Album of the Week: Ty Segall – <I>Freedom's Goblin</I>

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Album of the Week: Ty Segall – <I>Freedom's Goblin</I> Album of the Week: Ty Segall – Freedom’s Goblin Freedom’s Goblin by Ty Segall If you have been reading this review column for the past couple of years, there’s one thing that you should realize by now. At least once a year I’m going to write about a certain musician’s new album due to his immense talent and his continuously prolific output. That certain musician is Los Angeles garage rock phenom Ty Segall, and his 10th album Freedom’s Goblin came out Jan 26 via Drag City Records. The album is a lot more wide-ranging and experimental than his previous releases. Nothing sounds similar to another, and that says a lot for a record that has 19 songs on it. Certain albums can take the mind on an adventure and Freedom’s Goblin achieves that through its variety. It goes from one end of the spectrum to the other with tunes encompassing jazz, punk, new wave and acoustic styles. It’s ingenious and schizophrenic at the same time. Usually a record follows an identity, but this one is the antithesis of that. Segall’s new artistic output is truly all over the place and that’s what makes it so amazing. One trait that a musical savant will always possess is an incredible amount of fearlessness: They’ll write a song how they want without conforming to what’s “popular” or “trendy.” It’s a testament to them staying true to themselves while also making a conscious effort to progress as an artist. There’s a sense of sheer individuality that’s inspiring and makes one wish others would emulate. Segall has always been one to do his own thing and never be swayed by the mainstream. For a closer look, let’s examine my top tracks off of the Album of the Week: “5 Ft Tall” has an unplugged beginning and then it gets electrifying with vibrant rhythms and raucous riffs; the energy is massive and it’s a sizzling song that the ears will want to hear at a high volume on repeat. Reminiscent of the storied New York City late ‘70s No Wave scene is “Talkin 3,” and fans of James Chance & The Contortions will enjoy the blaring sax and chaotic vibe. A funky synth disco sound makes up the weirdness of “Despoiler Cadaver” with vintage English new wave flair. Sadly, Ty Segall has no shows announced in the New England area as of this writing, but 2018 is still in its infancy so who knows? Maybe some dates will be unveiled in the coming months and one of them will be in our neck of the woods. Segall live is a must-see experience, so when he’s coming through your town you better go. For now, get yourself a copy of Freedom’s Goblin: It’s an album that has a whole lot to offer and then some. Bandcamp: tysegall.bandcamp.com/album/freedoms-goblin Web site: ty-segall.com.
Recommended publications
  • Sonic Youth: Celebrity DIY
    Essays — Peer Reviewed ZoneModa Journal. Vol. 7 (2017) https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2611-0563/7585 ISSN 2611-0563 Sonic Youth: celebrity DIY Alice Militello Pubblicato: 29 dicembre 2017 Abstract In New York City’s early ’80s music scene and beyond, the band Sonic Youth represents a special case of the celebrity’s concept. It cannot be reduced to the record sales or scandals, like other famous people. They don’t have the typical self-destructive streak of the stars of the show business, which is the basis of the fortune and, at the same time, the defeat of other musicians. They don’t even have the cult of personality, which has destabilized other crews of the time. However Sonic Youth, during their three decades of career, have been able to find a space in the music scene, to involve a broad segment of audience and lovers; becoming a kind of model for younger generations of musicians. Furthermore, the members of Sonic Youthcan be considered such as influencers ahead of his time, thanks to their ability to find new talents. The present study aims to analyze the concept of celebrity applied to the Sonic Youth language, from 1981 (starting year) to 1994, the year of Experimental Jet Set, Trash No Star album, which brings the group to that DIY (Do-It-Yourself) punk ethics that denotes them from the beginning; to plot the New York’s environment in which they fit; and how the entry into the mainstream world changes the aesthetics of the group. In other words, the research is a breakthrough of the band’s long career, marking the highlights that made them the Sonic Youth.
    [Show full text]
  • Download PDF Booklet
    www.zerecords.com UNDER THE INFLUENCE / WHITE SPIRIT The 21st century has produced a new generation of young contenders of all kinds, who have, within months, spread a new string of names across the planet such as The Rapture, Playgroup, LCD Sound system, Liars, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Radio 4 and the likes, just to name a few. Once again the heat was initiated in NYC, even though its Lower East Side epicenter « cleaned up » by Giuliani and Bloomberg, has moved a few blocks east and across the river to Brooklyn and Williamsburg. It might be wise to remind the younger ones among us that the origins of this new musical cycle is for the most part rooted in the NO WAVE movement of which James Siegfried aka James White, aka James Chance is undoubtedly one of its most prominent figures. New York City was hands down the artistic telluric center of the second half of the 20th century, especially from the 70’s, on. Rising from the ashes of the Velvet Un- derground, a slew of local bands redefined the aesthetics of rock’n’roll which the merchants of the temple hastened to rename under various designations, such as Punk, New Wave, No Wave, Jazz-Funk or even Disco and Disco- Punk without forgetting to mention the original Electro designation pioneered by the band Suicide. One of the indispensable and emblematic figures of the mid-70’s is of course James Chance. James Siegfried, born in Milwaukee in 1953, began his musical journey on the piano at the age of seven.
    [Show full text]
  • The White Noise Supremacists” (From the Village Voice, 1979)
    LESTER BANGS “The White Noise Supremacists” (from the Village Voice, 1979) The other day I was talking on the phone with a friend who hangs out on the CBGB's scene a lot. She was regaling me with examples of the delights available to females in the New York subway system. "So the train came to a sudden halt and I fell on my ass in the middle of the car, and not only did nobody offer to help me up but all these boons just sat there laughing at me." "Boons?" I said. "What's boons?" "You know," she said. "Black guys." "Why do you call them that?" "I dunno. From `baboons,' I guess." I didn't say anything. "Look, I know it's not cool," she finally said. "But neither is being a woman in this city. Every fucking place you go you get these cats hassling you, and sometimes they try to pimp you. And a lot of the times when they hassle you they're black, and when they try to pimp me they're always black. Eventually you can't help it, you just end up reacting." Sometimes I think nothing is simple but the feeling of pain. When I was first asked to write this article, I said sure, because the racism (not to mention the sexism, which is even more pervasive and a whole other piece) on the American New Wave scene had been something that I'd been bothered by for a long time. When I told the guys in my own band that I was doing this, they just laughed.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Turning Rebellion Into Money' Catalog #2
    ‘Turning Rebellion into Money’ Catalog #2 Mare Booksellers Mare Booksellers | www.marebooksellers.com Introduction Catalog #2 from Mare Booksellers continues to explore the contributions of punk fanzines to pop culture and art. While the DIY aesthetic used in punk fanzines from the 1970s both informed and arose from punk music and earlier avant-garde art movements, fanzines were equally important for their dissemination of information and opinions. In a movement where establishment voices were mistrusted, ignored and reviled, fanzines offered a venue for news and ideas outside mainstream sources. Written by fans or insiders associated with various bands, fanzines contained information on popular punk and new wave acts from sources equal to the audience to which they were addressed. Low production values and costs enabled quick communication of ideas and events within the punk community. Due to limitations in form and materials, punk fanzines used innovative methods to convey artistic and philosophical principles. Fanzines featured in this catalog provide notable examples of the mix of information dissemination and visual appeal. This includes zines such as ‘New Deseases’ with photos by James Stark; ‘Chainsaw’ and its use of color printing techniques; ‘No’ and ‘Beat It!’, both of which document the No Wave movement in New York; ‘Fanzine for a Blank Generation’ and ‘Bikini Girl’, two zines by women providing a different perspective on an often male dominated punk culture. And, in keeping with the last catalog, underground newspapers such as ‘Rat Subterranean’, the ‘Atlantic Weekly’ and others are included as examples of forerunners of the genre. Mare Booksellers | www.marebooksellers.com Fanzines [1] Jones, Alex; Starstruck, Sue; Urban, Peter; Zebest, Jade.
    [Show full text]
  • Town Without Pity • 4:13 09 • Hype No Tease • 5:24
    JAMES WHITE’S www.zerecords.com UNDER THE INFLUENCE / WHITE SPIRIT The 21st century has produced a new generation of young contenders of all kinds, who have, within months, spread a new string of names across the planet such as The Rapture, Playgroup, LCD Sound system, Liars, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Radio 4 and the likes, just to name a few. Once again the heat was initiated in NYC, even though its Lower East Side epicenter « cleaned up » by Giuliani and Bloomberg, has moved a few blocks east and across the river to Brooklyn and Williamsburg. It might be wise to remind the younger ones among us that the origins of this new musical cycle is for the most part rooted in the NO WAVE movement of which James Siegfried aka James White, aka James Chance is undoubtedly one of its most prominent figures. New York City was hands down the artistic telluric center of the second half of the 20th century, especially from the 70’s, on. Rising from the ashes of the Velvet Un- derground, a slew of local bands redefined the aesthetics of rock’n’roll which the merchants of the temple hastened to rename under various designations, such as Punk, New Wave, No Wave, Jazz-Funk or even Disco and Disco- Punk without forgetting to mention the original Electro designation pioneered by the band Suicide. One of the indispensable and emblematic figures of the mid-70’s is of course James Chance. James Siegfried, born in Milwaukee in 1953, began his musical journey on the piano at the age of seven.
    [Show full text]
  • New York: No Wave Cinema
    A DEFINING PERIOD IN THE HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NO WAVE CINEMAFILM, ART AND MUSIC Cover image: Debbie Harry from The Blank Generation, [1976, 16mm], photo: Fernando Natalici. Courtesy of Amos Poe. This page: Unmade Beds, [1977, 16mm], photo: Fernando Natalici. Courtesy of Amos Poe. The Cast: Blondie (Debbie Harry, Chris Stein), Talking Heads, The Ramones, Television, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Glenn O’Brien, David McDermott, Patty Astor, James Nares, Eric Mitchell, Amos Poe, Keith Haring, Kenny Sharf, Julian Schnabel, Fab Five Freddy, King Kreole and the Coconuts, Arto Lindsay and DNA, James White and the Blacks, The Plastics, Duncan Hannah, Lydia Lunch, Klaus Nomi, George Clinton, Maripol, Danny Rosen, Patti Smith, Vivienne Dick, Ivan Kral, John Lurie, Jim Jarmusch, Tom DiCillo, Diego Cortez, Lee Quinones, Vincent Gallo, Steve Buscemi and many, many more… Clockwise, from top left: The Blank Generation, [1976, 16mm]. Debbie Harry from The Foreigner, [1978, 16mm]. The Foreigner, [1978, 16mm]. Photos: Fernando Natalici. Courtesy of Amos Poe. BACKGROUND From the mid 1970s to the early 1980s, New However, it was in 1975 when Amos Poe, an York City’s East Village was the home, studio Israeli-born photographer, and Ivan Kral, the and playground to an eclectic group of young guitarist with Patti Smith Group, set out to arrivals, hailing from all parts of America as well direct and produce a 16mm film on the punk as Europe. Although from disparate backgrounds, scene. The result was the cult classic, THE these newcomers shared similar interests and BLANK GENERATION. The film depicts seminal passions about music, art, film and performance.
    [Show full text]
  • Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980–1983
    BOOK REVIEWS 3of7 DOI: 10.1111/jpms.12216 LIFE AND DEATH ON THE NEW YORK DANCE FLOOR, 1980–1983 Edited by Tim Lawrence Duke University Press: 2016, 600 pp. Dubbed out electronic handclaps crackle in space, their echoing digital delay moodily fading as a rubbery synth bass pulses into the mix. This is the haunting, exuberant, impossible introduction to “Don’t Make Me Wait,” the NYC Peech Boys’ 1982 12” record, famously produced by Paradise Garage DJ Larry Levan. Melding disco, gospel, and rock, the song is one of the many genre-breaking works closely profiled in Tim Lawrence’s exhaustive Life and Death on the New YorkDance Floor, 1980–1983. Building on his previous study of 70s dance culture in Love Saves the Day: A History of Amer- ican Dance Music Culture, 1970–1979 and complementing his most recent book, Hold On to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973–1992, Lawrence ambitiously maps the many overlapping early-80s scenes—No Wave, New Wave, post-disco, early hip hop, 80s R&B—allatonce. Focusing on the usual suspects like Levan, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Afrika Bambaataa, and James Chance, he allows equal or even greater play to the many other vital figures who comprised these scenes: the club owners, promoters, gallerists, producers, musicians, DJs, label own- ers, filmmakers, bookers, record sellers, graffiti writers, drag performers, and others who contributed to what Brian Eno terms the “scenius” (462), that collective creative zeitgeist of the early 80s downtown community. Although Madonna still receives her requisite cameo, then, Lawrence’s broadened view reveals the importance of this larger, shifting net- work of scenesters and the concomitant power of the early 80s New York nightclub—in its many, varied forms—as incubator for cultural innovation.
    [Show full text]
  • Mad Presents Cinema Series Documenting the Rise of New York’S 1975–80 Punk Music Scene
    MAD PRESENTS CINEMA SERIES DOCUMENTING THE RISE OF NEW YORK’S 1975–80 PUNK MUSIC SCENE Go Nightclubbing Archive Features 30 Hours of Remastered Historic Video Featuring Performances by 82 Bands such as Dead Boys, Iggy Pop, the Heartbreakers, John Cale, and the Cramps New York, NY (April 7, 2014)—This spring, the Museum of Arts and Design presents its latest cinema series, Go Nightclubbing Archive, featuring selections from a historic video archive of the burgeoning New York punk scene from 1975 to 1980. In partnership with NYU’s Fales Library, which recently acquired the archive, MAD will premiere ten individual screenings that draw from over 200 hours of remastered footage by Emily Armstrong and Pat Ivers. As young filmmakers, Armstrong and Ivers documented performances by 82 bands in downtown New York such as the Dead Boys, Iggy Pop, the Heartbreakers, John Cale, the Cramps, DNA, the Lounge Lizards, Bush Tetras, Sun Ra, the Go-Go’s, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, James Chance and the Contortions, and many others. Running from April 18 through June 6, 2014, the program is the first in a series examining the role of local documentary cinema in New York. Go Nightclubbing Archive showcases how documentary practices not only capture and shape our understanding of history, but also are a formative voice within that historic moment. Filmmakers Armstrong and Ivers met in the mid-1970s, when both were making experimental film and video art during the explosive and innovative movement that would become the punk rock music and art scene. Soon after meeting, they began filming live performances of bands at clubs like CBGB, Mudd Club, and Danceteria.
    [Show full text]
  • BLANK CITY Dokumente BLANK CITY BLANK CITY
    Berlinale 2010 Céline Danhier Panorama BLANK CITY Dokumente BLANK CITY BLANK CITY USA 2009 Dokumentarfilm mit Amos Poe Länge 94 Min. Ann Magnuson Format HDCAM Becky Johnston Farbe und Schwarzweiß Beth B Bette Gordon Stabliste Casandra Stark Regie Céline Danhier Mele Kamera Ryo Murakami Charlie Ahearn Peter Szollosi Daze Zusatz-Kamera Ian Bloom Debbie Harry Jason Grisell Eric Mitchell James McCusker Fab 5 Freddy Abigail Spindel Glenn O’Brien Daniel Grossman Jack Sargeant Harrison Owen James Chance Adam Kurland James Nares Schnitt Vanessa Roworth Jim Jarmusch Ton Claire Houghtalen J. G. Thirlwell Mischung Paul Hsu John Lurie John Waters Musik-Supervisor Dan Selzer Debbie Harry Musikberatung Dan Braun Kembra Pfahler Maske Eve Laure Wrembel Lizzie Borden Audrey Lefevre BLANK CITY Lung Leg Produktionsltg. Nathan Collins New York am Ende der 70er Jahre, das war eine Stadt kurz vor der Pleite. Die Lydia Lunch Produzentinnen Aviva Wishnow Armut wuchs und mit ihr die Verbrechensrate. Und doch war New York eine Manuel DeLanda Vanessa Roworth Stadt, die das internationale Kino enorm bereicherte, denn hier, an der Maripol Michael McClard Co-Produzenten Anish Savjani Lower East Side, Downtown Manhattan, entwickelte sich etwas Neues: ein Vincent Savino Michael Oblowitz Sabine Rogers unabhängiges, widerständiges Kino junger Filmemacher, die sich von Vor - Nick Zedd April R. Loutrel ga ben der aktuellen Musik – Punk und New Wave – anregen ließen und Pat Place Executive Producers Josh Braun inhaltlich wie ästhetisch zu neuen Ausdrucksformen gelangten. Patti Astor Dan Braun Im „No Wave Cinema“ oder „Cinema of Transgression“ lassen sich darüber Richard Kern Sara Driver Andrew Karsch hinaus Einflüsse der französischen Nouvelle Vague und des amerikanischen Co-Produktion Submarine Scott B Entertainment, Film Noir nachweisen, Andy Warhol war in ihm ebenso präsent wie John Steve Buscemi New York Waters.
    [Show full text]
  • P of Progressive Rock, and from the from the Exclusiveness of Forebears Like the Velvets and Kraftwerk and Roxy and Bowie
    POST-PUNK POST-PUNK 1979 | POST-PUNK Post-punk has a lousy name. It’s temporally accurate, mostly; and meaningful in that post-punk music generally benefited from the jolt of energy and attitude that briefly was punk, even when it was often made by musicians who’d been at it for years. But punk was mostly musically and culturally discrete, insular and self-constrained. Post-punk, conversely, represented a flourishing of many sounds, myriad scenes, and many styles, all with roots reaching back (garage rock, krautrock, funk, jazz, musique concrete, ska) and branches reaching out and intertwining (hip-hop, disco, Latin musics, dub), all while leaning eagerly forward into the future. In part post-punk was the liberation of “art rock” from the virtuosic grip of progressive rock, and from the from the exclusiveness of forebears like the Velvets and Kraftwerk and Roxy and Bowie. It was to varying degrees the breaking down of barriers between “rock” and non-white musics, always with the risk of appropriation; but mostly created with a sincere attitude of learning and engagement, rather than theft. Women in post-punk were not an oddity, an opening act, but were instead at the very center of its most creative scenes in a way rock music had rarely seen. Certainly post-punk was a rejection of “disco-sucks” and cock-rock meatheadedness, as even its simplest power pop forms generally rejected brute machismo. Post-punk was revolutionary in that it helped expand rock music’s typical access to means of production, and broadened the circle of who could be at the forefront; but it was also evolutionary of rock music’s best possibilities, no an ex nihilo event, and as such was made to last.
    [Show full text]
  • Dance Music for Punks
    The History of Rock Music: 1976-1989 New Wave, Punk-rock, Hardcore History of Rock Music | 1955-66 | 1967-69 | 1970-75 | 1976-89 | The early 1990s | The late 1990s | The 2000s | Alpha index Musicians of 1955-66 | 1967-69 | 1970-76 | 1977-89 | 1990s in the US | 1990s outside the US | 2000s Back to the main Music page (Copyright © 2009 Piero Scaruffi) Dance Music for Punks TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. (These are excerpts from my book "A History of Rock and Dance Music") Disco-music was flourishing at the same time that punk-rock was spreading like wild- fire around the world. It was inevitable that the two cultures merged. It was also a merger of two alien civilizations, as one stood for values that were almost the negation of the other. New York was, again, the natural place to meet. Blondie defined a fusion of disco hedonism and punk aesthetics that would be influential throughout the following decade, despite the fact that In The Flesh (1976), Heart Of Glass (1978), Dreaming (1979), Atomic (1979) and Call Me (1980) were simply slick disco-music sung in a decadent tone. Madonna was to become the ultimate disco/punk hybrid. Technically, she redefined the rhythm'n'blues ballad for the age of electronic polyrhythmic beats. Sociologically, she legitimized an almost nymphomaniac look, a sort of cult of her sexual personality, a cult that stood as the female equivalent of Mick Jagger's and Jim Morrison's hedonism rather than the sensual innuendo of the disco-queens, promoting promiscuity like no other female entertainer had ever done.
    [Show full text]
  • ELECTROPUTAS 3 Sr013 Release Date: November 2Nd, 2004 Format: Lp & Cd || Upc: 6566605701325
    ELECTROPUTAS 3 sr013 release date: november 2nd, 2004 format: lp & cd || upc: 6566605701325 1. international harvest 2. aa 3. echo temptation 4. master triangle 5. minicar 6. profound rosso 7. starsoul 8. never been more in love 9. silver moon/golden sun 10. kaptain crazy & the crazy crazy game 11. more Electroputas are the perfect example of how a group can constantly be evolving without ever losing the essence of what made them a band to begin with. This three piece has been through transitions since they got together in the late 90s, but without question anybody who has seen them over this time knows that they have maintained an organic integrity that has them honing their sonic attack to a razor sharp point. This band is also a sign of how a love for obscure music can bring people together from all over the world. Joe Frivaldi is Hungarian, Jaiko Suzuki and Akio Mokuno are from Japan. They formed the trio in their adopted home of New York City. It is here in the incubator of the under the radar music scene in the Big Apple that the Electroputas was birthed. They played at spaces and clubs ignored by the mainstream usually at the end of an evening due to their work schedules. The Putas used their diverse taste to make exigent, aggressive, and can’t get that that groove out of my head sets that made it worth the wait. Influences dive in and out of their music - noise, avant-garde, psychedelic, Japanese freakout, krautrock, no wave – the list could go on.
    [Show full text]