Ty Segall: Live in Aisle Five Review
88/100
The start of the B-side of the new Ty Segall live album, Live In Aisle Five, is a perfect representation of the world of Ty Segall. Starting off with a circular guitar riff, fat and juicy, seemingly leading to some garage rock nirvana, the song starts and stops in fits, driving the crowd nuts. Drums are added, only serving to whip the crowd into an even thicker frenzy. Desperate pleas to “c’mon” and shrieks are mixed with someone pleading for Segall to “play the fucking music.” It isn’t a threat or a taunt, but a reflection of the feelings often felt when listening to Segall’s just challenging enough mix of noise, punk and garage rock. Live in Aisle Five shows a confident and commanding artist, one who may push some listeners to the edge, but always is worth the ride.
The record is a 13 song blitz that is loud, loose and fun. In a surprising move (for a guy with a Robert Pollard-like catalogue) there are two cover songs on the LP. GG Allin’s “Don’t Talk to Me” and set closer “Baby Baby Baby” by the Vibrators. The rest of songs are classic Segall, with bombastic vocals, pulverizing guitars and a just barely contained rhythm section. Although he is now backed by a band, you can hear the nexus of the songs are tracks stripped to their bare minimum, as Segall was a literal one man band (both in the studio and live) in the not so distant past. Highlights include the sinister “Pretty Baby (You’re So Ugly)” and the razor sharp “Caeser,” a highlight off of his last LP Melted.
While he left off my favorite song of his (“The Drag” from his debut, self titled LP), there is little else to complain about with this great record. The energy emitting from the speakers makes the listener feel like they were in the room in San Francisco last year and make a sober person feel euphoric. While there may reach a point of over saturation with Segall, that point has certainly not been reached yet for me. Live is Aisle Five only makes me more excited about this young artist and increases my desire for him to make a trek to Minneapolis to give us a firsthand account of what, at least on record, is an amazing live show.
— Josh
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