// Category Archive for: Music Reviews

Music Review: Fuzz, Fuzz

By Less Lee Moore

Ty Segall gets a lot of—admittedly deserved—attention. But what of his constant cohorts? Segall’s latest project, Fuzz, includes two of them and it’s killer. Fuzz is comprised of Roland Cosio (drummer for Epsilons) on bass and Charles Moothart on guitar (The Moonhearts and live guitarist for Segall) and what’s this? Ty Segall on drums and vocals. Aw yeah.

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Music Review: Fuzz, Fuzz

By Less Lee Moore

Ty Segall gets a lot of—admittedly deserved—attention. But what of his constant cohorts? Segall's latest project, Fuzz, includes two of them and it's killer. Fuzz is comprised of Roland Cosio (drummer for Epsilons) on bass and Charles Moothart on guitar (The Moonhearts and live guitarist for Segall) and what's this? Ty Segall on drums and vocals. Aw yeah.

Right away you can tell that Fuzz's self-titled release owes a lot to the past when it credits Chris Woodhouse with “Recording, Mixing & Wizardry” and includes lyrics like “Still we ride the burning ship/ride the ship cause we can't quit.” Not to mention the mind bending cover art. True to form, “Earthen Gate” opens with staccato dissonance and sounds straight outta the stoner '70s before it speeds up into quasi-metal territory, with flashes of Pink Floyd pre-The Wall. The album is not a parody, though, and that lack of self-consciousness makes it eerily timeless.

“Sleigh Ride” (of the aforementioned burning ship lyrics) is so captivating musically that the lyrics are almost secondary. The slow, mesmerizing “What's In My Head” includes a chills-inducing vocal performance from Segall, drawing the word “saw” out into four delicious syllables, and a thrilling guitar coda. Segall's banshee shriek permeates the heavy but tight “Hazemaze” and just when you think it's over, it comes storming back with an awesome guitar/bass melody propelling it forward.

“Loose Sutures” is the showcase showdown of the album. Dig the multi-tracked harmonies on the word “run.” Then marvel as a guitar solo introduces an extended jam, a bowed guitar bit, alternating bass and drum solos, and then yet another jam. It's kind of astonishingly good. You can only get away with this if you can play really well, and these dudes can.

“Preacher” presents a pounding sonic assault and a downright threatening guitar sound. Mootheart takes lead vocal duties on “Raise,” with a bluesy beat, harmonies from Segall, and some interesting lyrics (“He raised the sun up high/and left us all to live or die/he lets the babies die and mothers cry/what's his side?”).

Live performance of “One”

The instrumental “One” feels cinematic in scope, a constant building of tension, only relieved with intermittent periods of epic drumming and chord changes, ending with an amazing flourish.

It's hard to believe all this goodness is contained within only 37 minutes. And yes, Segall's as good of a drummer as he is a guitarist and singer. Don't miss out on Fuzz.

Fuzz was released by In The Red on October 1.

The post Music Review: Fuzz, Fuzz appeared first on Popshifter.

Music Review: Sleepies, More Humans EP

By Less Lee Moore

Brooklyn’s Sleepies are back with a new EP and it’s a good one. Though not as sonically varied as last year’s full-length Weird Wild World album (review), it does establish a definitive sound for the band, giving us even more to look forward to with their next release.

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Music Review: Cate Le Bon, Mug Museum

By Melissa Bratcher

Cate Le Bon’s newest release, Mug Museum, is like something out of a fever dream. A wild mish mash of instrumental slashes and dips, coupled with Welsh native Le Bon’s unusual, beguiling voice and curious phrasing, Mug Museum is challenging listening.

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Music Review: Nikki Sudden (Waiting On Egypt, Bible Belt) and Jacobites (Jacobites, Robespierre’s Velvet Basement) – Vinyl Reissues

By Hanna

The re-issue of these four albums is part of a seven-album Nikki Sudden oeuvre re-issue from Numero Group. This, the first part, consists of the first two Nikki Sudden solo albums (Waiting on Egypt, Bible Belt), and the first two Jacobites albums, (Jacobites, Robespierre’s Velvet Basement). Together, they give an overview of Nikki Sudden’s work directly after Swell Maps.
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Music Review: Howe Gelb, The Coincidentalist

By J Howell

Howe Gelb begins The Coincidentalist with a half-whispered “Welcome to the desert.” It’s as intriguing an invitation as ever, but one that—after 30-plus years and who knows how many records—is as familiar as your front door. If you’re a longtime listener of Gelb and his various permutations and projects, that is. That there are now almost as many “projects” of Gelb’s as there are albums is both a testament to Gelb’s prolific work ethic and possibly a reason why Gelb hasn’t really caught on with the public so well, in the States at least.

His status as an elder statesman of risk-taking, genre-distorting “erosion rock”—though there’s so much more to it than that—is legendary, if mostly in the sort-of ghetto of “musician’s musician.” Howe Gelb almost seems cast as a musical crazy uncle, the sort who’s fun and smart and maybe just a little bit kooky, but who the rest of the family doesn’t mention much. This is a damned shame, as Gelb’s iconoclastic voice is just plain good for the soul, and awfully damned clever to boot.

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Music Review: Buck Owens, Buck ‘Em! The Music of Buck Owens (1955-1967)

By Melissa Bratcher

A sticker on the front of the CD proudly proclaims that Buck ‘Em! The Music of Buck Owens (1955-1967) isn’t your father’s Buck Owens collection, and it certainly isn’t. The hits are here, of course, but so are alternate takes and live tracks, as well as unreleased music. For a completist (like, say, me), it’s a treasure. With voluminous, entertaining liner notes written by Buck Owens himself (culled from his upcoming autobiography, also titled Buck ‘Em) (which is pretty impressive, especially since he passed away in 2006) (which is some Tupac level of productivity right there) it’s a chronological trip through the Buck Owens catalogue, and what a catalogue it is. Buck Owens and his Buckaroos made so many records, with so many catchy songs that it amazes me that they aren’t revered in the same way as Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson.

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Music Review: Wild Child, The Runaround

By Melissa Bratcher

Wild Child’s sophomore effort, The Runaround, is one of those pleasant surprises that make listening to a band I’d never heard of so exciting. It’s a quirky, clever slice of Americana, crisply produced by Ben Kweller, and so eminently listenable, it’s been on constant rotation for a week now.

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Music Review: Perry Como, Just Out Of Reach – Rarities From Nashville Produced By Chet Atkins

By Melissa Bratcher

Some days, Sundays in particular, all I really want is the musical equivalent of a fluffy blanket and a nice cup of tea. Real Gone Music’s new Perry Como release, Just Out Of Reach—Rarities From Nashville Produced By Chet Atkins is a CD full of fluffy blankets and cups of tea: soothing and warm and pleasant.

Perry Como had a musical career for over 50 years. His natural, easy singing style served him well as he performed in a variety of vocal genres. When the British Invasion hit the US shores, though, Como went through a two-year dry period in which he didn’t record. Heads of his label, RCA, concocted a plan to alleviate that and enlisted Chet Atkins to help “smooth the edges of country music” to make it more palatable in the pop world and for Como. The result was the successful The Scene Changes, providing Como with his biggest selling album in years. Not content to rest on their laurels, RCA again joined Atkins and Como together in Nashville for another stab at country/pop crossover glory, and the result of that is Just Out Of Reach.

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Music Review: Jace Everett, Terra Rosa

By Melissa Bratcher

Not content to be known solely for the theme to True Blood, Jace Everett has recorded a wildly ambitious, brave album based loosely on Biblical stories. Lest that turn you off, they’re opaquely Biblical, and not preachy. They’re personal examinations of sin and strength. And they’re quite good. I will admit, as a heathen, that I puzzled over what stories the songs were about, drawing on my childhood Sunday school attendance. I came up short on most of them. That didn’t affect my enjoyment of the record, but it did make me listen harder and write down snippets of lyrics to decipher later. Which I didn’t.

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