GØGGS - GØGGS (2016)

It must be weird being Ty Segall. He seems to exist entirely outside of any particular zeitgeist-y codification, with music exploding out of him in mad waves of life force. Critics sometimes call it garage rock, but, you know, that’s just another tired catchall term. It’s more like blow-the-garage-doors-off rock.

Apparently unable or unwilling to put any boundaries on that life force, Segall has augmented a rather busy solo career with membership in numerous additional musical entities. The newest is named GØGGS, because, well, why the hell not? It’s an utterly freakazoid partnership with Ex-Cult’s Chris Shaw and Segall’s Fuzz bandmate Charles Moothart, and it seems devised for maximum aural destruction and disturbance. Indeed, “Falling In” opens the record with eighty-seven seconds of tortured, grinding noise, followed by a merciful five second respite, before breaking into, well, a shitload more tortured, grinding noise.

The nastily fuzzed-out “Shotgun Shooter” then reveals that the sonic offenses are going to reach Butthole Surfers level—that unsettling “we have come for your children” sort of thing. And speaking of, “She Got Harder” forcefully recalls the relentless punk fury of those beloved Dead Boys, whose fury is oft not given its proper historical due.

Further song titles like “Glendale Junkyard,” “Future Nothing” and “Assassinate the Doctor” provide a window into the sort of anarcho-nihilism that underpins the philosophical vantage of GØGGS, even if it might be a bit tongue-in-cheek. If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “Wouldn’t it be great if someone could combine the virtuoso scuzz of Black Sabbath with the sneering vitriol of The Fall?” then here’s your big summer driving record, here’s this nation’s saving grace.