Wednesday, June 27, 2012

REVIEW: Ty Segall Band - Slaughterhouse




Ty Segall is a stalwart of the Bay Area garage rock resurgence.  He also is one of the hardest working and prolific musicians on the scene today.  Nevertheless, Slaughterhouse is a milestone of sorts as it is the first recording using his touring band.  The result is not only a garage rock gold nugget, but a contender for the noisy rock album of the year so far.  Fans of Segall and his live band know what to expect (only more so).  For those less familiar, you should know that what you get will be fuzzy, distorted guitars, howling vocals, and big garage riffs.  They are psych-pop songs at their core, but while the pop elements are very close to the surface of some songs, in other songs the pop is fully enveloped by the band's maelstrom.  It occurs to me that Slaughterhouse is the best possible advertisement for those considering attending a live performance of this outfit.

The album begins with full bore blast via "Death", "I Bought My Eyes" and "Slaughterhouse".  Here is "I Bought My Eyes" --




"Tell Me What's Inside Your Heart" mines the psychedelic side of garage rock with confidence and swagger--

  

The pop hooks come up a bit higher for air in portions of the second half of the album.  My favorite is the infectious '60s garage rock of "Muscle Man" --


And by the way, if you like "Muscle Man", you will want to hear the two following album tracks, "That's the Bag I'm In" and "Diddy Wah Diddy".

To recap, we have heavy sounds, feedback, distortion, vocals at the breaking point and hooks surfing the whole thing like locals on big wave day on Oahu's  North Shore.  I haven't had this much fun with a rock album in a very long time.

Ty Segall Band is Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin, Charlie Moothart, and Emily Rose Epstein.  Slaughterhouse was released this week by In The Red Records.



Ty Segall's Facebook
In The Red Records
Label page for the band/album

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