Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin – Reverse Shark Attack LP (Kill Shaman)
Reverb can the Bondo of noise-pop, soft-garage, and medium-noise riff-repeat rock (this). It can elevate sub-par flimsiness up a grade, but the trained ear can figuratively finger-thump the exterior, hearing and feeling the hollowness where there should be inspiration. On other occasions, reverb is like the third or fourth child conceived behind a marriage-saving motive. Or like the act of marriage itself, like when junkies get married to add a false-sense of normality to a chaotic life. Pile on the reverb, and songwriters of questionable merit will cause writers of questionable merit to uncontrollably pen phrases like “the records molest the listener’s ears with blown-out psych boogie filth piled on top of sugary hooks” or some such horseshit. Ty Segall almost fell down this slippery slope, before he started making different records. His first full-length LP from ’08 or ’09 proved a quick repellent, through the plain-jane garage-rock tedium of which ears in these parts (Memphis, TN) get beaten to death. Segall’s connection to Thee Oh Sees, plus the pop-hook hints he dropped in lieu of reality seemed to be doing the ‘ol hoodwink, but he was what, twelve years old when he made that record? Later titles have shown improvements here and there (or have slipped through the cracks), and while the maximalist desire to release recordings of breakfast table conversations and walks to the store in order to build a body of work is one that this writer admires, there’s always that quality-control issue sitting on the other shoulder. The 7” by this particular union is a little thing that, like Ty’s first LP, must be an indicator of a greater problem, because no memories of the three or four spins can be exhumed. So this LP was placed on the table-top ION portable turntable and Sony low-end studio monitor headphones of wonderful comfort and brain-rattling volume were slipped over the ear-holes, and the one thing came to mind immediately: sounds like someone’s been listening to what occasionally emanates from the Kyuss-commune half-a-state south of the Bay Area, be it from that Bjork fella, or from someone older and less cool. Since when did this guy get heavy? Or sort of heavy? The recent Goner 7” is heavy, too, on one side definitely, and this stuff is lifetimes ahead of the paper-thin mediocrity I heard coming off of a stage about a year or so back. Is it the other half of the duo? Progress is good. You got my attention, now get heavier. (http://www.killshaman.com)
(Andrew Earles)
