Ty Segall knows where my head goes - or, the Devil swings the wrench one more time...

Finally settled after a jostled morning. I was setting out today to write about something unrelated, or independent of-- music, but soon felt the wind knocked out of me...

I've found I need, or at least rely-upon, terrible and beautiful guitars, melodious moans and the unrelenting, jarring stomp and punch of drums steadily reverberating into my ears, as a vital ignition... to start up the whatever-it-is, inside of me, -maybe, some kind of demon that demands appeasement or merely an engine of primitive design, forever mangled by numerous dents wrought by the Devil pounding upon it with the wrench of rock n roll.

I hit the already humid morning air under an up-and-at-em sun, pedaling down the service drive in the opposite direction of the rat race river of autos, angling past the same soaked plastic bag, a mud-splattered expired jellyfish, under the interstate bridge and then onwards, huffing diesel exhaust, pumping my way up a nearly 45-degree angled paved sidewalk...

...only to get to the coffee shop and find out that the "wi-fi" is "down" and thus feel shame in the Luddite/pen-and-paper-purist quadrants of my being for being caught red-handed for Internet dependency.

What to write about today?

***That Apple unveiled The Cloud? Thus that you can listen to songs from your iTunes-Library ANYWHERE...assuming you have your iPod/iPhone/iPad on-hand as well (and here's betting with dystopian surety that you will!)

***But, on days like these, D-Day of all days, it feels inhuman, in a way, to be going through the motions of writing about music... (World War II Veterans recall D-Day 67 Years Later)

***...I could write about music - and let you know that mangled-folk/indie-punk upstart Ty Segall seems to be on a considerable upswing, with a lot of Internet-eyes already peering forth through the staticy seas to the proper release of the 5th album (in three years) from the San-Fran-based troubadour of all things reverb, haze, aloof melody and dadaist-flirting lyrics...with the venerable/eclectic Drag City getting behind his ramshackle blends...

***Or, maybe I could follow through on actually ruminating on the anniversary of D-Day; not only, first and foremost, out of respect for the lives lost and the admirable dedication of the soldiers who fought, died or were injured, on that day, back 67 years ago on Normandy and Ohama Beach respectively... but also as, (if you'll indulge my unusually flaring cynical side), another opportunity to reflect, with genuine concern more so than high-horse repudiation, of the apathy, or disconnected complacency, of majority of Americans...

...which was also highlighted last weekend as we recognized the 30 years since the first AIDS diagnosis... (AIDS Brings Out Best, Worst in US ; 30-years-on, Experts Demand More Action)

Or, how about this for tra-la-la -ringing memorials: Marking D-Day with Massive U.S. Paintball Battle)

~
I don't usually write about non-musical issues because once I do wade my way out into the deep-end, beyond the buoy markers, I end up getting pulled down, to where my craning neck just barely juts my chin above the surface, sucking for air as the anchor of negativity coaxes me deeper...

It's amazing what "hope" and "change" looks like, at one instance, and what it winds up looking like, two years later:

Obama uses AutoPen to sign Patriot Act extension...

I always come back to music because I don't have the energy, or rather the masochistic/misanthropic fetishist leanings necessary in order to genuinely inspire in me an urge to consistently return to what is, most often, a circus of madness, misappropriation, malcontent, misdeeds, and fanatical posturing of bellicosity and impressive(ly empty) rhetoric...

I always come back to music because it is often the ideal escape. (Justifiably, an intellectual escape...but also, a universal means of communication as old as language itself).

~
I'll be frank with you...

I started writing this piece, this piece, with two intentions:

To tell you about Ty Segall's newest album, "Goodbye Bread" (mostly a stylistic step forward for the auteur of acerbic-pop into slightly cleaner palettes of dreamy/druggy/drifting acoustic-jangled chorales)...

...and then to maybe start thinking out loud what it would be like if I stopped writing about music...stopped writing here... at least for a little while... It's something that's been nibbling on my mind. Milo without the music.

But, I'm not ready to follow that to it's inevitable -staring-out-into-the-ether-at-the-edge-of-a-cliff--conclusion...

So, instead...

I'll expound upon Segall's latest - a keen sculpting of sun-fried psychedelia - some kind of bewitching blend of late 60's reverb-soaked Brit-rock--think Pretty Things on S.F. Sorrow! ...like a revival of that curious era when the paisley prance of mainstream-co-opted Mod sensibilities had been warped into a beautiful nightmare swathed in an edgier smokescreen of surrealism...

But then, dash in an almost bluesy cut of cathartic guitar shreds ("The Floor"), or even an early-70's era Lennon's take on snarling ballads ("You Make the Sun Fry"), add in a grunge-feeling growl to the low end guitars ("Where Your Head Goes") and turn it all on its head with early prog/glam dashes on the acoustic strut and slide of "I Am With You" as it rings of quintessential Bolan or Rebel-Rebel-Bowie. And then, of course, Seagall's typical sardonic, scuffed, tumbling ballads shine through on brow-cocking shrug-and-shred outings like "Comfortable Home (A True Story)."

Take a listen: Ty Segall - "You Make the Sun Fry" (via pitchfork.com)

Goodbye Bread is out June 21st - but you can check out a 7" "I Can't Feel It" (now, by clicking here).

~

P.S.

June 11th at the Lager House - 18 bands enter, 18 bands leave... But 18 bands also get documented for a forthcoming film that aims to capture "the Detroit scene..." "...at a moment" (this moment) "in time."

What the (mostly-rock, but also electro, and punk,) parties have to offer, will be on display...for your dissection and montage-esque appraisal...