Gyasi at Mile of Music, 2022

Here Comes the Good Part is Gyasi’s second LP – it’s my first listen (just came in the mail) and I love it! There’s a ton of 70’s T. Rex glam (“Baby Blue” especially) and Bowie (“Grand Finale“), but also a lot of other influences. My picks: The opener “Sweet Thing” – 60’s jangly psych-rock vibes. “Lightning” is straight-up fantastic rock: notes of Tom Petty plus some buzzy Jack White-style guitar: SO good. “Snake City” has its roots in stomping blues (with harmonica!). “Street Life” is Zeppelin-esque and a dead-ringer for both Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, same with another hot rocker “Cheap High.” The riffs on those plus “Star” are killer. While not my favorite, there’s even some bossanova notes (and saxophone!) on “23.”  I’ll have this album on repeat for awhile and fingers crossed he tours soon and plays a show we can get to.

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Gyasi “Teacher” 2019. Fat Elvis Records. Limited edition 7″ single on clear blue vinyl. I was listening to Gyasi’s LP Pronounced Jah-See this morning, remembering the warm days of early August when we caught Gyasi’s performance up at Mile of Music, where we picked up this single. Glittering glam rock, highly influenced by T. Rex and Bowie (if the knee-high platforms and the vinyl’s lightning bolt didn’t give it away), Gyasi is simply fabulous rock-n-roll: “Teacher” starts off with droning accordion and then launches into Zeppelin-meets-Bolan blues rock, with sparkles. I love the B-side’s “Adrognyne” which also appears on Pronounced Jay-See. It’s catchy, clever and definitely ass-shaking. Fingers crossed they venture north (they’re based out of Nashville) to perform again soon.

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I’ve had Pronounced Jah-See on repeat since we picked it up at the show on Friday afternoon and I love every single track. The opener “Burn It Down” is an all-out glam rocker, followed by the blues stomper “Tongue Tied“: think Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney dressed in sparkles and heels. “Androgyne” is, I’m guessing, autobiographical and so damn catchy, bendy blues guitar celebrating individuality. “Black Strap” goes big and heavy; “All Messed Up,” the strutting “Fast Love” and “Walk On” go straight-up early 70’s T. Rex/Ziggy era Bowie with shredding guitar. “Little Tramp” feels earlier T. Rex, more psychedelic English folk (there’s flute!). “Feed Your Face” would be comfy hanging out on pretty much any Ty Segall album and “She Don’t Care” on a Jack White LP. (I should reiterate here how much I love Ty Segall and Jack White.) “Kiss Kiss” is so fun, like Zeppelin and New York Dolls had the most fabulous baby ever. “Swordfight” does not appear on the vinyl release but is on the digital version: not only is it a heavy-duty head-banging rocker but it also makes me laugh — there absolutely was air-sword during their performance and it was glorious. The opening lyrics of the closer “Godhead” sum up Gyasi nicely: “Well me and all my friends, we sparkle and we preen, outcasts writing fables…” I cannot wait for Gyasi to swing back through our area; I am utterly smitten with the music, the look, the performance – they are the full package and without irony: just pure straight-up genuine love for glamorous and heavy rock and roll. Including several videos here as they are all too good to miss.

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Hello, Hi is a mostly mellow acoustic album (he opened his show at First Avenue with “Good Morning” from Hello, Hi and possibly “Saturday Pt. 1” and “Saturday Pt. 2“). Much of its sound is reminiscent of pre-glam T. Rex when Marc Bolan and Steve Peregrin Took were doing their psychedelic folk thing, sounding like they would be most comfortable strumming a lute around the May Pole. Recorded in 2020 during the pandemic shutdown (the closing song “Distraction” pretty much perfectly sums up those weird months), Hello, Hi feels very introspective, intimate and quiet: many tracks are just Ty alone with his guitar, his voice frequently high and a little warbly as if just at the edge of being overcome by emotion – see especially “Blue” when his overdubbed harmonies croon “you can’t erase the pain.” His cover of The Mantles‘ “Don’t Lie” is lovely and lilting and “Looking At You” is simply beautiful, a little reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s mellower work, and one of my favorite songs on the record. He does add in some electric buzz and fuzz as the song builds toward its end. My top track is the total, all-out buzzed and fuzzed title track rocker “Hello, Hi.”

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It was an awesome show that started with him playing solo acoustic for a couple of songs before his Freedom band joined and tore the roof off in a maelstrom of fuzz and buzz. We had secured a spot right up front which was excellent – until it wasn’t. There had been a small pit that formed and unformed throughout the concert, which was mildly irritating but manageable. However at the final encore, a couple of guys charged the security fence and leaped over. This is where things get hazy for me and I didn’t see what happened but the next thing I know, a guy apparently must have made it up onstage and dived – right onto me. He hit me at the base of my neck/top of my thoracic spine and I went down. I was pulled from the crowd and made it to a wall where I think I was surrounded by security asking me if I was OK. I was able to respond to indicate that I did not want them to call an ambulance as I was able to move my head and process thought enough to know what was going on (and to know that I did not want the medical bills associated with an ambulance ride and ER visit). When the last song ended and Joe went to get the car (no way was I up for walking through downtown Minneapolis to get to where we parked), security got me a massive bag of ice from the bar and I literally laid down on the floor of First Ave, draped over that ice. After a few minutes, Ty himself came out to check on me and find out how I was doing. He apologized profusely (I let him know it wasn’t his fault!), we commiserated on how the kids these days don’t know pit and stage-dive etiquette (Ty: “You make direct eye contact first! Then you go!”). He also expressed his love for Spotted Cow beer when he learned I was from Wisconsin (you can’t get Spotted Cow outside of the state and he had loaded up while driving through) and offered me one (I declined). He also offered me free tickets to any of his shows from here on out. (I’ve been in contact with his manager and she’s confirmed free shows for me!) So I guess that’s cool even though I still am sore and have weird nerve shit happening in my arms and hands two days later.

Anyway, Manipulator: it too is fuzzy, buzzy and awesome. My top tracks are “It’s Over,” the groovy ass-shaker “Feel,” the extra-glammy/Marc Bolan-dentical “The Clock,” “The Hand” and the Stooges-inspired “The Crawler.”

Another top track is the super-catchy “Tall Man Skinny Lady” – the video linked below is from Ty and his Manipulator Band performing at Grimey’s in Nashville, which is perfect because that’s where we picked up this copy of Manipulator just a few weeks ago. (Two of the guys in the band are in his current Freedom band: though the guitarist is now on drums.)

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Bowie is one of my favorite artists of all-time, the influencer of diverse musicians – from Darby Crash of the Germs to Duran Duran – and he apparently was the glue that held our universe together. I’ve been obsessed with “Starman” for years, such an amazing groove and so very otherworldly Bowie. I’ve had equally intense obsessions with “Five Years” (especially after reading the Darby Crash biography Lexicon Devil in which I read that Crash pretty much modeled his rock-n-roll career and death on the song), “Suffragette City” (around 1988 while in high school I got in some trouble for writing “wham, bam thank you ma’am” on the cafeteria windows) and the title track “Ziggy Stardust.” However, the entire record is glam rock perfection and I’m sure I’ll go through “Soul Love” and “It Ain’t Easy” obsessions soon.

Ziggy Stardust was Bowie’s biggest album to that point in his career; after entering the charts at #10, it reached #5 in the UK and hit #75 in the US. Considered one of the greatest records ever, it is included in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry. The single “Starman” (with its b-side “Suffragette City”) hit #10 in the UK and #65 in the US. The other single released from Ziggy Stardust, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide,” just went to #22 in the UK after its belated release in 1974, a move RCA made in anticipation of Bowie’s upcoming Diamond Dogs LP.

In June 2019 we made a musical pilgrimage to London and one of our must-visits was the alley where the cover of Ziggy Stardust was photographed. It looks a lot different now, of course, but I had Joe replicate it to the best of my ability. There’s also a plaque that helpfully shows pilgrims like ourselves the exact spot (honestly the alley, or more specifically 14-18 Heddon St. just off of Savile Row, wasn’t that easy to find, at least for us).

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