Sicalpglyphics

Who else is excited for the new Sic Alps album? Their last Napa Asylum didn't get the love last year that I thought it deserved, yet after their sneaky little 7" Pangea Globe and now if new track 'Glyphs' is any indicator, they are about to rend apart the space-time continuum. Yes there is fidelity in production, yes there are string arrangements, and YES, it's undoubtedly Sic Alps, Mike Donovan et al (with Ty Segall definitely in tow) doing what they do because they can and because they're good. It'll be self-titled, and is coming out on Drag City on September 11 (no connotations necessary). Pre-order it here.

Sic Alps - Glyphs

A Dope Body Of (Un) Natural History

Although I missed last year's Nupping, Baltimore noise-addicts Dope Body slayed me with their debut record 20 Pound Brick back in 2009. Such lurid aggression wrapped up in garage punk bursts. New album Natural History shows them redefining their sound, expanding into weird and wonderful realms in the process. It is difficult to put a finger on it - being from Baltimore, whilst an obvious, cliched touchstone, may still have something to do with it - but the fun is to be found in the abnormal elements of these relatively familiar sounds. There is nothing safe here - everything threatens to explode, implode, combust or impregnate at every visceral twist and turn. It's when the band pulls back on the reins - the dirge-like canter of opener 'Shook', the jerky trip of 'Lazy Slave', the at-odds guitar interplay on 'Twice The Life' - that the curveballs are thrown, just in time for a balltearer like 'Road Dog' comes through and rips your guts out.


Natural History is a weird and wonderful listen, full of viscera and violence, yet smeared with a heady grin. Dope Body toy with convention and win. It's out now on Drag City - pick it up and drop it here.

Dope Body - Lazy Slave
Dope Body - Weird Mirror

Triple Ty Treat

I haven't been lathering you with Ty Segall-isms, so you may have thought that the whirling wunderkind had gone quiet. Au contraire, mon frere! The San Francisco garage ratbag has released a shit tonne of stuff.


Firstly we have the split tour release Segall did with French psych ruffians The Feeling Of Love (another awesome, and in my eyes/ears/head a criminally underrated band). One track each side, heretofore unreleased. It's rough and ready, which is more Segall's M.O. than The Feeling Of Love (their Dissolve Me release may have been a little cut-rate, but still comes off as slick and sexy), but altogether ace.

Ty Segall - It's A Problem


Now there is the oft-spoken of collaboration with Tim Presley AKA White Fence, the result being the twenty-nine minute LP Hair (out through Drag City). Both dudes have their idiosyncratic stamp all over these tracks, and it is a truly excellent album. Although too short, as the album races towards its conclusion like a bat out of hell. These guys complement each other, showcase how the lo-fi psych garage movement has many more corners left to shine a light on, and are ever closer to smashing through the glass ceiling. They are their only limitations, which is inimitably exciting news.

Ty Segall & White Fence - I Am Not A GameTy Segall & White Fence - Scissor People

Finally we have The Ty Segall Band, which also features the excellent Mikal Cronin. So far I have only heard this one track, but it is enough to have me rabid with excitement. Slaughterhouse isn't out til June 26 (through In The Red), but it is clear that Segall's promise to deliver something heavier (with a focal point being Black Sabbath) and more melody. Well, the below track has prog psych rock written all over its sweaty, red-eyed face.

Ty Segall Band - Wave Goodbye

These next three releases are in the bag, and there is promise of more in the near future kids, so keep saving your pennies, never get complacent, because another Ty Segall release will always be around the corner (they don't call him "Five To Eight" IE "how many albums out per year" for nothing...)

Frank Fairfield Fiddles; Anonymeye's Adroit Anontendres

I have a couple of juicy little tidbits coming from local muso/promoter/tech wizard/all round good guy Andrew Tuttle to throw your way today.

Firstly he is organising a tour for the amazing young American bluegrass/old-time musician Frank Fairfield in December. He's going to be playing Meredith Festival and eight headline shows along the East Coast in December, including shows in Brisbane (Syncretism at Judith Wright Centre on Thurs 15/12, supported by Ryan Francesconi [USA, Drag City label, member of Joanna Newsom's band and arranger of her last album. Show is a
co-presentation with Tuttle's label Room40) and Gold Coast (The Sound Lounge on Fri
16/12, supported by Laneway from the Coast, and Anonymeye). Fairfield, impossibly young in comparison to his age-old sermons on life and the wilderness from a bygone Southern era, released Out On The Open West, which really showcases this burning talent. There's heaps
of tour info available at www.micronationstours.com.

Frank Fairfield - Poor Old Lance


The second piece of info surrounds Tuttle's solo project, Anonymeye. He recently released Anontendre (on Room40's avant-pop offshoot, Someone Good). He may be a great ambassador for experimental music from all over the world, but what he creates individually is something to behold. Using his usual (don't confuse with traditional) template of acoustic guitar, signal processing, synthesisers, and effects units, Anontendre is a work of art, an ambient sojourn into the off-kilter world that lies beneath the cosmopolis of everyday life, its gentle folk inflections augmented by the digital intrusions. Its a fantastic listen - a melodious composition that marries varying sonic realms with relative ease, creating a gossamer waterfall of elegiac soundwaves. You can grab it from the Room40 store here.

Anonymeye - Federation