TY SEGALL - Lemons

On his second album in under a year, Ty Segall returns with another killer slab of voluminous rock’n’roll.  Already a veteran of the fertile California garage rock scene, Segall has fronted the Epsilons and played with Party Fowl, The Perverts, The Traditional Fools, and most recently Sic Alps.  Instead of spreading himself thin, though, a common side-effect of playing in too many bands, Segall, like Jay Reatard, has risen to the top of his scene at a young age with a confidence that most others only attain in their later years.  But while the aforementioned Reatard colours his sound with new wave/Zealand indie references, Segall grabs the baton (caveman club?) from Billy Childish and '60s Washington punks, keeping it real with tube distortion and piles of retro reverb.  The cover of Captain Beefheart’s “Dropout Boogie” is a pleasant surprise and an excellent choice.  There is a lot of great garage rock out there these days, and this is some of the best of the year so far.