San Francisco-based Ty Segall, after playing on the
Epsilons' albums Epsilons (Retard Disco, 2006) and
Killed `Em Deader `N a Six Card Poker Hand (Retard Disco, 2006),
devoted his solo (truly "solo") career to lo-fi rock'n'roll.
Ty Segall (Castle Face, 2008) contains
demented imitations of Merseybeat ditties
(Go Home)
and grotesquedly distorted garage anthems (best the minuscule Pretty Baby)
but also a lot of trivial songs.
The rebellious rant of The Drag and the
Little Richard-ian shout of Don't Do It
demonstrate his vocal skills. His guitar skills are non-existent.
Horn the Unicorn (Wizard Mountain, 2008) and
Lemons (Goner Records, 2009) had already lost whatever edge and bite
the first album displayed. The songs are not amateurish: they are insignificant.
These two albums sound like inferior leftovers of the first one.
It is telling that the best piece is the instrumental
Untitled #2.
Reverse Shark Attack (2009) was a
collaboration with Mikal Cronin, and Segall's most ferocious work yet.
Thankfully, Melted (Goner Records, 2010) returned to a much
heavier (and acid) sound with Finger, My Sunshine,
Mike D's Coke, Imaginary Person
and especially Girlfriend (possibly
his catchiest tune yet).
There is precious little that is original or entertaining about his
revisions of the Sixties, but at least the verve is back.
An existential spleen permeated Goodbye Bread (Drag City, 2011), with
emotional kammerspiel like My Head Explodes.
Some of the songs feel a bit too calculated (You Make The Sun Fry)
although they might be the most durable of the batch.
Perhaps the best introduction to Segall was the anthology
Singles 2007-2010 (Goner, 2011, 2011) that assembled classics such as
Sweets, Caesar, Where We Go,
It and Cents,
as well as covers and demos.
Hair (2012) was a collaboration with
White Fence
(Tim Presley).
In general, this feels like Segall's most psychedelic album, or at least the
one that gets inspiration the most from the early psychedelic ditties of
the mid Sixties. In a sense, it feels like a lost
Bevis Frond demo.
Songs such as Scissor People and Time display a bit more
personality, but they are still way too mild to be taken seriously.
Slaughterhouse (In The Red, 2012) was a full-band record that brought him back
to pure noise and mayhem worthy of
MC5 and
Stooges.
The songs range
from rabid (Death, That's the Bag I'm In, Fuzz War)
to hysterical (Tell Me What's Inside Your Heart), to poppy
(I Bought My Eyes)
and to over the top (Wave Goodbye, Slaughterhouse).
The "take no prisoners" strategy of this album sounds a lot more interesting
than the vaguely derivative and nostalgic tributes of the previous albums.
Twins (Drag City, 2012), the third Segall album in one year,
boasts the frenzied psychedelic The Hill,
the slow monster riff Ghost,
and the squalid Ramones-style romp You're The Doctor,
but is weighed down by too many lapses into a
languid Beatles-ain mood (Thank God For Sinners, Inside Your Heart).
Never ashamed of mining old-fashioned power-pop (Would You Be My Love)
and capable of taming even the bravest punks (Love Fuzz sounds like
a shy, soul-infected version of the Stooges),
Segall cunningly walks a fine line between the gutters and the mainstream.
Gemini (2013) contains alternative takes of the songs recorded for Twins.
Sleeper (2013) abandoned psych-rock for simple and gentle folk music.
Segall also formed the stoner-rock trio
Fuzz, documented on Fuzz (In The Red, 2013),
with the single Sleigh Ride, and
Fuzz II (In The Red, 2015).
The 17-song Manipulator (2014) is a good compendium of his art because it samples all of his role models and inspirations: T. Rex (The Faker), Lou Reed (Stick Around), Rolling Stones (Green Belly). punk-rock (Feel), psych-pop (The Clock), Merseybeat (Susie Thumb), etc. It is, however, ten songs too long.
The double-LP
$ingle$ (Drag City, 2014) collects rarities.
Ty Rex (Goner Records, 2015) is a collection of T.Rex covers.
The four-song EP Mr Face (Famous Class, 2015) contains Drug Mugger.
Emotional Mugger (2016) contains generic fodder like Squealer, Mandy Cream and Breakfast Eggs, as well as a cover of the Equals' Diversion, next to two little gems, The Magazine and Candy Sam.
Ty Segall (2017), recorded in a day with Steve Albini, contains one of his best T-Rex imitation, Break A Guitar, and the
jazzy 12-minute Freedom.
The sprawling double-LP Freedom's Goblin (2018) contains the usual dose
of generic dejavu, like Fanny Dog and The Last Waltz,
with nods to soul (My Lady's on Fire),
plus the riot-grrrl punk-rock anthem Meaning,
the T.Rex imitation du jour (The Main Pretender),
and the cover du jour (Hot Chocolate's 1978 disco jam Every 1's A Winner).
Within months he also released a
mediocre collaboration with White Fence, Joy (2018),
a collection of covers, Fudge Sandwich (2018)
an album with the GOGGS, Pre Strike Sweep (2018),
the cassette Orange Rainbow (2018), distributed during his art show in Los Angeles,
as well as an EP under the moniker CIA (a collaboration with his wife Denee).
First Taste (2019) closed the decade with keyboard-driven songs like Taste, no guitar and exotic string instruments.