Ty Segall - Cents on Goner records

I happened to pick this up in SF at Amoeba, long after it was gone from Goner.
How can you make just a distorted guitar sound so good. So energetic, clean...there's no hiss to any of this, the quiet breaks are silent, just the vocals and guitar are distorted...with that hint of reverb that wavers on when he abruptly pauses. It's got everything mystical from that garage era wrapped up in the two minutes. The natural flat sounding drums, minimal arrangement...no cymbals always on the beat, 4/4, snare kick snare kick. Like Doo Rag, it's all deep thump of hitting mic'ed cardboard boxes. Everything just shines on this, the blown out vocals, it's all maxed out, crunch guitar is turned up. It's pop informed by this overall low-fi approach.

'Cents' even starts and ends with a thud of setting the guitar down or getting ready to strum. I'm trying to think why I keep thinking about the White Stripes. It's hard to imagine them now without all the nonsense of the past few years rearing up but their self titled full length was so great at the time, so simplified, just focused on classic songwriting and reinterpreting the blues...or going back to that formula and reenacting it in a pure way...all of this Ty Segall has by the junkyard-full.

He's the kind of guy who probably throws this down on the 4-track on a Wednesday night and calls it another single.
This is such complete energy that I wasn't getting from the Traditional Fools, I didn't get this sound from them at all.
The B-Side is even more frantic, with 'No, No' but it never goes all off the tracks, it's concise, gated effects, that punch, it has to be a few guitars in layers. There's a great little moments of solo-ing with two guitar tracks distorted and running into each other, harmonized. On 'Standing at the Station' it just reminds me the guitar melodies are always so simple... it's all about rhythm, very much that memphis/reatard/novak sound. The focus on the strummed chord and it's jagged arrangements.

Scratched in the gutter is 'Can't stop No!', I get it Ty, there's going to be a lot more singles on the way. I'm going to scratch on my wallet, 'Please give me a break already.'