I’m not usually one to make broad, generalizing statements, but it seems these days that the fuzzy garage sound that used to be a uniquely San Francisco sound is shifting south to claim LA as a breeding ground. Thee Oh Sees (briefly) quit and wrote a break-up letter with SF, and Ty Segall set up shop in the plastic mecca, and now acts like LA-based Wand are shooting MS Paint lasers across a sun-streamed beach.
Is there anything more pretentious than an album that gets released with an iOS app? <magic8ball>MY SOURCES SAY NO</magic8ball> Continue reading
There is a time and a place for tin pan fuzz — that whiny, treble-icious guitar sound that pierces eardrums worse than a Billy Corgan vocal flourish.
And hardly anyone knows exactly when or where that is. The rumbling, gut-punching tone of low-end fuzz is common among psych rock acts wishing to prove their mettle against level-headedness (so, all of them) but when that effects pedal is still down going into the solo, it throws the balance of the tune out of whack. Continue reading
ONE MONTH’S ABSENCE MEANS ONE MONTH’S ABSENCE’S WORTH OF LINK BARF. OLD: BARFED. NEW: BARFED. LET’S GET BARFIN’.
Ty news is good news, though this good news seems a bit bittersweet. Ty Segall is finally out with another new album. (When I say “finally,” I mean it relatively speaking — 2012 saw the release of three full-lengths and the last one was almost a year ago.) Sleeper, however, is a quiet affair, touching on introspection even moreso than 2011’s Goodbye Bread and featuring sparse, mostly acoustic arrangements and even a handful of strings. Continue reading
There are some days when you just crave warmth and simplicity of a good old fashioned analog synth drone. Analogs have been getting a lot of attention in certain circles lately, but usually for the raw, blippy tones they give to dark wave revival acts. Bitchin’ Bajas takes another approach, smoothing out the sawteeth and extending songs to single-chord, multi-toned sunbaths. Continue reading
Black Porridge 