Ty Segall – INDIE ROCK CAFE

Ty Segall’s new video single and North American tour dates

Posted on 08/17/202108/17/2021 by Kate Stevens

One of indie/alt rock’s best artists of the past decade, San Francisco guitarist and songwriter Ty Segall, has dropped a new video single, “Feel Good.”

And, yes, it does feel good, in an edgy, swaggering way. “Feel Good” chugs along with a throbbing beat and spikey guitar riffs. Denee Segall lends sultry vocals and attire throughout. The storyline features the couple in various poses and driving an old 70’s gas-guzzler through the nighttime streets marked by vivid technicolor scenes.

It is from his riveting new album, Harmonizer, directed and produced by Joshua Erkman.

Segall also dropped a new tour list for a North American tour with the Freedom Band featuring of Ben Boye, Mikal Cronin, Emmett Kelly, and Charles Moothart.

According to Denée Segall, the track is meant to reaffirm the concept that whatever makes someone ‘feel good’ should be unrestrained, even encouraged “be it emotionally, physically, or beyond. It’s also about extending this sentiment to another who might desire this same sort of freedom but needs a little encouragement. It’s an ode to the joy that comes from loving and supporting one another unconditionally.”

Go-to assistant producer Cooper Crain was instrumental in creating the sound on Harmonizer. The LP is the first album to be recorded in Segall’s brand-new Harmonizer Studios.

From the blog Northern Transmissions: “Cooper’s own journey in rhythm, minimalism and DIY mines the depths around Ty’s vocal attack and the never-ending search for unfathomably corrosive guitar sounds. With an eye towards precision, feel, and explosive mass.”

Ty Segall & Freedom Band’s 2021-22 Tour Schedule

Fri. Aug. 20 – Las Vegas, NV @ Psycho Las Vegas
Sun. Sep. 5 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
Mon. Sep. 6- Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
Thu. Sep. 9 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern
Sat. Sep. 11 – Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
Mon. Sep. 13 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
Tue. Sep. 14 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
Wed. Sep. 15 – Big Sur, CA @ The Henry Miller Library
Thu. Sep. 16 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s
Sat. Sep. 18 – Petaluma, CA @ Phoenix Theater
Fri. Oct. 22 – Atlanta, GA @ Shaky Knees Festival
Fri. Nov. 12 – Moreno Valley, CA @ Desert Daze Festival
Mon. Dec. 27 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Tue. Dec. 28 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Wed. Dec. 29 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Thu. Dec. 30 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Fri. Dec. 31 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Mon. Jan. 31 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Lobero Theatre
Tue. Feb. 1 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Cocoanut Grove Historic Ballroom
Fri. Feb. 4 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
Sat. Feb. 5 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre
Sun. Feb. 6 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox at the Market
Tue. Feb. 8 – Sonoma, CA @ Gundlach Bundschu
Wed. Feb. 9 – San Luis Obispo, CA @ Slo Brewing Co.
Tue. Jun. 14 – Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole
Sun. Jun. 19 – New Orleans, LA @ Southport Hall
Wed. Jun. 22 – Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel
Thu. Jun. 23 – Baltimore, MD @ Ram’s Head Live
Fri. Jun. 24 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Sat. Jun. 25 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
Mon. Jun. 27 – Boston, MA @ Royale
Thu. Jun. 30 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theatre
Sat. Jul. 2 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue Mainroom
Mon. Jul. 4 – Denver, CO @ The Mission Ballroom
Tue. Jul. 5 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall

Best Songs of 2013, Vol. II – Local Natives, Yo La Tengo, Wooden Hand, Pere Ubu, Gliss, Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin, Lost Animal

Posted on 01/19/201407/22/2021 by Max Hammer

by Devin William Daniels

There were so many terrific songs in 2013 that no one could blame you for still listening to them every chance you can get. Plus, 2013 is still fresh for many people. Devin William Daniels, a musician who records under the name of The Negative Sound, has written some more reviews of his favorite songs from the Top 10 Songs playlists. Volume One included tracks from artists like Kurt Vile, Sigur Ros, Phoenix, Wild Nothing, The National, Daft Punk and many others. The following reviews and playlist of the Best Songs of 2013 includes more fantastic songs from artists and bands like Local Natives, Yo La Tengo, Wooden Hand, Pere Ubu, Gliss, Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin, and Lost Animal.

The opening track Yo La Tengo’s 2013 album, Fade, has the seminal indie rock group looking back as it moves forward. A chanting jangle pop number slowly drifts into hazy, vaguely-Eastern psychedelia. The voices intone: “…nothing ever stays the same/ Nothing’s explained/ The higher we go, the longer we fly,” a sermon of the ancient order of Anglo-American rock spiritualism. Yo La Tengo envisions pop music’s future expanding in height and duration, but the revelations aren’t new ones.

“Ohm” – Yo La Tengo from Fade

Local Natives explore the sonic landscape in this excellent single. After a totally danceable intro, I expect four minutes of fairly clean, glassy afro pop, and instead I’m treated to a melancholic wall-of-sound that’s almost anthemic, then contemplative downstrokes over which we lay witness to the passage of time, “…watching/ The color drain from my ice.” The different elements reflect the different responses and impulses music elicits: the urge to forget, to transcend, and to dwell.

“Breakers” – Local Natives from Hummingbird

The legendary art-rockers, Pere Ubu, kick the year off with their surreal brand of pop music. Repetition, lyrical minimalism and synthesizers combine in unfamiliar ways to create this perplexing, eerie track. At times it feels melody-driven, at times rhythm-driven, while sometimes seeming to have no melody or rhythm at all. David Thomas’ seemingly innocuous refrain, “It’s a wonderful world/ It’s a beautiful thing” never sounded so disturbing an assertion.

“Free White” – Pere Ubu from Lady from Shanghai

James Jackson Toth, the man behind the Wooden Wand moniker, avoids the stylistic pitfalls of contemporary indie folk in this intense number. Instead of using clichéd instrumentation and forced depression-era imagery to evoke bygone folk heroes, Toth finds the tragedy in a modern – and thus infinitely more relatable – context: the 2011 crime spree of the so-called Dougherty Gang. The arrangement – juxtaposing a cutting, precise rhythm guitar with ghostly ancillary parts – evokes desperation, defeat and transcendence.

“Southern Colorado Song” – Wooden Wand from Blood Oaths of the New Blues

With their most obvious generic elements, you think you know what to expect from Gliss, but it’s not the usual 80s callbacks of electronic music or the songless goo of so much current shoegaze. Instead, “Weight of Love” recalls the heyday of 90s alternative rock in its structure: I hear Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails and even 90’s Red Hot Chili Peppers lurking, as well as Victoria Cecilia’s ethereal vocals recall the music from David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Yet it’s all packaged in silvery sheen and set to the backdrop of some sort of hyper-futuristic Los Angeles.

“Weight of Love” – Gliss from Langsom Dans

The prolific Ty Segall collaborates with Mikal Cronin on this great track. You know what to expect from Segall at this point, but it’s always welcome since it’s so hard to find elsewhere: great riffs, neck-bending hooks, and an unwavering commitment to volume. The title, “I Wear Black,” is appropriate, as in an era of slight singers and meek songwriters, Segall has become a sort of moustache-twirling sonic villain by comparison, which makes him the beloved antihero of those who think rock music is supposed to rock.

“I Wear Black” – Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin from Reverse Shark Attack

Jarrod Quarrell’s keyboard pop offering lacks in melody and direction, at times feeling like its wandered into the mid-tempo wilderness, but the appeal to this track comes in its carefully constructed texture and Quarrell’s meticulous, spoken-word-poet delivery.

“Say No to Thugs” – Lost Animal from Ex Tropical

Devin William Daniels is a writer and musician from Pennsylvania currently teaching English in the Republic of South Korea. Follow him on Twitter or listen to his recordings on Soundcloud. Read more of Mr. Daniels’ posts and reviews via IRC’s archives.

Best New Releases, Week of Jan. 22nd – Ty Segall, Toro Y Moi, Joy Formidable, Nightlands, Growlers, Ra Ra Riot, FIDLAR, DRGN King

Posted on 01/24/201301/09/2020 by Max Hammer

What a blockbuster week for new album drops, and the singles from those releases. In fact, this is the first week of 2013 in which there are a significant number of anticipated releases, as well as surprises, from a variety of well-known artists and bands.

While the Best New Releases playlists posted in recent weeks started out slow, they started to pick up in mid-January. In fact, there is quite a bit to listen to from many artists that we’ve followed for years – like Ty Segall, Toro Y Moi, The Joy Formidable, Nightlands, The Growlers, Ra Ra Riot, and DRGN King, among others. In addition to the impressive number of new albums from well-known artists, there are some great new releases from new-to-us bands like Gliss, FIDLAR, Nosaj Thing, The Night Marchers, Arboretum, among others.

Ty Segall Teams Up with Mikal Cronin on Reverse Shark Attack

Anytime we see anything with Ty Segall‘s name on it, we get excited, and his latest track with Mikal Cronin, “I Wear Black,” is a raucous rocker with crazy Jimi Hendrix-like guitar affects; but the duo go even further, using various modern pedal effects and such to belt out a chunk of guitar and drum noise that is probably the most cut-throat track from a new album so far this year.

“I Wear Black” – Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin from Reverse Shark Attack on In The Red

Toro Y Moi Evolves Again on His Newest Album

Toro Y Moi is easily one of the top indie artists of the past couple of years. And while his music has gone through tremendous evolution and change since he started out in 2009, so have his abilities, and time and again, he proves that his talents and songwriting skills are worthy of all of the attention he has received since hitting it big in the world of indie rock in 2010 to the present day. His new album is yet another progression of his mastery of his latest fancy – pop and R&B.

“Say That” – Toro Y Moi from Anything in Return on Carpark

For an artist who started out in electronic and integrated elements of hip hop and other genres in the past few years, Toro Y Moi, otherwise known as Chaswick Bundick (what an interesting name, plus it rhymes, and you can bet he’s heard just about all of the stupid jokes and puns regarding his name), he is remarkably consistent when it comes to delivering excellent results. People don’t care what someone’s real or made-up name is – they care about the music, especially among folks who are repelled by mainstream, overly commercialized ‘music.’

In addition to the catchy lead single, “Say That,” from Anything in Return, we also included a bonus track and links to two videos, which, when you watch them through the built-in Yahoo player, should pop open a screen and play them right on the page so you can stay where you are in order play or download all of the other singles from the week of January 22nd, 2013’s releases.

“Try” (feat. Toro Y Moi) – Nosaj Thing from Home on Timetable Records via Innovative Leisure

Watch the video for “Say That” as well as “So Many Details”

New Singles from Nightlands, The Growlers and Others

Nightlands has been on our radar for the past year or more, and the band’s new album, Oak Island, was also one of our top anticipated releases for January. Here is the terrific single, “So Far So Long,” followed by the latest singles from the new albums by The Growlers and The Joy Formidable.

“So Far So Long” – Nightlands from Oak Island on Secretly Canadian

“Use Me for Your Eggs” – The Growlers from Hung at Heart on Everloving

“This Ladder Is Ours” – The Joy Formidable from Wolf’s Law on Atlantic

Ra Ra Riot Change Up, Introducing DRGN King, FIDLAR and More

The Syracuse, New York, indie band Ra Ra Riot dropped their third full-length album, Beta Love, this week, featuring a noticeable change in style from baroque pop to synth pop, a switch in sound the band embraced after cellist Alexandra Lawn left the band last year. Following Ra Ra Riot is the Philadelphia band to watch DRGN King, with the frenetic, catchy track, “Wild Night,” from their accomplished album, Paragraph Nights. Switching gears quite dramatically, FIDLAR, the lo-fi garage/surf rock band from Los Angeles, jumped into the fray this week with their blistering self-titled debut album, followed by The Night Marchers, Gliss, Renny Wilson, Arbouretum, Foxygen, Pillowfight and Big Harp.

“Beta Love” – Ra Ra Riot from Beta Love on Barsuk

“Wild Night” – DRGN King from Paragraph Nights on Bar None

“Cheap Beer” – FIDLAR from FIDLAR on Mom & Pop Records

“All Hits” – The Night Marchers from Allez Allez on Swami Records

“Weight of Love” – Gliss from Langsom on Modern Outsider Records

“By and By” – Renny Wilson from Sugarglider on Mint Records

“The Promise” – Arbouretum from Coming Out of the Fog on Thrill Jockey

“Shuggie” – Foxygen from We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic on Jagjaguwar

“Used To Think” – Pillowfight from Pillowfight on Bulk Recordings / EMI

“Waiting For Some Drunk” – Big Harp from Chain Letters on Saddle Creek

Best New Releases – Bon Iver, 1,2,3, Iceage, JEFF the Brotherhood, Paleo, Ty Segall, Viva Voce, Cassettes Won’t Listen, FM Belfast

Posted on 06/22/201112/18/2019 by Max Hammer

boniverband — Bon Iver are one of the hottest folk indie bands. Justin Vernon (with the banjo) is the band's frontman.

This is the week of Bon Iver. From the top music sites and blogs, to airplay on various television shows and movie soundtracks, and an appearance on Comedy Central‘s The Colbert Report Monday night, the band have been on a roll for the past four years, and have performed at some of the biggest musical festivals, including Bonnaroo, Sasquatch and many others, including fests in the U.K.

Bon Iver is the moniker of musician, singer and songwriter Justin Vernon. In 2007, he self-releaesd the fantastic debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, and became almost an instant ‘indie sensation.’ Interestingly, Bon Iver’s new album, which officially dropped yesterday, is self-titled. Ordinarily, artists and bands use the self-title treatment for a debut album. Perhaps it’s a statement from Vernon, the artist – a deliberate and clear message to indicate this album is what he considers to be his true debut as an artist and musician. During a brief interview before his performance Monday night on The Colbert Report, Vernon told Stephen Colbert that he secluded himself for three months in a remote cabin in the Wisconsin wilderness to write the songs that ultimately became the tracks for his two albums. Bon Iver’s other members are Michael Noyce, Sean Carey and Matthew McCaughan.

Bon Iver is available for streaming via Spinner for a limited time, and can be purchased from Amazon (#2 on Amazon charts) as a 320kps MP3 download. It’s definitely one of our top albums of 2011, and we won’t be surprised to see it listed in Top 10 albums of 2011 on music sites and blogs later this year. Here is the excellent lead single, “Calgary.”

“Calgary” – Bon Iver from Bon Iver

But, first, we want to introduce you to two bands that is on our list for break-through bands of 2011; they are 1, 2, 3 – a Pittsburgh duo who dropped their debut album this week. The second band is a group of teens from Copenhagen who call themselves Iceage, and they are raising eyebrows in Europe as well as the U.S. They will be featured in an upcoming edition of 5 Break-Out Bands of 2011. Iceage dropped their debut album, New Brigade, this week. And the prospects keep piling up – another band that is new to us in 2011 is JEFF The Brotherhood; if you haven’t heard of this band in our previous posts this year, check them out. They are on fire, especially after packed performances at SXSW in March. Plus, don’t miss the new track from the latest album by Ty Seagull, who recently released an EP of T. Rex cover songs, titled Ty Rex.

“Work” – 1,2,3 from New Heaven

“Riding Coach” – 1,2,3 from New Heaven

iceageband — The Copenhagen teenage band Iceage are an IRC Break-Out Band in 2011. Their debut LP is out this week.

“Broken Bone” – Iceage from New Brigade

“White Rune” – Iceage from New Brigade

Here’s the title track via Soundcloud: “New Brigade” – Iceage from New Brigade

“Mellow Out” – JEFF the Brotherhood – from We Are The Champions (Stream)

You Make the Sun Fry – Ty Segall from Goodbye Bread

There are many other great albums out this week that we either have already approved internally, or that we’ve put on our Summer Music Listening List (we’ll be sharing the list soon), including terrific bands like Witches, Cassettes Won’t Listen, Dananananaykroyd, FM Belfast, Yacht, Paleo, Viva Voce, and Gomez. The albums further down in the mix are simply listed because we like the lead single, but, we have not heard them, and will probably not have time to listen to (got to draw the line somewhere:). Also, make sure to check out the In Dee Mail section, which includes new releases that were sent directly to us through the submission form by the artists themselves.

“Creature of Nature” – Witches from Forever

“Perfect Day” – Cassettes Won’t Listen from Evinspacey (Stream)

“Muscle Memory” – Dananananaykroyd from There Is a Way

“New Year” – FM Belfast from Don’t Want To Sleep

“Dystopia” – Yacht from Shangri-La

“In the Movies” – Paleo from Fruit of the Spirit

“Analog Woodland Song” – Viva Voce from The Future Will Destroy You

“Options” – Gomez from Whatever’s On Your Mind

Albums to Stream and links to purchase albums

(don’t miss Part II of this week’s Best New Releases that will be posted in the next couple of days)

– 1,2,3 – New Heaven
– Blood Orange – Sutphin Boulevard EP
– Bobby – Bobby (Stream)
– Bon Iver – Bon Iver (Stream)
– Cassettes Won’t Listen – Evinspacey (Stream)
– Digitalism – I Love You, Dude (Stream)
– Gomez – Whatever’s On Your Mind
– Grieves – Together/Apart
– JEFF The Brotherhood – We Are The Champions (Stream)
– Laurel Halo – Hour Logic EP
– Liam Finn – FOMO
– LMFAO – Sorry For Party Rocking
– OK Go – 180/365 (Live)
– Seun Kuti – From Africa With Fury: Rise
– Skrillex – More Monsters and Sprites
– Ty Segall – Goodbye Bread
– Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Unknown Mortal Orchestra (Stream)
– Viva Voce – The Future Will Destroy You (Stream)
– Weird Al Yankovic – Alpocalypse (Stream)