Music you should listen too: Ty Segall

If you haven't heard about Ty Segall yet, you maybe have been living under a rock over the last 4 or 5 years. In this time, he put out more albums than you can count on 2 hands and gave the world some of the finest rock'n'roll tunes to date. Segall is one of the most interesting and versatile figures in rock music today, so listen up.

Ty Segall loves fast-paced rock'n'roll, sweets and comes from the Bay Area, San Francisco to be more exact. The town has a prospering garage rock scene with bands like Thee Oh Sees (their frontman John Dwyer is one of Segall's closest mates) and The Fresh and Onlys hailing from this area. He started to play in some punk rock bands while attending college before he went solo with only 19 years of age. 

How it should be: crowd going crazy, band going crazy

Playing guitar and drums simultaniously, he also spent some time playing as one-man band. When he put out his first albums, Segall played wild, angry garage punk, every song was about 2 minutes long and like a shout in the crowd's face. And yeah, this crowd was and is still going all crazy at his shows, for example this little story he told Noisey:

Noisey: The last time I saw you play was at the Hoxton in Toronto.
Ty Segall: Oh yeah. Was that the one with the bouncer coming up on stage?

Yeah. What happened there?
The bouncer was being a complete asshole. He was just rough handling all of these kids that were stage diving. I tried to talk to the security when we play, like, “Hey man, the kids are probably going to stage-dive and jump around. Don’t interfere unless someone’s getting punched in the face.” And this guy just really, really rough handled the kids, shoving them really violently, giving them insane whiplash. And I kept telling them, “Don’t fucking do that!” And he kept doing it, so I just grabbed him and tried to push him into the crowd. He was way bigger than me [laughs] and we had a bit of a stand off. And then the guy falls! [laughs] He was being such a dick. He was seriously hurting girls. Like violently shoving girls. It was just insane.

The first two albums he released, the self-titled Ty Segall and Lemons show his rather raw and wild side, shredding the electric guitar and screaming his lyrics out to the world. 

The best thing about his music and his journey as a musician is that you can clearly see how he developes, how he tries different things and just never slows down. Known for his rapid-fire release speed, he released an average of 2,14 albums per year - from 2007 on.

Besides his solo paths, he also runs different collaborations with some close friends and fellow Bay Area musicians. There is the Ty Segall Band, in which he plays with Mikal Cronin and others. They put out Slaughterhouse, a heavy piece of a record with a lot of fast pace guitar shredding and wild, aggressive songs. The most outstanding track is maybe this one, a cover of a classic 60's song. You won't encounter a heavier version of this one, I promise.

Other non-solo projects include a collaboration with his bandmate Mikal Cronin, Reverse Shark Attack. A short and gnarly piece of an album. In 2012 he teamed up with White Fence to release something a little bit different, the dreamy, power-pop inspirated LP Hair. It's a slower than his other works, more laid-back and is full of good vibes.

Speaking of 2012, one thing has to mentioned: in this year Ty Segall released three full-length albums. Three fucking LPs. Besides Slaughterhouse and Hair also his solo record Twins. The title is a reference to his divided personality he pointed out in various interviews. While going totally crazy on his shows, he seems more like a down-to-earth guy when it comes to everyday life. Twins all about fuzzed out guitars and heavy, hooking melodies.

The latest solo record he released sees Ty Segall taking back a step from his wild garage punk roots. Sleeper is an all-acoustic album he put out last year, while struggling with the death of his father. It shows off a different side of the prolific rocker: slow and melodious, this album is easily his most stripped-down one to date. The lyrics circle mostly about sleeping and dreaming, no doubt that Segall reaches the peak of his songwriting with this LP. 

 

I really wonder how this guy can be so prolific and still deliver solid-to-awesome records all the time. One of the most interesting minds in rock right now, thats for sure. The only question is which tracks and albums he is going to put out in the future, one can only be excited about his stuff.

To finish off this little hymn on Ty Segall, I picked some of my all-time favourites. Listen through, you won't be disappointed!

text: David Tiefenthaler

Nighttime wizardry in Premia skatepark/BCN

Our Barcelona connection is still in operating mode and our man Iñaki Gil is holding it down there for Alchemyst. This time he packed up his homies and went to a local skatepark to get some nightshred. And damn, they really destroyed the place with the right vibe. All these guys shred and are way too underrated. 

"I think the video has such a nice vibe because it evolved naturally, we were not forced into filming any of it, it's just the result of a sesh with the homies" - Dani Cardona

"We were actually missing some friends who ride with us on a daily basis such as Pablo Fernandez, Luis torres, Max Sabartes... It makes me wonder how much better the session could have been if they had made it, but it turned out being a crazy one anyway. At about 12:30 am right after Damia's bs lipslide on the large part of the pool the lights of the park turned off and we headed over to Yago's place to grab some beers and have a late dinner" - Iñaki Gil

Dani Cardona with a judo foot plant

Shred VIE for a day

We recently got together in Vienna again to get a good portion of spring shred. To get you a little bit into the spots and the vibe the city has to offer, we shot some flicks of what went down and topped it with some text, to make up for a decent article about one of these notorious and intense VIE seshs.

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Kill that spot: crooks for breakfast, served by Juraj Klas

The conditions for a successful sesh weren't too good: Mr. Google forecasted rain and the Vienna City Marathon was also going down in the city on this spring sunday. What usually means: too much people on the street, public transport problems and a whole shitload of policemen hanging around in the city. So we started the day at one of Vienna's rare roofed spots: in the metro station Karlsplatz. A shitty curb and a "powerslide-area" were enough for some warm-ups.

Getting high up on the walls of the Wienfluss

After having waited for the rain to end, we headed over to Stadtpark and saw some of the last participants of the marathon passing by kilometre 40. Pushed by some bad EDM, some of them looked closer to a heartattack than to finishing the run.

Riding the spot from the flick above is a thing I wanted to do for some time now. After seeing it in a skatemagazine, it just got me hooked. The problem is the accessibility of the spot: it is situated in a riverbed and only accessible over one single staircase, where most of the time homeless persons are sheltering. But after having a short talk and giving them some coins, they were all cool with us passing their stairs and we could enter the riverbed.

And to be honest, it was the most fucked up spot I have ever been to. Not the spot as such, which was pretty good, but the surroundings: the slipery concrete, the dead rats lying on the ground and the omnipresent garbage made up for a special experience. 

Adjusting the VX to one of Vienna's best known spots

The very centre of Vienna is not too big and you can mob around on your scooter without being absolutely dependant on public transport. So we just moved on and got some lines on one of Vienna's most famous spots near the Urania.

Boosting some transfers 

After tackling some more spots, we decided to go for something totally different and ride one of the most fucked up skateparks in the city, again on Karlsplatz. I have never seen anybody seriously shred this park, because it is just shitty as fuck. But we just wanted to give it a try and see what we can do with these obstacles, to approach them differently and change their meaning. And damn, this was fun as hell!

Empty Naschmarkt

Hops are still loads of fun, you know?!

This is one of the oldest and - during the week - busiest food markets in VIE. Jah bless it was sunday: nobody asking you stupid questions and the sun was shining too. Though i have been riding Vienna for years already, I have never been to this particular spot.

WTF, is he taking a selfie?!

This assured me a beer

The Westbahnhof wallride marked the end of another damn-good sesh in Vienna. Though the run-up is most of the time crowded as hell (it's a railway station, stupid!) this is always a nice finisher.

text: David Tiefenthaler

photos: Lukas Rozhon, Juraj Klas and David Tiefenthaler

What the winds have brought

Just to say few words, non of those are really up to date, it's rather a little selection of ones which were taken abroad. Enjoy

Vienna's industrial suburb - tripped there from Bratislava on my bike

 

Deep dark water of Danube river

  

Verdun's architecture in late July's light

Bratislava's landscape from somewhere near Hainburg

Vienna with its bergs and vineyards

rushy streets in Prag

Analogue's pleasure: The B/W part

So well, we are about to continue our series of analogue photographs for your visual pleasure. These flicks are not really connected to each other in some special way because the whole roll was shot over a very long timespan. So yeah, just have a look at them and see if you can dig some of them, there are shots from all over the place.

the first cold days in the woods of Slovenia

this was like....the only warm place in Bratislava. a nice place for a casual hillbomb. and yes, we got kicked out. fuckers.

after a whole day of rain, the weather blessed us with a sunny afternoon....this is the magical moment of change.

the winter blues

the slovenian riviera shows off some of its best sides

zorro? nah, just carnival

Photos shot on Nikon FE

text and flicks: David Tiefenthaler