7INCHES podcast - Episode 11

Get it over on itunes.

Strapping it on for 2014 we get back into the records and talk about that Mar Lannegan box set on Light in the Attic, you guys should hear this guitarist from the '60s named Jimi Hendrix...really great, Ariel Pink's latest single with Jorge Elbrecht on Mexican Summer, dumb vinyl news, Nashvilles’s Dead - Live at Glen Danzig's house, Death Waltz soundtracks, New Flexi Series from Joyous Noise, 3 new ones from Randy Records, and the 1,2,3,4 go record store kickstarter

My pick this week is the Heaven Help The Child split single from Mickey Newbury and Bill Callahan. Darren's pick is a Big Star tribute single with John Davis.

347-770-1469 is the singles message hotline, let us know what you're listening to or anything at all, we aren't jerks, it would be nice to hear from you...really.

Top 10 7 inches of 2011 with Darren from VOS

TOP

Darren, from Velocity of Sound and I talked about our top 7" picks for the year.
Spoiler Alert.

Darren:

10) Wilco - Dpm records

9) The Ketamines - Hozac records 

8) Fresh and Onlys - Sexbeat Records

7) Raw Blow - self released

6) The Boomgates - Smart Guy records

5) The Vivian Girls - Polyvinyl Records

4) The Lower Dens - Sub Pop

3) D Watusi - Cass Records

2) Diarrhea Planet - Infinity Cat

1) Tim Cohen - Captured Tracks

Jason:

10) Natural Child/Liquor Store split on Almost Ready Records

9) Snakeflower 2 - Southpaw Records

8) The Whines - Mt. St. Mtn. Records

7) Ty Segall - Drag City

6) Jeff Novak - Trouble in Mind

5) Real Numbers - Floridas Dying

4) Grass Widow - HLR Records

3) Art Museums - Dul-Ci-Tone Records

2) White Stripes - Third Man Records

1) Jay Reatard - Shattered Records

Now go listen to us play excerpts and defend our picks - download the show here (48mb).

Stay tuned for an upcoming TOP 30! with Styrofoam Drone as I reserve the right to completely change the entire list.

Sic Alps - Breadhead EP on Drag City

Just wanted to mention another release from Drag City, this one is a seven inch from Sic Alps, who I've been checking out since the Semi Streets single on Skulltones, they always seemed to be working with all kinds of influences, garage, some pounding punk, experimental distortion and like the Ty full length from yesterday, this one seems to be exploring a similar 60's psyche sound in the Fresh and Onlys, White Fence ways. But when you look back at their involvement with Hospitals, The Coachwhips and Comets on Fire, it makes perfect sense.
A-Side kicks off with the title track, "Breadhead" is it a coincidence Ty's full length had something to do with bread? I don't think so. They got together, flying the same flag for DC.
They start the track out with that a slow reverb rhythm melody repeatedly punctuated by great splintered distortion, just banging out a crunchy mess of almost glitch rock, sounding like this barely contained force, overflowing with distortion. It gets away from you...by the end it bubbles over and destroys the stove. Like a tesla coil, sparking at inopportune times. It's a signature Sic Alps sound on this single at least, to create a mellow catchy psyche vibe and then introduce this otherworldly distortion. It doesn't phase the rest of the sound, plodding on with that booming tom beat.
"Jammy Soc" turns the reverb up with a ringing acoustic, and huge whispered harmony from Mike Donovan, panning back and forth across the speakers. A barely hit drum rhythm is trying to stay in the background with subtle hits, a creepy shoegaze feel that ends with the tape warbling to a stop. Remember when cassette's would get eaten in the car stereo? I don't miss that.
On to the B-Side's "1/3 Rabbit Sandwich with Fries", I would try that, anything weird on a menu, they get me every time, even if it isn't a whole sandwich. This one feels like that ramshackle rehearsal space jam, loud falsetto PA vocals over the sludgy rhythm of slow acoustic and an assortment of shakers, tambourines, bells. You could hear the fun layering in everything in the closet.
"Can't You See" then explodes with pure '60s influenced psyche-pop, the perfect amount of reverb strumming along, pounding snare, humming bassline, they found a perfect groove to wrap the whole thing back up in expert songwriting. Mike layering a front slightly distorted soul delivery over a quieter backup falsetto vocal. Bringing it all back to the Animals or Kinks...hey, I've been finding out they had some pretty good stuff going on back then, maybe because this is actually a Bob Marley cover? WHAT!

I had no idea they have another single coming out in a few days.. again on Drag City, and 2(!) double albums out with these guys already, put all these together and you'd have nine million hours of Sic Alps. I want.

Ty Segall - Goodbye Bread on Drag City Records

The bloodhound on the cover of Ty Segall’s latest full length, Goodbye Bread on Drag City could be something of a metaphor for the Bay area artist; the result of highly focused breeding with a single trait in mind, smell. It’s a bit of a stretch probably... does that mean then that Melted has something to do with deformed mannequins? Burn victims? I doubt it, but there is something to the idea to me about Ty being as determined to examine, experiment and rework his guitar sound as that freakishly wrinkly breed. His songwriting is quickly evolving, the number of singles and full length releases the last five years, counting only the work done under his own name is impressive by anyone’s standards, and with every release, the gritty, blues distortion is punched up with fast surf and 60’s garage rock tempo’s in unique ways. The stabs in different directions could be enough to provide paths for multiple bands to explore, but Ty is content to completely decimate a line of thought and move on.
The roots of Ty’s early work might have been recorded underneath a low-fi, over-modulated dense fuzz, but Goodbye Bread has the shiny gleaming production of something more classic, not that those elements don’t show up in different ways, the tortured squealing guitar sound is still there, and in this White-era Beatles reverb context it’s even more effective, it isn’t ever a progressive style pat on the back, it naturally settles into a comfortable crevice, reminding me of that single note solo on “Cinnamon Girl”. Ty’s guitar playing has the same economy and expression in an incredibly minimal melody, that’s his constant trick, to be a hell of a guitar player, and never let you know it.
Overall, Goodbye Bread is more laid back then the overwhelming bashing over the head, tom tom rhythm’s of previous records, but those raw influences and inspired songwriting has just taken a different form.
Take the sentiment of “Comfortable Home (A True Story)”, like “My Girls” from Animal Collective, Ty tackles the very responsible attitude towards buying a house, all done in typical stomping rhythm, and damaged solo with a surprising amount of vocal harmony, the track eventually devolving in breaking down the very structure itself. He’s also exploring combining this stripped down riffing with a drawn out psyche sound with a majority of tracks coming in at over four minutes. “I Am With You” even finds Ty playing a shimmery acoustic guitar, a stream of consciousness list of abstract things he’s sick of, until the song takes an optimistic turn towards appreciating the simple things. A heavy, stumbling crunch guitar gets down into the thick of truly mind expanding freakout. “You Make The Sun Fry” maybe the best example of both Ty’s traditional garage songwriting ability and his latest direction, heavy reverb vocal over a bluesy stuttered scale which launches into epic airy psychedelic heights. An album which is going to be a solid entry point for new fans and satisfying the ones who still cherish the 'Cents' single as a touchstone of dirty garage pop.