Mikal Cronin - "Shout It Out"

Longtime Ty Segall collaborator Mikal Cronin, who's debut on Chicago's Trouble In Mind Records was one of the very best albums of 2011, is now set to return with his sophomore effort on May 7th on indie heavyweight Merge Records. The Laguna Beach native recorded his new album, simply titled MCII, in San Francisco alongside Eric Bauer, who runs his own Bauer Mansion studio and has recorded everyone in the Bay Area from Sic Alps and Thee Oh Sees to Segall's latest, Twins. The first single from Cronin's forthcoming effort, "Shout It Out," continues along the same stylistic lines introduced on his debut: bubbly melodies and breezy sun-soaked acoustic guitars juxtaposed with a colossal hammering of amplified fuzz. Cronin's template though has never sounded so sharply honed and never felt this instantaneously satisfying.

The Best of 2011: The Albums :: 40-1

Let me start by saying nothing in 2011 has come close to the affection I still have for my two favorite records of 2010: The Walkmen's masterful Lisbon and Blake Mills' so-good-why-the-fuck-haven't-you-listened-to-it-yet Break Mirrors. But that's not to say 2011 hasn't been a great year in music. In fact, I don't think I've ever discovered so many favorite new bands (Natural Child, Stone Darling, Breakfast In Fur, Marisa Anderson, Mikal Cronin, Bare Wires, Future Islands, Braids, etc.) in a single year. The internet has created so many minute niches catered by small communities, micro DIY labels, and blogs, that it's nearly impossible to keep track of every interesting new release. So while ranking and listmaking are inherently subjective and silly, it's the easiest way to filter through the overhwelming amount of great music that came out in 2011. The following 40 albums are the ones I don't want to forget anytime soon.

Mikal Cronin :: Mikal Cronin

Considering Mikal Cronin's close association with the shred-happy Ty Segall, I was expecting some serious headbanger's on the former's self-titled debut on Chicago's Trouble In Mind Records. However, while guitars roar, that's merely a sideline distraction in Cronin's nuanced, thoughtful, and highly melodic debut. Songs like the wonderfully upbeat "Again and Again" sound like they were plucked straight out of the British invasion, recalling 1960s UK artists like The Kinks, The Beatles, and The Troggs. The very next track, the acoustic strummed "Hold On Me," sounds like a lost Zombies B-side with its crisp and airy vocal harmonies and ear-catching melody. The intimate and sparsely decorated "Hold On Me" by itself might be one of the better songs of 2011 and its whistled outro one of the better moments, inspiring imagery of a lone hero walking into the sunset in a grainy old spaghetti western.

But the record of course doesn't stop there: each of its 10 tracks are brilliant in their own right, bursting from start to finish with the raw energy of an artist that's clearly psyched to stretch out his creative legs on an LP for the first time. From the soaring opening Beach Boys-inspired harmony on "Is It Alright" to the closing homage to "Martha My Dear" in the killer toe-tapper "The Way Things Go," Cronin manages to pay proper tribute to his predecessors while keeping the mood fresh and the song's inarguably his own. Obviously, Cronin's a music fan at heart, and that love of listening and playing informs and radiates through every hook, bridge, and chorus. Cronin's debut long player is the best kind of album: one made by and for music fans.

Purchase the LP via Trouble In Mind.

Mikal Cronin - "Apathy" (from Mikal Cronin)
Mikal Cronin - "Again and Again" (from Mikal Cronin)

Mikal Cronin - "Hold On Me" (from Mikal Cronin)

Mikal Cronin - "Get Along" & "Apathy"

Mikal Cronin, a longtime Ty Segall collaborator and the bassist for west coast punk rockers Moonhearts, is set to venture out on his own on September 20th with his self-titled psych-rock debut via Trouble In Mind Records. Last Friday, we heard Cronin and Segall tear into a David Bowie classic with some rip-roaring guitar work. Here, Cronin is again joined by Segall—this time on drums—along with friends Charlie Moonheart and Thee Oh Sees' John Dwyer, who contributes flute to album opener "Is It Alright." But as heavy and guitar-dominated as the mix is on tracks like "Get Along" and "Apathy," it's Cronin's vocal melodies and delivery that really shine and sink their hooks into the listener as they cut their way through walls of fuzz. Two listens deep and I promise you'll be singing along.

Mikal Cronin - "Get Along" (from Mikal Cronin)
Mikal Cronin - "Apathy" (from Mikal Cronin)

Must-Have Vinyl: Castle Face Records :: Group Flex

Castle Face Records—the label headed by Thee Oh Sees' frontman John Dwyer—recently put out a 5x7 inch flexi disc book featuring exclusive tracks by Bay Area heavy hitters Thee Oh Sees, Bare Wires, the Fresh & Onlys, Blasted Canyons, and Ty Segall partnered with Mikal Cronin. Flexi discs are phonographic records pressed onto a thin and flexible vinyl sheet. Here, the flexi discs are multi-colored, adorned with holographic images, and interspersed with artwork by resident Castle Face artist William Keihn. Keihn's fusion of retro action figure packaging and comic book-style art here is brilliant, placing the compilation's 10 tracks in their own distinctively time-warped and mind-altered universe. It's truly a one-of-a-kind work of art, and I haven't even mentioned the music: a rip-roaring lineup of fiery rock gems, including two colossally fuzzed-out David Bowie covers by Segall and Cronin.

You can purchase Group Flex now via Midheaven mailorder.

Bare Wires - "Wanna Fight" (from Castle Face Group Flex)
Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin - "Fame" (from Castle Face Group Flex)


After the jump, take a look at the stunning visuals and holographic discs produced by the folks at Pirate Press in San Francisco.

Mixtape #16: Everybody Tastes Like Summer

Goodbye Portland

I'll miss the record stores, especially Mississippi; I'll miss the parks and farmers markets; Dove Vivi's cornbread pizza, Por Que No's chorizo tacos, and Broder's pytt i panna; the beer, especially Upright #4; affordable everything; seeing bands at Doug Fir, Mississippi Studios, and the Cherry Sprout Produce Market; having an independent coffee shop that roasts their own beans on every corner; surfing on the coast; the crowd at last Thursday; the three different color-coded recycling bins; and the bike paths. (I won't miss the endless rain nor the pretentious and jaded bartenders; the lack of jobs; or the people who stop at intersections when they don't have a stop sign.) But most of all, I'll miss sipping coffee in my hammock on the front porch, especially on a sunny Sunday morning with a book or newspaper in hand, as kids and dogs play, yell, and bark in the park across the street. Goodbye Portland.

Ty Segall - "Goodbye Bread"
Deer Tick - "Portland" (Live Replacements cover)
White Fang - "Portland Sucks"
M. Ward - "Paul's Song"


"Every town is all the same, when you've left your heart in the Portland rain..." - M. Ward

Ty Segall - "You Make The Sun Fry"

My experience with bands recording covers records is that the proceeding follow up LP always tends to be much richer from that experience (see Phosphorescent's Here's To Taking It Easy after To Willie and Vetiver's Tight Knit post Thing of the Past). Think of it as a rock & roll masters class. Fresh off his Ty Rex EP of T. Rex covers, Ty Segall is set to return with Goodbye Bread—yes that adorable hound photograph is the actual cover art—on June 21st via Drag City. And yes, that bluesy swagger on the LP's first single, "You Make The Sun Fry," reeks of Marc Bolan—and that's a very good thing.

Ty Segall - "You Make The Sun Fry" (from Goodbye Bread)

T. Rex & Ty Rex :: "Salamanda Palaganda"

On Record Store Day, Ty Segall released a six-song EP of T. Rex covers dubbed Ty Rex. One of the most compelling covers on the EP is "Salamanda Palaganda." When the track was originally released in 1968 on the LP Prophets, Seers & Sages, T. Rex was then known as Tyrannosaurus Rex and Marc Bolan hadn't yet achieved the level of mainstream success he would later in the 1970s as a glam rock god. Here, on the bongo and acoustic guitar-filled "Salamanda Palaganda," Bolan was still just a psychadelic folk artist, albeit an exceptionally creative one. That's why it's so interesting to hear Segall's version, as it's the first time the song has really been electrified. Thanks to Ty Rex, this oddly worded gem finally gets the glam rock treatment it's always deserved.

Ty Segall - "Salamanda Palaganda" (from Ty Rex)
Tyrannosaurus Rex - "Salamanda Palganda" (from Prophets, Seers, & Sages)