Nothing (Simply Saucer)

NOW ON VINYL!! Deluxe double lp pressed on 150 gram wax, includes MP3 downloads of the whole comp as well... Even though we reviewed a lot of em, we had no idea Segall had been cranking out singles at such a crazy clip, nearly 20 tracks from 2007-2010, and that's not even counting the full lengths. And if you're a faithful reader of the aQ list, you probably already know we're a huge fan of Segall's fuzzed out jangle and crunchy garage rock stomp, and it's kind of great to have em all gathered up in one place, especially considering that we somehow missed a whole bunch of these. Just check out the opening salvo, "Where We Go", 90 seconds of fuzzy, murky jangle and pound, all murky and fuzzy, with some weird percussion and some reverby sing along vox... then there's "It", which is also pretty far out, super lo-fi, and way dynamic, with a strange stop start arrangement, and a KILLER chorus. And then "Sweets" which is of a classic garage groover, but if those three songs don't knock your socks off, well, there must be something wrong with you. We could go track by track, but pretty much everything here kills, some highlights include "Caesar", which, starts out all strummy and jangly, with some seriously fuzzy bass, the vocals a reverbed croon, shifting into a falsetto here and there, at one point getting all tangled up in effects in a twisted distorted psychedelic freakout. There's even a super rocking PIANO SOLO! But all that stuff is just icing, on what is a killer hook, and a crazy catchy jam. And the B side from that 7", "Bullet Proof Nothing", which is a Simply Saucer cover, is a little more grimy and buzzy than "Caesar", sounding almost like the Stooges "Search And Destroy" slowed down to a garagey dirge, but again, Segall wraps that jangle and crunch around a hook most bands would kill for. There's also Segall's cover of Thee Oh Sees' "Maria Stacks", a song which might just be Andee's favorite Oh Sees jam, not just cuz it's hooky and catchy, but it also immortalizes AQ pal and amazing artist/zine-maker Maria Forde. Ty finds a way to make the song a bit more lo-fi and fucked up sounding while still holding on to the great melody that makes the original stick like it does. We also dig "Cents", which still ranks as one of our favorite Segall jams ever, but there's also "Booksmarts", which we had never heard before, but is definitely now also in the running for best Segall jam, in fact, the more we listen to this, the more contenders there seem to be. Lots of the A sides from various singles did end up on the full lengths, but some of these versions are pretty dramatically different. Segall also does a pretty killer version of the Gories' "I Think I've Had It", with some chiming jangly guitars, lo-fi drum pound, and some crazily distorted vox. In addition to the singles, there are also a handful of demo tracks, which are gloriously low fidelity, the yelped reverbed vox super reminiscent of Thee Oh Sees, which makes sense as Segall and Thee Oh Sees have shared numerous stages and records, and all except one have never popped up anywhere before, and even in their raw form, sound as good as anything else here. Obviously if you dig Thee Oh Sees and Mikal Cronin and Bare Wires and the rest of that Bay Area garage rock crew, you probably already own most of Segall's records proper, and need this too (trust us), but if you somehow don't, this is as good a place to start as any!

MPEG stream: Where We Go
MPEG stream: It
MPEG stream: Sweets
MPEG stream: Son Of Sam (Chain Gang)
MPEG stream: Bullet Proof Nothing (Simply Saucer)

We here at aQ hQ are kind of spoiled for great local music right now. It's no secret that San Francisco's been producing tons of great garage rock over the last few years and Mr. Segall's been one of the leading lights in that movement since the get-go. He's one of the most prolific too, with Sleeper being his third full length in just over a year. Ty is a man who truly never tires (or should we say Tyres? sorry!). And though he seems to split his time between SF and LA we still like to think we can claim him as our own! Compared to the reckless garage freak out of last year's Twins and other earlier recordings, Sleeper finds Segall at his most restrained - and dare we say at his most Bolan-esque! Sleeper is a gorgeous lo-fi dose of otherworldly glam-folk, immediately recalling T. Rex's mellower moments and even those late '60s records where they still went by Tyrannosaurus Rex (complete with the occasional bongo accompaniment!). But what makes this record work so perfectly is how none of the rough edges have been sanded away - it's glittery but gritty too. These sound predominantly like raw home recordings, mostly revolving around a single acoustic guitar and a bit of percussion. The vocals are what really make the album - fragile and warbly, but also ethereal and hypnotic. Like we said, Marc Bolan is a clear point of reference, especially in the way Segall manages to make his songs sound both totally personal and strangely distant at the same time. But there's also a bit of Perry Farrell there, especially on some of Sleeper's twangier more mystical segments, which definitely invoke the same drifting sun-bleached desert imagery of Jane's Addiction's mellower moments. There's a twinge of nostalgic melancholy to some of the songs as well, but it's subtle and never comes across as heavy handed. Mostly it's just one of those records that you want to wrap yourself up in - turn it on, close your eyes, and see what strange places it takes you to. It's a slow burn of an album, but before you realize it it's consumed your stereo entirely!

MPEG stream: Sleeper
MPEG stream: The Man Man
MPEG stream: She Don't Care

Ty Segall's Goodbye Bread record has been in constant rotation since it came out, so we were super psyched for this brand new single, but we were totally unprepared for what at first blush sounds like some crazy heavy noisy freakout, the title track opening with SUPER distorted guitar, all crunchy and in the red, which proved to be just a false start, but then the main riff comes in, and it too is totally heavy and sludgey, and we were convinced it was playing at the wrong speed, but no, this is just a dense slab of psychedelic garage pop heaviness, all murky and dirgey and almost doomy sounding, distorted echoey vox over that churning blown out riffage as well as some rad psychedelic guitar. The second track also has a bit of a false start, and while a bit more traditionally psychedelic and garage poppy, it too is petty noisy and distorted, lots of feedback, still a killer pop song, like the first one, just slathered in noisy distortion, and it sort of suits him. The flipside is way more groovy and sixties garage rock sounding, fuzzy and poppy with a killer chorus that definitely reminds us of the recent Mikal Cronin Record Of The Week. This is definitely our new favorite single, and might even trump Goodbye Bread in terms of our favorite Ty Segall release. WAY recommended.

Two song teaser for the forthcoming full length, the A side already has us freaking out, a killer slab of glammy, proggy, garage pop, that might just be the best thing we've heard from Segall yet. A cool female vocal intro explodes into some seriously fuzzed out glam rock garage stomp, no lo-fi production here, it sounds incredible, massive and lush, and totally heavy, the boy/girl harmonies on the chorus KILL, the vibe swaggery and seriously glammed out, with some blasts of wild psychedelic shredding. The flipside is a bit more subdued, but also quite glammy, with a total Bowie vibe going on, hooky and heavy, fuzzy and jangly, further proof that the new full length is gonna be a mind blower!

When we reviewed the teaser 7" released a few weeks back to whet appetites for this, Ty Segall's new full length, we described the jam "The Hill" thusly: "a killer slab of glammy, proggy, garage pop, that might just be the best thing we've heard from Segall yet. A cool female vocal intro explodes into some seriously fuzzed out glam rock garage stomp, no lo-fi production here, it sounds incredible, massive and lush, and totally heavy, the boy/girl harmonies on the chorus KILL, the vibe swaggery and seriously glammed out, with some blasts of wild psychedelic shredding." And while that single and that sound is not really all that far removed with Segall's sound in general, the glamminess is cranked big time here, as is the hookiness. Just check out album opener "Thank God For Sinners", the perfect mash up of classic Beatles style melody and swaggery, slithery T-Rex fuzzed out groove. Which leads right into "You're The Doctor", adding some seriously driving psychedelic garage rock stomp, a wild blast of heady heavy psych rock that will have Oh Sees freeks losing their shit. But as with every Segall record, the sound veers all over the place, slipping easily from sound to sound, vibe to vibe, and speaking of vibes, The Beatles vibe is huge throughout, but is deftly applied to Segall's already hook heavy sound, "Inside Your Heart" adds some brooding minor key melody as well as a killer catchy main guitar part, not to mention a wild squall of psychedelic freakout and a woozy, warped drag of an ending that makes it sound like the tape is slowly melting. "Would You Be My Love" is a dead ringer for classic Redd Kross, a supercharged sixties pop, while "Ghost" is a fuzz drenched, but still darkly melodic, almost metallic dirge, rife with gorgeous vocal harmonies, and a wicked main hook. And so it goes. The rest of the record brimming with classic fuzzy pop and psychedelic garage gems, groovy and jangly one second, blown out and chaotic the next, but every track here stone cold killer. And while we do feel kinda foolish, going on and on about each successive Segall record as being the best yet, and our new favorite (and even making this one Record Of The Week only a few lists after Segall's Slaughterhouse record received the same honors), that's exactly what happens every time. And Segall really does just keep getting better and better, not just the songs, but the arrangements, the production, the vocals, everything. Have a look at past reviews on the aQ site, and you'll see just how much we love past records of his, which should tell you something when we once again, proclaim this the best one yet!

MPEG stream: Thank God For Sinners
MPEG stream: You're the Doctor
MPEG stream: Inside Your Heart
MPEG stream: The Hill
MPEG stream: Ghost

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY.

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY.

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. NOW ON CASSETTE!! Here's our review from when we first listed the lp and cd versions way back in 2009: We've been in love with the raw passionate sounds of Ty Segall ever since we first heard him, his sound channeling the best of garage punk's past while sounding so immediate and charismatic and heartfelt, with a distinctive style all his own. Lemons is his newest full length and it once again proves that we're going to be hearing great music from TS for so many years to come. One of those rare examples of someone who has both technical talent (a shredder on the guitar, perhaps that's why he's recently been recruited as a member of Sic Alps!), but he also understands that less can be so much more than, well... more! Stripping away the fat and keeping only the notes and sounds that matter, stripped down and urgent, lean and mean. While Lemons does contain the fast and blasting way blown out sound that he's become known for, we're also happy to hear a few slower songs that demonstrate he can really write strong and irresistible songs that get jammed in your head. Lots of Lemons has us imagining raw demos of Nirvana jamming out covers of the Sonics and tracks from the first Redd Kross record. Whether soaked in psychedelic fuzzed out acid garage rock or bursting with infectious melody and surf rock undertones, all the disparate elements on Lemons come together for such a potent result. Much like his buddies Thee Oh Sees, Segall's massive output of totally great songs of late proves that the he is still totally on fire!

MPEG stream: Standing At The Station
MPEG stream: Lovely One
MPEG stream: Cents
MPEG stream: Die Tonight
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'70s glam pixie Marc Bolan & his band T-Rex (along with that group's earlier hippie acid folk incarnation Tyrannosaurus Rex, in the '60s) have emerged as quite a big influence on a number of today's popular indie / garage artists, notably Devendra Banhart, King Tuff, Guy Blakeslee, and Ty Segall to name a few (Electronicat too!). Ty has taken things further by recording a bunch of Marc Bolan cover tunes, which couldn't be more perfect 'cause first of all, he can call it Ty-Rex, and also 'cause his songwriting often already sounds a lot like Bolan's. This special limited-edition "Black Friday Record Store Day" release compiles together two totally out of print Ty-doing-T-Rex vinyl releases previously issued by Goner, a 12" from Record Store Day 2011 and a 7" from Record Store Day 2013. All eight tracks from both much sought-after tributes are found here, along with a previously unreleased bonus cover of "20th Century Boy" done very much Fuzz style. Can't imagine any Ty fans not wanting this, even if you don't know Marc Bolan from Mack Bolan!

MPEG stream: Fist Heart Mighty Dawn Dart
MPEG stream: The Slider
MPEG stream: 20th Century Boy

Good time to love the damaged and super charged garage prowess of Ty Segall as he's got great songs just gushing forth with a whole slew of new releases, most of which are of course crazy limited. There's his split with Thee Oh Sees, two new 7"s of his own, a split 12" with Black Time and a brand new full length coming soon on Goner. We were slow on the draw on the last round of TS 7"s which are sadly already out of print, so we're happy we were able to grab some of these before they disappeared too. "Universal Momma" finds Ty exploring a more slowed down and drugged out vibe with a Roky Erikson sound heavy in its grooves and the title isn't just some rock talk, his mama Cherrie Segal actually co-wrote the song with him. The flip side "86'd" is also a bit more on the midtempo side proving Segall's far from a one trick pony, instead he's a seriously immediate and satisfying garage rock songwriter and is one of the folks helping the current scene sound so vibrant and alive. Limited to 500 of which we only have a handful.

One of our favorite tracks from recent Record Of The Week, Twins, from local garage pop kingpin Ty Segall, and listening to this track, we forgot to mention how much the main riff sounds like classic Nirvana! Which is most definitely a good thing, but Segall transforms it into something even poppier. In our review of Twins, we describe it as being a dead ringer for classic Redd Kross, which is also sorta true, a supercharged sort of sixties pop. The flipside, exclusive to this single is another slab of sixties pop, but much more stripped down and acoustic, some dreamy hippy psych pop, all dreamy harmony vocals, steel string strum, and even some whistling at the end. Not hard to imagine this song distorted and supercharged, and fitting perfectly on Twins, but in it's acoustic form, it's pretty much the perfect B side, and well worth the price of the 7"!

Holy shit this record totally floors us! We're not the most easily moved and impressed when it comes to most garage rock that we hear these days so a record really has to be packed with explosive energy and endless hooks to win us over, but oh my lord Ty Segall makes us want to be locked in a small and sweaty garage while he belts out his one man band jams and makes us jump and sweat and lose ourselves like only true rock n' roll has the power to do. We knew that Ty was something special ever since we heard his homemade and way out of print cassette Horn The Unicorn and saw him play in countless charming and kick ass bands (Traditional Fools, Epsilons, Party Fowl, etc.) all before even being 21 years old. There is a difference between being retro and making music that is timeless and Ty Segall's full length debut falls perfectly in the latter category. This could have been recorded in '81, '91 or today and it would still hold up and blow us away. All the songs are around two minutes, no wasted space allowed, total urgency filled with punk spirit and pop songwriting chops that set him head and shoulders above so much of the current garage flock. We bet labels like Swami or In The Red wish they had put out this record and it makes such perfect sense that it's being released on Jon Dwyer's label as there is a similar spirit to the energetic and frantic sounds he created in The Coachwhips and the crafty songwriting and right on lo-fi production he employs with The Ohsees. Drenched in reverb and full of such a vibrant punch we hear hints of everything from Hasil Adkins to The Rip Offs and Thee Headcoatees but most of all we hear the emergence of one of the most exciting new voices in modern day, sweat soaked, soul filled rock n roll!

MPEG stream: Go Home
MPEG stream: Oh Mary
MPEG stream: So Alone

No doubt about it, Ty Segall is really one of our favorite garage rockers around. We're lucky enough to get to see him play all the time and the incredible sweat and energy of his live shows manages to seep its way into his recordings as pretty much every slab of wax he's released has delivered way raw fucked up garage rock at its absolute best! Teamed up with his pal Mikal Cronin, the two take things to even more of a blasted and fractured state of garage mayhem with Reverse Shark Attack, tons of moments that remind us of the amazing thrashing garage pop scorch of the great Japanese band Acid Eater or some dream universe where Syd Barrett got to jam out Brainbombs covers. In fact they do an amazing cover of the Barrett era Pink Floyd gem "Take Up The Stethoscope And Walk" - it was so rad when we played this in the store for the first time and an enthusiastic customer screamed out "Who is doing some serious fucking justice to the spirit of Syd Barrett right now!?" and we totally understand where that impassioned and immediate reaction comes from! Segall continues to tap into the kind of music making that truly grabs a hold of your body to give you a totally enthralling pure and raw physical experience. We had heard an awesome 7" these two did together earlier in the year that sadly we weren't able to get our hands on, and it seems that Cronin really encourages Segall to go more into the outer limits of sound than on his own and we have to say we really love it! And we pretty much love any and all of what Ty does whether it's the amazing pop hooks he's capable of creating in his great songs on his proper solo albums or when he totally just goes way free and enters a total garage freak-out state that goes way beyond fuzz, like the tracks on Reverse Shark Attack. So rad!

Sort of seemed inevitable that these guys would get together, two local lo-fi garage pop masters, both of whom have gotten much love from aQ, and both of whom have surprisingly similar styles, collaborating on a set of songs, that ultimately manage to sound like they could have been proper records from either. No distinct separation between tracks, no huge stylistic shifts, instead, a meeting of the minds that manages to be both impossibly hooky and fuzzy and catchy, but also as weird and twisted as anything either of them have done on their own. Lots of kick ass axework, wild psychedelic leads and dense squalls of tangled freakout, over all manner of jangle and crunch, the vocals doused in reverb and appropriately washed out and yelpy, the drums simple and spare, the songs slipping easily from druggy psychedelic jangle pop to crunchy noisy garage punk raveups, to full on skiffle-y sixties psych-pop to twisted echo drenched garage rock dirges and some head spinningly experimental garage rock space jams, like "Scissor People", which might be THEE jam here, beginning with a little bit of birdsong, before launching into some jangly crunch, another blast of garage-y poppiness, until things go totally crazy about halfway through, the song suddenly a patchwork of alternate takes and different productions, as if multiple versions of the song were playing simultaneously, and someone began to flip between the various channels, the sounds dramatically different, even the tempos, and then coming out of it into a sort of motorik psych-kraut groove, wreathed in killer leads, and thick swaths of guitarnoise, it's the sort of jam most bands would have stretched out for ages, but these guys cram into a succinct 3:31. We have to admit, that on first listen, mostly heard in the shop in little chunks, didn't fully sell us, but once we strapped on some headphones, this collab definitely revealed itself as being something sort of next level, and blossomed into a pretty fantastic(al) psychedelic garage pop trip out that we've had on pretty heavy rotation ever since.

MPEG stream: Time
MPEG stream: I Am Not A Game
MPEG stream: Scissor People

Wish we had more of these, apparently it's out of print already (until they repress, c'mon) and we only have a couple... It's been raining Ty Segall the last few weeks with a slew of rad vinyl offerings that have flown out the door. This new split LP with Black Time finds Ty at his most raw and rocking! Seven brand new songs including a smoking cover of The Dwarves "Be A Caveman" from back in their total garage punk days. Black Time were new to our ears and they definitely prove that London can get raw and fuzzy with the best of them, as their way lo-fi and in-the-red sound make them a perfect match for Segall. Maybe a bit more punk in sound and aesthetic then TS while still totally tapping into the more damaged and distorted side of primitive garage punk. Such a good time to be a fan of raw and impassioned garage rock cause folks like Ty and Black Time are totally coming correct.

The LAMC series of 7"s features tons of our favorite bands (Fuzz, Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees), delivering an exclusive track on the A side, while the B side features one of THAT band's favorite new artists. A pretty cool concept for sure and we're reviewing 3 of our favorites in the series. Number 7 features a killer A side from Ty Segall, who lays down a super funky drum track, swaddles it in organ, then some super distorted percussion, bongos maybe, a wild rhythmic freak out, that gets more and more wild and distorted as it goes, bursts of psych-squall noisiness, ultra distorted leads, all somehow wound up into a dense slab of cinematic psychedelic groovery!! Segall's choice for unknown up and comer on the B side was totally unknown to us, still don't know much about them/him, other than they have a super goofy band name, and that they kick out some serious jams, a psychedelic garage rock din that is very reminiscent of Thee Oh Sees, scrappy and rambunctious, soaring harmony vocals, plenty of ooooh's and aaaah's, wound around gristly, rumblingly distorted crunch, even some almost metallic riffing and harmonized guitars, some chugging heaviness, and some crazy catchy poppiness, not to mention some weird high vox. Oh Sees fans will flip for these guys for sure. The bandname is definitely not doing them any favors, but odds are, if you can get past that, these guys could be a garage rock next big thing. You heard it here first! And as you probably figured out already, EXTREMELY limited!!!!

MPEG stream: Music For A Film I
MPEG stream: Mountain

Heck really does this even need a review? The Castle Face "Live In San Francisco" series continues - White Fence, Fuzz, OBNIIIs, now another awesome garage rock act from the local/Castle Face scene, an obvious and popular choice indeed, the Ty Segall Band. Not to be confused with Ty Segall the solo artist, though that'd be easy enuff. The Ty Segall Band's discography ain't nearly as extensive, with Slaughterhouse being their only studio album, they also did a Live A Death By Audio set, and this, oh and a limited 7" featuring Motorhead and Black Sabbath covers too. Anyway, here Ty, Charlie, Mikal, and the rest of the Band rip it up on ten tracks recorded live in front of an enthusiastic crowd at SF's Rickshaw Stop in 2013. Approximately 50 percent comes from Slaughterhouse, the rest drawn from various corners of Ty's solo career. Played with punked-out energy and lotsa fuzz, kinda reminding us of early Mudhoney, this recorded performance is a nice souvenir for anyone who was there, and for everyone else, a yummy taste of what was clearly a freakin' fun live show!! After hearing this, you'll know never to miss 'em next time. For the uninitiated, no reason really not to start here with Ty and/or the TSB...

MPEG stream: Wave Goodbye
MPEG stream: Death
MPEG stream: Standing At The Station

Rumor was that this was gonna be Segall's 'metal' record. The title did nothing to dissuade that notion, 'Slaughterhouse', and the garish black and white howling monster/medusa artwork definitely seemed to support that theory as well. And while we remained skeptical, album opener "Death" (good metal title btw) briefly gave us pause, with its wild opening, a churning squall of super distorted guitars and squealing feedback, but soon the record proper kicks in and all is well, fear not, Ty Segall has not gone metal (as much as we think that would be amazing!) however, this is most definitely his heaviest record yet. His first recording with his live band, which of course includes longtime collaborator Mikal Cronin, find the sound cranked to eleven, the guitars blown out and distorted, the riffs heavy and crunchy, the songs are still garage pop, but with some serious heft, the vocals occasionally slipping into raspy howls, the guitars exploding into full on shredding leads, the group sounding all Stooges-y, raw and feral and seriously fierce. And it totally suits them. And even the tracks that are all jangly and poppy, are weirdly produced, with the guitars crumbling and in the red, beautiful harmony vocals, all oooh's and aaah's laid over grinding near metallic riffs, pounding drums, this is most definitely the first Segall record we'd describe as 'headbangable', but the key here, is that the songs are still impossibly catchy, just check out "I Bought My Eyes", which is so catchy we were convinced it was a cover, sounding like some sixties or seventies classic rock jam supercharged and dirtied up. The title track is a 90 second blast of churning garage punk riffage, with glass gargling vox, before they slip right into "The Tongue", with its Oh Sees-like opener, and sixties jangle rock verse, only to explode into some full on psychedelic noise freakout. Beyond the sonic shift though, these are definitely some of the best songs we've heard from Segall, the heaviness and dirge-y rockingness only making them that much more intense, and in addition to the originals, Cronin contributes one track, another 90 second blast of super blown out Stooges-y swagger, that as you might imagine is shot through with some irresistible poppiness, and there's a couple of covers, they manage to transform Fred Neil's "The Bag I'm In", into a super dynamic tangle of low slung bass, and dense walls of psychnoise crunch, pounding garage rock pummel doused in wild guitars and sheets of blown out psychedelic guitar, and the take Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Diddy" and rough it up a bit, adding some guitar crunch, and messing with the lyrics, before stumbling to chaotic premature halt. And let's not neglect to mention the 10 minute closer "Fuzz War", which sounds like it could be some lost Fushitsusha basement tape, or some lost seventies private press underground psych jam, a sprawling landscape of drone and buzz, noxious clouds of grinding guitars, super abstract drum splatter, the sound slipping from dark and droney to wildly chaotic, to a weird almost industrial clatter, and finally to a sort of freejazz drum heavy noiserock coda. So cool. And as you might have surmised, definitely one of our favorite Segall records yet!

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There's been an onslaught of Ruins-related releases on Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida's Magaibutsu label this week, folks!! Here's one from a brand-new band formation we'd never heard of before, Sekkutsu Jean, an improvising duo featuring Yoshida on drums, keyboard and vocals, and Sato Kenji on bass, cello, and voice. The results are most often SUPER distorted and heavy and fierce. Some of this reminds us a bit of some real old Ruins stuff, when they went for the ultra-dirty fuzz bass sound on such albums as Infect and Stonehenge. Total blurting bass bludgeon. Other parts are more "jazz", or even "classical" oriented, with droning sawing strings battling Yoshida's drum battery, or accompanying his keyboard lines. And then there's things that we can't even begin to classify, like track six, "Wihytcujmo", which is based around a drum machine beat and vicious cello bowing. Overall, this is some seriously mean stuff, without the strain of goofiness that oftentimes shows up in other Yoshida-related improv projects. There's 19 slices of killer improv weirdness here, with easy-to-remember titles like "Ghijuhnkkumn" and "Qyxoichdbihm" and "Bysjiahvoskkn"!! Over the course of all these tracks, there's a lot of creativity and intensity. Recommended. And as with all of this new batch of Magaibutsu discs, this comes packaged in a handsome tri-fold full-color cardboard cd sleeve.

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MPEG stream: Wihytcujmo

Surface crackle, yes! And the record from which this cd was transferred sounds maybe a little warped. But no matter, we like all that!! Makes it all the more psychedelic, eh? This is a reissue of some potent Turkish protest pop from the '70s, featuring folky strumming, irresistible Anatolian grooves, and Selda Bagcan's beautiful, often urgent-sounding voice. Sounds like something that should immediately be of interest to any AQ customers into radical East meets West psych-folk from Turkey (of which we know there are plenty, nowadays!) particularily those who've already heard Selda via the inclusion of her songs "Bundan Sonra" and "Ince Ince Bir Kar Yagar" on the recent and quite recommended Turkish installment of the Love Peace and Poetry series ("Bundan Sonra" shows up here, too). As alluded to above, this certainly isn't digitally remastered from the pristine master tapes, but at least folks that put out this cd deserve kudos not only for digging it up for us but also providing lyrics and liner notes in the cd booklet -- although the lyrics are given only in the original Turkish, with no English translations, which would have gone a long way to making Selda's message more understandable to us today, outside of Turkey. Ah well. At least the liner notes, which are in English, provide some context. It's a little unclear, but it seems that Selda was considered a subversive figure by the repressive Turkish government at the time. This record may in fact have been banned -- at the very least we're told that original copies were (and are) hard to find due to government disapproval. And Selda was banned from foreign travel at least until 1987. The first 12 tracks on this cd are from a 1976 album entitled Selda Vol. 2 (aka Vurulduk Ey Halkim Unutma Bizi, it seems), and then there's also eight additional, bonus tracks taken from Selda singles released in 1971 and '73, songs that are slightly less-rock, more-folk than the Vol. 2 material (which are already pretty folky). However, electric guitar, whining and fuzzed, figures into a few of this disc's tracks, while a lot of the rest is much more in a traditional (if electric) folk vein, with lush arrangements and a great emphasis on Selda's powerful, emotional voice. To be filed with your reissues of 3 Hur-el and Mogollar (members of which are apparently are in Selda's backup band for some of this)...

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Oh Selda! We are soooooooo in love with your voice! We first heard you on the amazing Love Peace and Poetry compilation of Turkish psychedelic music and ever since then, we just wanted more more more! Last year we got our Selda fix with a collection of vinyl transfers released by World Psychedelia, and now finally we get another full serving of Selda that we've so desperately been craving! No surprise that the fine folks with impeccable taste at B-Music/Finders Keepers are responsible for this amazing collection of Selda at her best! With a singular voice that demands and grabs your attention with such utter flare, seduction and style, Selda is truly a musical treasure who we're sure will win the ears and hearts of just about anyone who listens. Every song has a rich musical backdrop, perfectly cradling her lovely vocals, with a sound that has no easy genre lines to point to, but that so few have touched on with such perfection. It's psych-rock and glorious pop, it's folk and funk, it's fun and dramatic, its whatever it wants to be, and it's a collection of songs with absolutely no misses! There is a playfulness in the performances that totally imbue the songs with a rich full color fever that just can't be denied. While some reissues exist more for history's sake or for just a couple cool tracks, this is one of those records that requires repeated listening, and lord knows we have listened to this over and over and over. In some ways we even think of Selda like a Turkish version of Asha Bhosle, with that sort of amazing voice that turns everything it touches into musical magic. Way beyond recommended!

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Here is another dancey / tough / all over the place gem from the prolific duo of Akiko and Rop (from The Peechees and The Lefties and Rice, to name a few). On this record, like their previous releases, Semiautomatic fuse electronica, new wave, punk, and

RealAudio clip: Tight Pants
RealAudio clip: Resident Genius
RealAudio clip: The Birds of Weather

Here's a lilting fuzzy pop debut from the young SF band who go by the moniker Send For Help. Despite their name, none is really needed here. They're doin' just dandy on their own. The foursome's crunch 'n' jangle guitars and soft emotive male vocals suggest that they're drawing ample influences from the likes of Pinback, Modest Mouse Built To Spill and Sonic Youth. Fits right in with the recent No Midnight album from another Bay Area band Birdmonster. Indie rock lives on right here in SF!

MPEG stream: Long Distance Goodbye
MPEG stream: Living In The Past

Few artists' music can guarantee to brighten your days and nights the way Atom Heart (and his numerous aliases) can. Any new release from this fella is received with a huge aQ grin! If you dug the recent Yellow Magic Fever tribute from the always deliriously delightful Senor Coconut and Los Negritos' Speed-Merengue Mega-Mix, you know what we're talking about and you definitely won't wanna miss these freshly reissued earlier Senor Coconut releases including this, his awesome Kraftwerk tribute! Even if you got 'em the first time around, heck, we're sure you know somebody who'd benefit from this festive treat! Back in 2000, we had this to say about El Baile Aleman: Senor Coconut is actually the guy better known as techno/electronica artist Atom Heart. He's moved to Chile and gone all Latin and groovy on us. However, all the songs on this (high-) concept album are Kraftwerk covers! So this joins a long line of weird and wonderful tributes to Kraftwerk. Soon we'll be able to have a whole bin at Aquarius dedicated to such endeavors: the Balenescu Quartet one, the Terre Thaemlitz one, the one with all the Slovenian acts, the Japanese import one, the Miami Bass one, etc. etc. Anyways, so incredibly executed down to the tiniest detail, this one will sit at the top of the heap! Super duper fun.

MPEG stream: The Robots (Cha-Cha-Cha)
MPEG stream: Neon Lights (Cha-Cha-Cha)