Ty Segall “First Taste” 2019. Drag City Records. I’m pretty sure a year ago today, or close to it, we were supposed to be seeing Ty perform in Chicago as part of the extended tour for this album. Well, we all know how that turned out. I had set aside this release, his eleventh studio album and at this point the last solo recording (he put out releases with both Fuzz and Wasted Shirt in 2020) to write about as part of that show review. Clearly I have officially given up on that. Anyway! First Taste, which went to #13 on the US Independent Album chart, is excellent fuzzy, buzzy, spaced-out garage rock, though a bitch to photograph with its book-fold opening – the cover kept collapsing onto the vinyl.

My top tracks are the lead song “Taste,” the trippy “I Worship the Dog,” the super-excellent, 60′s pop-psych groove (with killer mandolin!) of both “The Arms” and “I Sing Them,” the ass-shaking funk of the short instrumental “When I Met My Parents (Part 1)” (there’s also a “When I Met My Parents (Part 3)” but no Part 2 🤷‍♀️) and the mandolin and pipe flute-infused “Lone Cowboys” that feels  like an English folk tune (think Jethro Tull) dropped into a jazzy spaghetti western with a hit of flamenco. Weird weird shit but super-groovy.