Los Angeles – The world has had to wait a relatively long time since it was last graced with a true Ty Segall solo album. Okay yeah, it has been around two years since Manipulator came out, but for a guy that had everyone used to his LP-a-year clip, it feels like a decade. Of course, the Los Angeles-based artist has been busy with music from Fuzz as well as producing several excellent albums in 2015, so it’s not like he has been sitting at home twiddling his thumbs. Emotional Mugger sort of came out of nowhere: just a few months ago a VHS was delivered to the Pitchfork offices, and on this outdated form of technology sat a fresh slab of new Ty Segall songs. A short time after, a mysterious set of videos appeared on emotionalmugger.com, including a music video a group of men in baby masks, pounding out a song called “Candy Sam”. In the build-up to the album’s January 22^nd release date, Ty Segall and the Muggers announced  a tour that hit Los Angeles’ Teragram Ballroom for a pair of sold out shows on Friday and Saturday.

The night began with openers Vial and CFM (the latter featuring Charlie Moothart from Fuzz). While the audience clearly enjoyed both band’s sets, it was obvious who everyone had shown up for. As the sound techs got things ready on-stage, the crowd pushed closer and closer to the stage, leaving little wiggle room and sending several cups of beer careening to the floor. Despite the fact that Emotional Mugger finally was available for streaming a few days earlier, for many in the crowd this was the first proper introduction the Ty Segall’s latest output. Right on time, out came the Muggers – Emmett K., Mikal C. (aka Mikal Cronin), Evan B., Corey C., Kyle T., and the baby-mask adorned Sloppo (aka Ty Segall). They intently and immediately launched into a grimy stomper that is appropriately titled “Squealer”.

As Ty Segall is known to do following the release of each of his later, more-conceptual albums like Manipulator and Sleeper, this show was overwhelmingly dedicated to playing new music and setting a vibe that matches the aesthetic of the recorded material. For this Emotional Mugger tour, Segall takes on a persona that is a bizarre but captivating mix of newborn baby and mad scientist. Is this some kind of metaphor or if he is just being his weirdo self? Thankfully, the baby mask only lasted through the first song, and the audience was granted reprieve from receiving maniacal stare-downs from a giant baby-man. The night’s most bizarre moment was when Segall decided to put the mask on for one last time. Emerging from backstage sporting a 10+ foot umbilical cord attached to his fringed vest, he sauntered about the front of the stage wailing “Mommy” and “Daddy” at the crowd before launching into another one of his new songs.

While the show was a spectacle to behold from start to finish, there were some definite highlights that revolved around the music itself. “Diversion” has a driving beat and sports one of those sinister hooks that Ty Segall has gotten so good at writing, and “Candy Sam” brings in an MC5-level proto-garage riff in the verse and culminates in a glammy anthemic chorus that was able to stir up a little circle pit. For a Ty Segall, the audience was fairly subdued as far as thrashing about – partially a result of the less-rollicking music of Emotional Mugger and partially because they seemed to be utterly stunned by what they were seeing. While the vast majority of the set consisted of new tunes, there were a few call-backs to earlier tracks in Segall’s discography, including “Manipulator”, “Thank God For The Sinners” and the opening song of the encore, “Finger”.

The Muggers will continue with their terrifying freak show tour through February and March before concluding it in April at the Levitation Festival. Keep an eye on the Emotional Mugger tour page for more info.

Photos by Matt Matasci for Best New Bands

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Matt Matasci

Perhaps it was years of listening to the eclectic and eccentric programming of KPIG-FM with his dad while growing up on the Central Coast of California, but Matt Matasci has always rebuffed mainstream music while seeking unique and under-the-radar artists.Like so many other Californian teenagers in the 90s and 00s, he first started exploring the alternative music world through Fat Wreck Chords skate-punk.This simplistic preference eventually matured into a more diverse range of tastes - from the spastic SST punk of Minutemen to the somber folk-tales of Damien Jurado, and even pulverizing hardcore from bands like Converge.He graduated from California Lutheran University with a BA in journalism.Matt enjoys spending his free time getting angry at the Carolina Panthers, digging through the dollar bin at Amoeba, and taking his baby daughter to see the Allah-Lahs at the Santa Monica Pier.

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