The cover of Dion Lunadon‘s new album, Systems Edge, shows him holding a chain above a guitar. My guess is that he was just about to flog that guitar within an inch of its life with it, because that kind of (yes, Stooges-influenced) raw power is all over the record.
Opening track “Secrets” has him already pounding out raggedy, roaring chords with it, and on “Nikki” it sounds like the bellows of a robotic lion. The thick bass notes punch up the rock even more. It’s a song about a fling that ends in tragedy for at least one person involved, and maybe pleasure for another. “Diamond Sea” has a groovy surf-rock line that runs through it.
“I Walk Away” is, somehow, heavier and darker than everything before it, and Lunadon’s vocals are like a werewolf belting out a tune during transformation. “Rocks On” reminds me of “Mongoloid-era” Devo tracks where you have all kinds of fuzz and some sort of something that feels like it can erupt into full-blown chaos at any moment.
The bass and drums on “Shockwave” hit you like the song’s namesake. “Grind Me Down” has a New York Dolls feel to it with its swagger and garage rock guitars. After the brief instrumental of “Straight Down the Middle,” we get the great dis track, “I Don’t Mind,” in which Lunadon writes off an ex-lover / friend because they only bring him bad luck and headaches. The album closes with the near-doom heavy-psych of “Room with No View,” which sounds like Lunadon is playing his guitar with a lit sparkler he got at a dusty roadside fireworks stand.
For me, the coolest thing about Systems Edge is that Lunadon made a pure rock record. It’s heavy garage rock, to be certain, but it’s nice to hear a rock record that embraces and flaunts the power of distorted, fuzzed, dangerous rock. We don’t have enough rock records that feel at least a bit threatening. Thankfully, Lunadon is here to snarl and growl and shake up the room.
Since 2008, Ty Segall has played out his hunger to be free through a dozen solo LPs, a variety of collaborative projects, and a rippling eclecticism of songs, sounds and production, all conversing from album to album in a mad diversity of voices. This search continues with Ty’s newest album, Three Bells, a fifteen song journey to the center of the self with Ty pushing the limits in his writing and performance, casting light on his inner psyche. Today, leading into the album’s January 26th release via Drag City, Ty welcomes the new year with “My Best Friend,” a new single and video and the final song to be released prior to the full unveiling of Three Bells. It follows the previously released Three Bells’ numbers: “Void,” “Eggman,” and “My Room.”
The quest for freedom looks different for everyone, but sometimes it looks like spending time with our non-human companions, an idea Ty explores on “My Best Friend.” Ty’s falsetto vocals and a driving, electric arrangement are the backbone of “My Best Friend,” with guitars cutting synchronous lines and a cowbell fortifying the chorus. In the solo section, the resonant rhythm/leads are fanned in a dizzying stereo effect. Filmed and directed by Ty, the song’s video finds his loyal companions, Fanny and Herman, as their tails wag with unbridled enthusiasm at the dawn of a new day. A sweet treat, friendly sniff and spirited encounters at the beach mirror the song’s rhythms.
Following select California shows in February, including two nights at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco and a record release show at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, Ty will tour throughout North America in the spring before heading to Europe in June. Tickets are now on sale.
Ty Segall Tour Dates: (new dates in bold) Tue. Feb. 20 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall Wed. Feb. 21 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall Fri. Feb. 23 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern* Sat. Feb. 24 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Fri. Apr. 19 – Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole Sat. Apr. 20 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sister Bar Mon. Apr. 22 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk (Outside) Tue. Apr. 23 – Jackson, MS @ Duling Hall Wed. Apr. 24 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl Fri. Apr. 26 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel Sat. Apr. 27 – Washington DC @ Lincoln Theatre Sun. Apr. 28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer Mon. Apr. 29 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall Wed. May 1 – Boston, MA @ Royale Thu. May 2 – Montreal, QC @ Club Soda Fri. May 3 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall Sun. May 5 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom Mon. May 6 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall Tue. May 7 – Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room Thu. May 9 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre Fri. May 10 – May 12 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Block Party Sat. May 11 – Sacramento, CA @ HarlowʼsMon. June 17 – Prague, CZ @ Roxy Tue. June 18 – Zürich, CH @ Mascotte Thu. June 20 – Vitoria-Gasteiz, ES @ Azkena Rock Festival Sat. June 22 – Paris, FR @ Elysée Montmartre Mon. June 24 – Manchester, UK @ New Century Tue. June 25 – Dublin, IRE @ Button Factory Thu. June 27 – Glasgow, UK @ Queen Margaret Union (QMU) Fri. June 28 – London, UK @ Roundhouse Sun. June 30 – Bristol, UK @ Bristol Sounds 2024 Tue. July 2 – Lille, FR @ L’Aéronef Wed. July 3 – Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg Thu. July 4 – Vilanova i la Geltrú, ES @ Vida Festival 2024 Sun. July 7 – Beuningen, NL @ Down The Rabbit Hole
And here we are with my favorite concerts of 2023.
#5: Be Your Own Pet – Headliners, Louisville, KY, Otober 29th
It’s so good to have them back, and it was so good to finally see them live. Their reputation as a wild live band is not lightly given. They tore up this stage, moving from one song to the next with no written set list, playing audience requests, and blowing the minds of the small crowd at Headliners. Shame on you if you were in Louisville and didn’t go to this show.
#4: Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade – Kemba Live!, Columbus, OH – May 31st
Another surprise reunion. I figured the days of Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade touring the nation were long gone and we would have to be content with the one live album released many years ago. Nope. He brought in Sean Lennon, who can tear up a lead guitar, and some other pals and put on a cool show – playing Pink Floyd‘s Animals in its entirety in the middle of the set.
#3: Viagra Boys – Salt Shed, Chicago, IL – February 24th
This show was either a sell-out or very close to it. The band claimed it was the biggest show they’d played in the U.S. so far, and I believe it. The Salt Shed was jammed, sweaty, and jumping. You easily forgot that snow and ice were coating the landscape outside. The whole crowd was buzzing throughout the set, and Viagra Boys further cemented their reputation of being one of the best bands out there right now.
#2: Pigs PigsPigsPigsPigsPigsPigs– Sleeping Village, Chicago, IL – March 28th
I almost didn’t go to this show due to other plans I had that week, but I knew I had to be there when I learned it was not only Pigs PigsPigsPigsPigsPigsPigs‘ first show in Chicago, it was also their first U.S. tour. It turned out to be another one of those “Shame on you if you missed it.” shows, because the porcine quintet pretty much flattened Sleeping Village and still had time to chat with anyone who wanted to chat after the gig. They’re now on my “I’ll see them any chance I get.” list of bands – and I already have a ticket to see them in Chicago again at Lincoln Hall in February.
#1: Love and Rockets – Riviera, Chicago, IL – June 06th
I figured I was never going to see Love and Rockets live. I’d seen David J perform an acoustic set, and thought, “Well, that’s the closest I’ll get.” Lo and behold, they surprised everyone with a reunion tour and they sounded great. They were in full rock star mode and everyone in the crowd was jubilant to see and hear them. It was a dream-come-true show for me and gave everyone hope of a new record soon.
I didn’t get to see as many bands last year as I would’ve liked thanks to many work conflicts and other travel that kept me away from music festivals, but there were some gems. Here’s the first half of the top ten.
#10: Mac Sabbath – The Vogue, Indianapolis, IN – October 18th
I’d been meaning to see Mac Sabbath for a couple years, and they finally came close by (relatively speaking), so a buddy and I went to see them in Indianapolis. I knew there would be lots of Black Sabbath parody songs, but I didn’t know there was going to be so much performance art and comedy. It was a fun mix, not unlike a Harlem Globetrotters show.
#9: King Buffalo – Bell’s Eccentric Café, Kalamazoo, MI – April 22nd
I don’t know how King Buffalo have the time to make new records because they always seem to be touring – giving Reverend Horton Heat a run for their money. Seeing them in a small venue like this is becoming rarer and rarer a treat, because they’re playing more festivals in the U.S. and Europe each year. Don’t miss them.
#8: The Well – Reggie’s, Chicago, IL – April 05th
Speaking of bands you don’t want to miss, The Well are among them. They never disappoint and always put down a heavy doom set. They also are always smiling whenever I see them play, clearly having a good time while playing songs about creepy things in the shadows, weird cults, and groaning spirits.
#7: Playboy Manbaby – The Vogue, Indianapolis, IN – October 18th
No one at the Vogue knew what to make of these guys as they began their set. Were they an emo band? A punk band? A new wave band? I still don’t know. I just know they were a blast and had the whole crowd engaged within three songs, even holding a small election at one point.
#6: The Cybertronic Spree– The Vogue, Indianapolis, IN – October 18th
The middle band of this triple bill turned out to have the best set, as these robots-in-disguise rockers shredded the entire time, leaving a lot of us slack-jawed with amazement. The lead guitarist played most of the set with one broken string, and barely anyone noticed. You have to be good to pull off a gimmick like this, and The Cybertronic Spree are very good, indeed.
Who made the top five? Come back to tomorrow and see!
This is a cool synthwave album of cinematic sounds that often catches you off-guard. It’s the soundtrack to a movie you’ve never seen, but want to find just from hearing it. It might exist in another dimension, or on a dark web torrent stream. Either way, it’s one of the neatest records I heard all last year.
Speaking of cool synthwave, Mandy, Indiana‘s debut album was a stunner on multiple fronts, as it covers not only synthwave, but also cold wave, dance punk, goth, and general chaos. They’re quickly becoming one of those “bands everyone’s talking about,” so don’t miss this record.
Only King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard could get away with naming an album something like that. It was their return to thrash metal, this time built around one of their favorite subjects – protecting our fragile planet. It was one of the best metal records of the year.
This album held my top spot for a long while, as it’s a powerful stoner / psych / cosmic rock record that hits hard with shredding guitar, pleading vocals, and roaring drums. It’s all about dreams, death, and what-the-hell-are-you-doing-with-this-life-you-have-that’s-gone-like-a-flash-of-lightning-you-git introspections.
Simply put, this is the most beautiful record I heard all year, and it’s a prime example of why you should always read old e-mails. This sat in my e-mail box for about four months before I finally got to it. I’m glad I didn’t delete that e-mail in a big purge, because Halsall’s album of ambient jazz, field sounds, and slight trip-hop touches is one of those albums that changes the attitude of the room wherever it’s played.
Thanks for reading and for sticking with me another year. Onto 2024!
Cool beats, dub bass, scratching, hand percussion from instruments collected around the world, and killer grooves all combine on this instrumental world music record. You’ll play this a lot, and it might be your new favorite workout record.
I’ll admit that I didn’t get this record at first. I enjoyed Shame‘s first two albums, but this one just seemed…off. I almost didn’t review it, but I thought, “Maybe I just need to hear it again.” I’m glad I did, because it finally clicked for me on the third listen and it turned out to be a great record by a band that is constantly exploring themes of identity, consumerism, celebrity culture, and death.
If you were looking for some good psychedelic music this year, Melody Fields delivered it with 1901. At times trippy, at other times lush, other times rocking, and other times meditative. They were a pleasant discovery for me this year, and I look forward to hearing more from them.
Protomartyr have yet to put out a bad record, and they’re probably the closest you can get to experiencing a vintage Gang of Four live sound without building a time machine. This album is about transitions, from life to death, from an old home to a new one, from grief to healing. Again, they hit a home run.
A great, previously unreleased live set from Thee Oh Sees thanks to the good folks at the Reverberation Appreciation Society, this show captures one of the early incarnations of the band (with just one drummer) shredding the stage as they always do. The live version of “Block of Ice” is alone worth the purchase price.
Next up are my top five albums of 2023! Don’t miss it.
This one came to me fairly early in the year and was an immediate favorite. It’s full of jagged guitar lines, weird drum fills, and plenty of power equal to the cosmic cover imagery.
Speaking of heavy cosmic riffs, this album from Auralayer is full of them and plenty of Buddhist philosophy to boot. This trio about floored me when I first heard this album and were one of my favorite discoveries of the year.
Would it be a “best of” list without a King Gizz album? I mean, they release at least two albums a year, and this year they released an electro / krautrock album full of synths and drum pads that turned out to be a fun time. You can tell they enjoyed stretching muscles they don’t often use, and they filled it with references to Egyptian mythology, which just made it weirder and cooler.
Yes, that’s the same cover image, and it’s almost the same album, but KGATLW decided to release two versions of the same record, with the extended version having long mixes with additional lyrics for each song – the short of which is just under eleven minutes long. It’s even better than the regular edition of the album and lets them do lengthy synth-jams that often move into rave territory.
Speaking of long synth-jams, Ki Oni‘s tribute to his deceased grandmother and his meditation on peace and death has tracks with minimum lengths of seventeen minutes, and all of them are beautiful. This is the kind of record that takes you away from anything you’re doing and drops you into a warm pool of peace and presence.
Who’s in the top ten? Come back soon and find out!
Now that 2023 has passed us, it’s time for my annual countdown of some of my favorite stuff of the previous year. Who made the top 25? Read on and discover!
#25: Cavaran – Nights at Josan
Named after a bar near their recording studio they’d frequent after recording sessions, Belgium’s Cavaran returned with a solid record of desert / stoner rock that was a badly need dose of rocket fuel into our collective veins.
#24: Gimenö – Movement Remixes
Just like 2022, there was a lot of good EDM released last year, and this album of remixes by pals of DJ / producer Gimenö was among it. There isn’t a bad track on here. It’s all floor-fillers.
#23: Big Miz – Where I Belong
Another excellent EDM EP, this one from Big Miz on the Homage label. Miz combined house with trance and does it with subtle, slick skill.
#22: Bodywash– I Held the Shape While I Could
Shoegaze made a fine return this year, and that makes me happy – as did this cool record by Bodywash that bathes you in guitars, reverb, and clove cigarette smoke vocals.
#21: Eaves Wilder – Hookey
Another fun EP, this one about break-ups, screw-ups (in the world of mental health care), and drink-ups. Eaves Wilder might be “the next big thing.” Get in on her stuff now and become one of the cool kids.
Who makes the top 20? Come back tomorrow to find out!
Drive-thru metal rockers Mac Sabbath are about to launch a short western U.S. tour with psych-rockers The Darts, starting at the legendary Pappy and Harriets in Pioneertown, California and ending at the wild Area 15 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Don’t miss them. Tickets are on sale now.
01/17/24 – Pioneertown, CA – MAC SABBATH – Pappy And Harriets
01/19/24 – Flagstaff, AZ – MAC SABBATH – Orpheum Theater
01/20/24 – Tucson, AZ – MAC SABBATH – Rialto Theatre
01/21/24 – Las Vegas, NV – MAC SABBATH – The Portal Inside AREA 15
Ty Segall returns with his most ambitious, elastic set of songs to date, Three Bells, to be released January 26th via Drag City. Following 2022’s acoustic introspection opus, “Hello, Hi,”Three Bells is a deeper, wilder journey to the center of the self, with Ty using his musical vocabulary with ever-increasing sophistication. In conjunction with today’s announcement, Tyunveils the new single/video, “My Room.”
Three Bells is an obsessive quest for expression. With much of the album being played by Ty in conversation with himself, a decision that further elevates the album’s conception, it answers back to the riptide always pulling Ty subconsciously into the depths. Questions we all ask in our own private mirrors are faced down here — and regardless of what the mysterious “Three Bells” mean in the context of the album’s libretto, you can be assured that Ty’s ringing them for himself, and for the rest of us in turn. With all fifteen songs brimming with perspectives, shape-shifting incessantly, Ty pushed them out farther and farther compositionally, challenging the way they’d be played. Each song moves through repetitive, thematic material in its own way, building a claustrophobic/paranoia vibe, cycling bold thrusts forward into ego deaths, the one-step-forward, two-steps-back patterns framing an overriding ask: what can we do to get past the back-and-forth conversation, to arrive at a place of acceptance?
On Three Bells, Ty and Denée Segall collaborated on five of the songs, including the previously released single, “Eggman.” Some of the songs needed the kind of playing Ty couldn’t get alone. Emmett Kelly’s bass parts not only addressed that need, but inspired the way the songs eventually went down. The remaining members of the FreedomBand were called in to play, transforming the material. Co-producer CooperCrain, who deeply contributed to both Harmonizer and “Hello, Hi”, engineered and mixed most of the album.
With todays’ single, “My Room,” Ty rings the bell of the introvert who is empowered by the world inside his own room. The layers of acoustic and electric guitars dance around each other, quickening the already swinging tempo, while fuzz distortion blows the walls farther back as he takes us deeper. The accompanying music video was directed by longtime collaborators MattYoka and Ty, and features Ty steadfastly performing the song on stage as bananas are launched in his direction. He remains resolute in dedication to the craft, only to reveal a surreal dialogue between the dual facets of his own identity.
Three Bells takes Ty Segall’s trips so much deeper and farther than they’ve gone before — a masterpiece of personal expression, expressed through words, music and production, parabolically addressing malaise with compassion in a flowing, unstoppable hour-plus of intoxicating sound. Following the album’s release, Ty will tour throughout North America. Tickets are on sale now.
Three Bells Tracklisting: 1. The Bell 2. Void 3. I Hear 4. Hi Dee Dee 5. My Best Friend 6. Reflections 7. Move 8. Eggman 9. My Room 10. Watcher 11. Repetition 12. To You 13. Wait 14. Denée 15. What Can We Do
Ty Segall 2024 Tour Dates: (new dates in bold)
Tue. Feb. 20 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall Wed. Feb. 21 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall Fri. Feb. 23 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern * Sat. Feb. 24 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Fri. Apr. 19 – Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole Sat. Apr. 20 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sister Bar Mon. Apr. 22 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk (Outside) Tue. Apr. 23 – Jackson, MS @ Duling Hall Wed. Apr. 24 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl Fri. Apr. 26 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel Sat. Apr. 27 – Washington DC @ Lincoln Theatre Sun. Apr. 28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer Mon. Apr. 29 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall Wed. May 1 – Boston, MA @ Royale Thu. May 2 – Montreal, QC @ Club Soda Fri. May 3 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall Sun. May 5 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom Mon. May 6 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall Tue. May 7 – Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room Thu. May 9 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre Sat. May 11 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s Fri. June 28 – London, UK @ Roundhouse
