Mugging An Emotional Segall

This has been floating around for a while - and it's true, after my incessant writing about Ty Segall for a couple years, I have been detoxing over the past twelve months - but I bit the bullet and bought Emotional Mugger today. He cuts a more garage rawk trail than his even more prolific buddy John Dwyer (Thee Oh Sees), much more likely to blow the speakers than take you into the hyper ether, but he is no less adventurous here. Each song seems to be its own entity, intent to max out the red on every speaker known to humanity, flirting with all of his predilections (glam rock, garage rock, stoner rock, 70s metal, 60s psych) while skewing it all so much to ensure each morsel leaves a tingling sensation to the mouth and an acidic itch in the back of the nose. You gotta hand it to the man, that even when songs seem less focused on pristine songs to stand the test of time, and to develop earworms likely to burrow into your head and eat you from the inside out. That white-noise synth a la Digital Leather; the guttural heaviness, laser effects and 60s pop vocal stylings of  'Diversion'; the cramped horror glam of 'Big Baby Man (I Want A Mommy) - it is all deliberately off the wall and diseased. It isn't really subversive though - Segall knows it's a joke and his self-awareness is passed on to us, we are to be in on the joke - but instead is a macabre noise trip with indelible hooks and a brooding closer in 'The Magazine' that I have incessantly played since stumbling across it - like if TV On The Radio listened to Disappears, then had a hallucinogenic breakdown. Emotional Mugger is a schizophrenic record, but with so many crazy ideas hitting the mark - how the fuck does he do it? Grab it through Drag City here. Ty Segall is bringing his Muggers to London in June, with Aussie synth punk miscreants Ausmuteants in tow - get tickets here, it will be all kinds of awesome.

Audacity For Dirty Vessels

Californian blasted rockers are letting rip on new record Hyper Vessels (out through Suicide Squeeze). The guitar wail in the middle of the track 'Dirty Boy' reminds me of Ty Segall over the past year or two - which makes sense, seeing as he recorded the album. The track is breakneck and bustling, and absolute blast, the best rock song I have heard so far this year. It isn't always hell for leather rock though, as other cut 'Umbrellas' shows - a anthemic blast about trying to find your footing, your place in this mixed up world. Either end of the spectrum shows the four-piece ready to let rip, which bodes well for the album when it arrives on April 1. They will be touring the States extensively over that time too (playing with the likes of Dirty Fences, Har Mar Superstar and Thee MVPs), so you will have plenty of chances to catch them blowing up.

Scraped Misery

Jesus, I am falling further and further into the scuzz punk sewers aren’t I? Today it’s the industrial rabies bite of Misery, the new record from San Franciscans Scraper. It's produced by Chris Woodhouse, more known for Bay Area garage rock like Thee Oh Sees and Ty Segall, but it’s his Blind Shake repertoire that inflects throughout this cesspit of an album. You see, Scraper hates everyone around them, even themselves, as the brilliant title track espouses. Meanwhile there are tracks like ‘Blue Velvet’ – Pissed Jeans in embryonic devolution. When there is such vitriolic self-loathing, how else would you expect them to look out from under their own abuse at all the other fuckers breathing all the precious air. Guttural punk bilge pumps, Scraper are saving all the black detritus of the human condition for your last supper – bon appetit. Misery is another Slovenly pus capsule - ingest here at your peril.

Pleasant Pinemen

Luke Reilly keeps rolling on with his Swedish invasion through his PNKSLM Records. The latest band to suffer PNKSLM Stockholm Syndrome is Pinemen, who released their Pleasant Pain EP through the label at the turn of 2015. Slices of hook-embedded hazed garage psych - imagine Goodbye Bread era Ty Segall living in the Woods - Pinemen are a band that would be right at home lost in the Bay Area. It warms the cockles, a necessity in the tail end of this miserable winter. Even when they hit the psych blaze trail on 'Praise Yourself', it is done with a warm fuzz. Nice work guys. Grab Pleasant Pain here.

Virgin Cracks

The last Sonic Masala show of the year featured some amazing bands (Ruiners, Furrow, and an incendiary set by Japan's The Piqnic = one of the best things I have seen in forever). I was pleased to see Virgin Kids again too after I saw them support Surf City last year. They are tighter and more boisterous, somewhere between Ty Segall and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. 'Cracks In A Colour' is the first track off their incoming album Greasewheel (out in March on Fluffer and Burger Records). It's a killer blast that rollicks along, managing to be both lethargic and manic.

Haunted By The Sandwitches

Not an intentional run on from the food-obsessed holiday I've just had - but I am a little obsessed with Our Toast, the new record from San Francisco's The Sandwitches that came out a couple months ago. What's added to the obsession is that the trio appear to be splitting up after this. The way they shuffle along, blues imbued with bruises and steely-eyed determination underscoring the elegance, is captivating. There is a nervous energy here also, possibly due to the knowledge that the band are going their separate ways. It's beautiful, elegiac, wistful, effervescent - all the best parts of the Sandwitches' wild brew brought into sparkling focus.

The Sandwitches will be 'launching' the record in the US this month, then that is pretty much it. They will be selling a 7" as well, strangely called You Only Get What You Want, Baby (preorders through Southpaw Records here) - and if that were the case, the girls would be sticking around for some time yet. Nevertheless, if you are lucky enough to get to one of these shows, shed a tear for me.

Useless Children Stay Single

A quick post about the collation of out-of-print Useless Eaters singles that has come out through Slovenly Records. Singles: 2011-2014 is everything you might expect from this garage punk miscreants. There are initial versions of tracks that made it onto other longer formats (I actually like the slightly more muted ‘American Cars’ here, for example). Personal favourites is the leather-strapped slap in the face that is ‘The Moves’; the sandpaper blast of ‘I Hate The Kids’ (which also features the inimitable Ty Segall); the muted sneer of ‘Bloody Ripper’; and the dark electroglam smash-and-grab that is ‘Starvation Blues Number Two’. The fidelity is all over the shop, which at first irked me, but it is emblematic of where Seth Sutton and crew were at with each recording process (and the cover art of the wavy nails seems to hammer that home – sorry about that pun, but it’s true nevertheless). And the tinny fuzz of the New Wave futurist punk of ‘Integrated Circuit’ seems custom-made for such a shitty production. There are a few vinyls left in yellow and red splatter here - get on it!

Take To The Thigh Master In This Age Of Concern (SM's 3000th Post - And 5 Years ON)

This is a special post as it is the 3000th post we here at Sonic Masala have put on this suffering site. It is doubly sweet as today is five years exactly since I started this. And, well, it's Australia Day. So you know, woo. But on with more pertinent matters...

Brisbane silly buggers Thigh Master are brimful of energy - probably why they need that Jane Fonda exercise - as they continue to pump out releases and play copious gigs. They have supported the likes of Ty Segall, Ariel Pink and The Clean in recent months (and in the case of the latter two - yesterday), a tour of Japan, gigs with Real Estate and The Coathangers and a slot on our Sonic Masala Festival imminent, and on top of their great Head of the Witch 7", they are ramping up to release newie Songs To Wipe Your Mouth To. The title track is somewhat glossed up for these slackers, yet otherwise it's business as usual, creating a singalong chorus amidst the whirring, whining cacophony. And yes it is out on head honcho Matt Ford's Tenth Court label, which is showing no signs of slowing down either.

Selecting Acid For The Baby Jesus‏

Greek astral explorers Acid Baby Jesus are only interested in traversing the weirdest trances, the wildest expanses, all in their languid hallucinogenic way. Their languorous take on psych rock is what the band deem as the ONLY way to experience the psychedelic dream - that all other attempts are mere imitations. You can't help listen to Selected Recordings and hear the minds being altered here, a gauzy slipstream of eye rolling, head lolling expansivism. It does get heavy in parts - 'Row By Row' is a buzzsaw trudge that Ty Segall would be proud of - yet it is all measured, a slowed deliberation. Whether there is a rabid lurch like 'Who's First' or a lysergic dream spiral like 'Ayahuasuca Blues (Unmanned Drone)', Selected Recordings is all about a hedonistic collective getting high on their own supply and rocking out over it, on their own steam, at their own time. Plus you are likely to get some residual smoke just from hearing it, so can't complain really.


Selected Recordings (out through Slovenly Records) is out now - get it here.

Running Man On Fire

Ty Segall and Drag City joined forces recently to start the God? imprint. It's been involved in some tasty morsels - White Fence and Wand being the most recognised. The one I have just latched on to though is the little-recognised but brilliantly anarchic Chicago trio Running (whose albums Vaguely Ethnic and Asshole Savant are untouchable) and their 7" Frizzled. Here is the B-side, 'Totally Fired' - and it is as deliciously unhinged as you would expect. Underneath the abrasive guitars is a weirdly hummable melody - no? Can't hear it? Whatever. Running is my new pop band to the stars. Get Frizzled here.

Video Vacuum - Ty Segall, Cloud Nothings, Goat, Mere Women

Not sure what you are doing on a Friday night. I just worked my first shift on the other side of a bar in about six years, and am now drinking in my lounge room, thinking where did it all go wrong. Not really. This beer is pretty killer. Plus I have all this good music to keep me company...

There used to be a time when just about every second post here was about Ty Segall. Don't worry - the love affair continues. I just don't need to go on about it - everyone is in on the secret. The wunderkind's new record Manipulator is rad as, and whilst the video for the title track is better, there is something perennial about 'The Singer' that I never get sick of. Truly inhabiting the British side of 60s rock here, with flushes of Bolan-esque grandiosity - what's not to like? This song is like the day I spent an entire day drinking in a pool on my own, beer bottles floating around my inflatable lounge, the occasional spliff, and T-Rex, Masters Apprentice and The Kinks blasting out of the stereo. I can't remember much about that two year stretch of 2003-04, but damn that was one of the best bloody days of my life. Thanks for reminding me of the best times, Ty.

Let's get even more blasted then with Goat. These guys don't know how to water down the smoky broth, do they? This film clip for 'Hide From The Sun' (the song reminds me of the Swedish band's attempt at covering the weird Soundgarden song 'Half' for some reason - and making it infinitely better) is filled with masks, excellent paper animation a la Where The Wild Things Are, pagan iconography, primary colours, ritualistic dancing... If Tarsem Singh could learn restraint without giving up his incredible artistic visuals, this would be the type of film he could make. Man, imagine him remaking The Wicker Man...actually, don't.

I just saw Frank last week. Like many things, my fiancee and I totally disagreed about it. I thought it was a pretty great insight into experimental and experiential creativity. Now I'm not going to say that Cloud Nothings give me that same kind of insight - and yeah, the papier mache head in 'Now Hear In' is the main connection here - but the freedom that Dylan Baldi seems to have garnered since leaving his (still pretty great) sugary sweet guitar pop behind for 90s indie-inflected grunge angst seems to have opened the floodgates to a vitality that was hitherto absent. I'm sure my fiancee would disagree though.

I like seeing landscapes shot from moving cars. I don't know why. I guess I like movement and landscape and travel. So there are elements in Mere Women's 'Heave Ho' that I am inherently drawn to. I love the dude visiting the aquarium even more though. So many videos claim to invoke a "character" living out a day. This narcoleptic sojourn through Tokyo feels more lost-in-translation than Lost In Translation - its surreal and hallucinogenic and vague - feels like my life. Plus it's the visual accompaniment to a track from one of the most intriguing albums of the year. If you haven't bought Your Town yet, DO IT NOW YOU IDIOT! And buy a jellyfish while you're at it.

Carry on.

Searching For The Innocent White Fence

Tim Presley cannot get out of the Sixties, even if he tried (which I'm pretty sure he hasn't). The only difference in his oeuvre as White Fence has been the alterations in production, culminating in the relatively high fidelity evident on latest release For The Recently Found Innocent. Presley pays huge props to his astral brother-in-arms Ty Segall - here he records and mixes the album as well as drums here and there - and you can tell why - this sixth album as White Fence is the most cohesive and focused sojourn into the paisley outer realms yet. The album focuses on more confident realms, such as anguish and anger towards the state of the world today, although still willing to turn the light inward in his recognised falsetto waver.

I will admit though  that White Fence rings truer to a spot-on tribute band, emulating the likes of The Kinks (ESPECIALLY The Kinks), The Troggs, The Who, The Mama & the Papas...the cream of the pastoral crop, sure, and done incredibly well. But it's hard to love an album wholeheartedly when there are touchstones that you can go back to and embrace more honestly. This is a disparaging remark, sure, but I do still like Presley's worldview and what he offers, and I will always catch him live when he trundles my way. I just wish there was something a little more iconic and unique in what Presley offers. The clarity is one step, but it also shows up the comparisons more readily (hence why he may have wallowed in the white noise no-fi for so long before now...) You will enjoy this record for sure, but more original, secret ingredients need to be thrown into the brew before it becomes a bona fide addiction.

For The Recently Found Innocent (with excellent self-portrait artwork) is out through Drag City and Spunk - grab it here and here (soon).

Make Out In Your Sleep

I'll always be a tragic for good, squalling, straight up garage punk rock. Aussie band Bad Vision is one that doesn't veer off this path one iota, and I love em for it. Sweden's Makeouts are the same, and their Back To Sleep LP is all the more great for such steadfastness. They are a tight yet shambolic tour de force who have played alongisde the who's who of the current upper echelons of the modern garage rock movement (Jay Reatard, Ty Segall, King Khan, Nobunny, Hunx & His Punx - the list continues to roll out unabated), and this album shows them as a dexterous, devastating atomic fuzz bomb of a band. Seriously, this is the kind of record that should garner a lot more accolades than its likely to get - because its perfectly measured and paced, with innumerable reply value. An album that is always going to pick you up and put you on the path to partydom - nothing more needs to be said. The straight-up rock of "Hamburger Hill' to the closing lurker 'Creeps', it is all solid gold. Time to make out.

You can buy Back To Sleep through Austrian label Bachelor Records here, and you really should, because this record KILLS.

Southpaw Women Look At The Mirror

This isn't so new now - most Australian websites mentioned this about a month ago - but Sydney band Mere Women (whose Old Life album of last year was an underrated gem) have a little release coming out soon on American label Southpaw Records (who've put out gear from the likes of Ty Segall, Warm Soda and Bare Wires - excellent garage rock, in other words). Not the kind of avenue I would expect to pick up the band at the best of times; furthermore, the track they are airing from it, 'Hands & Face', was NOT what I expected. That faint, sinuous synth for starters is something you expect to hear emanating out of a Not Not Fun cassette. This is all lysergic menace, with spectral guitar moaning in the background, Amy Wilson's vocals elegiac yet defiant. It's a cavernous slowburner - and I never expected to use either of those superlatives to describe Mere Women, but there you go. And you know what? I goddamn love it. What this means for the weird, cantankerous trio for the future remains to be seen, but if they can balance this kind of track with more virile fare, then 2014 should be a huge one.

Video Vacuum - Ty Segall, Harmony, Best Friends, Shearwater doing Xiu Xiu

Its coming to the end of the year. I know, we still have six or so weeks left - but that will be gone before you know it. 2013 has been such a topsy-turvy year on Planet Masala too, to the point where we got to see The Nation Blue play TWICE without seeing sister group Harmony at all, Ty Segall has barely graced these hallowed halls, and Shearwater, rather than developing a new album, have released an LP of covers of bands they have toured with which I'm a big fan of (still want them to hurry up and come here though). Then there is a bunch of dudes having a good time in the Midlands, bizarrely in the sunshine. So much weirdness to overcome, to embrace, to love...that's 2013 for ya.



It has been a while since irrepressible hellhound Ty Segall has blasted onto these pages - there was one stage where reincorporating the blog to Segall Masala seemed appropriate. I haven't written about his latest album Sleeper all that much - not because it isn't good, it's excellent, but because so many others said it better already - and new outfit Fuzz is something I aim to rectify in the upcoming days. SO let's ease back in with 'The Man Man', a track off Sleeper that showcases the shift in gears Segall had here, and perfectly encapsulates the slowburn tension inherent in the song. The video



Another act steeped in creating tension, albeit one of working class desperation and Gothic backwater gnashing of teeth, Harmony have released this black-&-white plaintive to promote single 'Diminishing Returns' (the 7" comes out on Poison City Records on Friday). The band and choir are submerged in subterranean, inky shadows, dressed in black (Tom is ALWAYS dressed in black anyway, although this shirt looks decidedly devoid of wellworn holes) and wracked with emotion. There isn't a band like them, and 'Diminished Returns' is anything but.



We all need best friends, even if they give us nosebleeds every once in a while. Sheffield's laconic punks Best Friends presumably get the claret flowing from sun-bleached moments of street cricket, beer swilling and goofing around. Nothing wrong with that, I'm sure you'll agree. 'Nosebleeds' is the B-side to their Happy Anniversary 7", which you can buy here.


Let's finish off with some spaced-out shorn water from the valley below. Shearwater's covers record Fellow Travelers is almost upon us, and their Xiu Xiu spin 'I Luv The Valley, Oh!' is rife for the plucking. Videotronics here include space desert isolation, bulbous pustules, and a bizarrely doll-like astronaut. We're entering uncharted waters...

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Black Tambourine-ing Is Hard

Falmouth, UK band The Black Tambourines have been on my radar since they released a split with New Years Evil on Art Is Hard Records back in 2010. Earlier this year they finally released their eponymous debut record, also through the boutique label from South West England, and the result is pretty much what you would expect - breathless, chugging surf-tinged garage rock that swirls around with a pinch of psych rock. The shorter the song, the better they are - 'Lemon' doesn't break 80 seconds, and could be an off-cut from Ty Segall's earliest scuzzy endeavours. There's nary a shift in momentum - it is all tethered to the railroad tracks, albeit travelling at the speed of light. The foursome love to dish out a trashed out party vibe, and The Black Tambourines certainly distills that into an easily digestible aural pill. Drop it and spazz out. You can pick up the LP (and other Black Tambourines-related guff) here.

Let Straight Arrows Make Up Your Mind For You

Its hard to believe that Sydney reprobates Straight Arrows haven't put out a record in three years. Well, they haven't, so deal with it. They have released a lot of smaller stuff, toured around the world, played with pretty much all the cool kids on the planet. They even came up to Brisbane a couple times.

2014 will see the record set...straight...when the four-piece will bring out their next LP through Rice Is Nice. Lead burger Owen Penglis has been sharpening his fangs on producing a lot of records around town of late (Royal Headache, Gooch Palms, Frowning Clouds, Thee Nugs etc), so we can expect this to be something special. Don't believe me? You jackpot noodle. Then here is some aural evidence that debunks your negativity, bucko. It's very Ty Segall, which is awesome. That's pretty much all you need to know.

Catch Straight Arrows as they tour the country in support of other local rad dudes Violent Soho:

TOUR DATES:

Thursday Oct 24 - The Great Northern, Byron Bay
Friday Oct 25 - Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Saturday Oct 26 - The Zoo, Brisbane - SOLD OUT
Sunday Oct 27 - The Zoo, Brisbane
Thursday Oct 31 - Mojo's, Fremantle
Friday Nov 1 - Amplifier, Perth
Saturday Nov 2 - Uni Bar, Adelaide
Monday Nov 4 - The Corner, Melbourne

Al(l) Loving That White Punk Slime

It isn't often that Sonic Masala has a self-professed "producer" in its midst, but San Francisco-based record scrubber Al Lover is an intriguing exception. As entrenched in psych and garage rock as he is in samples and beats, Lover takes on a wide variety of artists (mostly rock-oriented, from Grinderman and Davila 666 to SF alums Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees) and smudges them right up by smearing white noise and attitude into the mix, often infusing the tracks with even more bluster and awe than was thought possible (and these artists aren't known for their restraint as it is). He believes that psych music is the future of sampling, so he aims to be ahead of the curve. That said, he has original material on its way, most evident in his latest endeavour  Vondun Moon/Snake Hands, a 7" put out by PNKSLM (pronounced "Punk Slime" - a label run by London musicians that went from a blog to a clubnight to a label over three years). 'Snake Hands' is an incestuous love in with White Fence's Tim Presley, who wigs out on guitar and vocals, and it is a heady, hypnotropic mind melt of a track, the beats relentless and feverish, the needle in the red, in the vein, in the third eye. What always excites about Lover's productions is the energy and excitement that emanates from his work - not only is there creativity and flair evident in his musicianship, there is a holy reverence for his base material too.

You can pre-order Vondun Moon/Snake Hands here. Only 250 copies were canned, so expect these to fly out the door - GET ON IT.

Another Day, Another Segall

Good morning! It has been quite a while since we had Ty Segall news (less than a month - he released his second EP of T-Rex covers for Record Store Day), so couldn't pass wait to pass on this new track. 'Music For A Film 1' is on a split release (the other act is Chad & the Meatbodies, chosen specifically by Segall himself) put out by Famous Class Records as part of the Less Artists More Condos split releases (having already featured the likes of A Place To Bury Strangers, Ceremony, Future Islands, Thee Oh Sees, Deerhoof, with forthcoming splits from Xiu Xiu and Brisbane's own Lawrence English, plus a Lower Dens one not far off). As is his wont, this is no throwaway tune from Segall, either - an instrumental of three and a half minutes of Seventies styled tribal drumming and blazed guitar, feeling like a surf-Bond-blaxploitation mishmash. Now that is the kind of movie I'd like to see, wouldn't you?

You can get the split for free download here, otherwise buy the vinyl here. You know you want to...

See Thee Oh Floating Coffin

It feel perfunctory telling you how good SF garage leviathans Thee Oh Sees' latest record Floating Coffin is. But then again, I probably should tell you that out of all of Dwyer and co's albums, this has been by far and large the most addictive album from start to finish for me - it's been locked in my car stereo since before Easter, and isn't likely to budge anytime soon. Below is a paraphrased version of the review I wrote for theMusic.com.au - check that one out here.

Five seconds into opening track 'I Come From The Mountain'  and it’s clear that the band, rather than diluting their style from overexposure the quartet are at supernova levels of intensity, ferocity and excellence. Like kindred spirit Ty Segall, Dwyer is a magnetic force, a feverish maelstrom of energy with an endless supply of riffs, melodies and yelps at his disposal. And like Segall, who took his garage rock DNA and fused it with Seventies era hard rock on 2012’s Slaughterhouse, Floating Coffin (out through Freeform Patterns and Fuse in Australia, Castle Face elsewhere) is a ramped up affair, perfectly augmenting last year’s great Putrifiers II in almost every conceivable facet.

'No Spell' wafts along like a sonorous Californian pop number, Brigid Dawson’s vocals deliberately flirting with the saccharine before being cut in half by a killer riff and Dwyer’s ecstatic bark; the feverish growl of ingenuously-named 'Strawberries 1 + 2' is a face-melter in the purest sense, before entering a intense motorik swirl into psych country; 'Night Crawler' takes a left-turn into spaced-out phasers and languid turns, before 'Sweet Helicopter' lifts off, and back into the stratosphere we go. 'Toe Cutter/Thumb Buster' best exemplifies the two extremes in the band’s blueprint, and is one of their best tracks because of it.

Not that other sonic artillery was necessary, but Dwyer ropes in the likes of luminaries Kelley Stoltz and Lars Finberg (A-Frames, The Intelligence, whose presence is truly felt on penultimate killer 'Tunnel Time' - which I might also add, is the closest I've ever heard a TOS song actually sound like local acolytes Tiny Migrants - kudos guys!), and the overall final product is addictive, breath-taking brilliance. 

Grab Floating Coffin here - garage excellence par none.

Thee Oh Sees - I Come From The Mountain

Thee Oh Sees - Toe Cutter/Thumb Buster