Three for Two: Jessica Lea Mayfield, Generation Loss, The Traditional Fools

There is no theme to this Three for Two, unless the theme is 'what Katie has on repeat this week'. Fine, that's totally the theme. I also have Thee Oh Sees new album on repeat, but I've already written about them recently, so I'll just say that their album 'Drop' is high quality fun music for the beginning of summer (which is is right now in NorCal). And I will no longer believe Thee Oh Sees when they say they're taking a break. I don't think they're physically capable of not playing music.

Jessica Lea Mayfield started out as an acoustic alt-country chick, but she's moving into punk rock a week bit in her new album, Generation Loss is pure fucking fun/punk-inspired rock, and has an amazing and understated guitarist who blew me away with his easy use of the fretboard (I'm always insanely envious of good guitarists). The throwback album here hails from way way back in 2008 when housing prices were low and jobs were lower. The Traditional Fools are a one album wonder and one of the many side projects of the prolific Ty Segall, but just because you likely won't get another surf-punk gem from these three dudes, shouldn't stop you from gorging on the 22 min album over and over and over again.

Jessica Lea Mayfield - Make My Head Sing

I love Jessica Lea Mayfield. Her songs have simple lyrics and chord progressions, but that simplicity hits exactly where she wants it to, like a precision fastball pitcher, if a fastball was a slow heartbroken voice moving through tones like gentle waves with a riptide just under the surface. In this album, Mayfield has moved further away from the folksy roots of her first albums and has fully embraced effects. There's a lot of reverb and fuzz in this album, but it's the same simple striking songwriting that makes her so compelling. There are crunching electric guitar and clashing drums all over the place and some of the songs resemble 90s grunge--there are going to be comparisons to Nirvana, and they're not wrong. The new direction might be off putting to those who come to Mayfield from the acoustic or country genres, but if you appreciate an artist who is on the top of her game in terms of experimenting with her craft, then this album is for you.

Generation Loss - Generation Loss

Because of seeing this band live I've ordered my first cassette tape in like 18 years. Boy am I glad I never threw out my dual tape deck stereo system that I saved for during high school! Dividends, baby! That's besides the point, really, this band was so entertaining to watch live. Their name comes from the loss of quality that occurs with each copy of a video and during their gigs they have a videos running behind them, in fact, they are releasing a VHS album where each song has it's own video. How cool is that?! Well, it wouldn't be all that cool if they weren't also super good songs. The drums here are rapid fire, the bass lines are head knockin, and as I said before, I'm crushin' on the guitarist who moves up and down the fretboard so smoothly that it might seem too guitary except that the set up of fuzzy bass and fuzzy guitar on top of quick drums means that there's a trance that comes from all that movement. The vocals in this band are almost a side note, and that's fine, because this band is a sum of all the parts and is better for each one. 

The Traditional Fools - The Traditional Fools

Surf pop has has a revival as of late, reverb meets lo-fi and sweet harmonies, but surf punk on the other hand never really took off. Perhaps because it stems from the king of surf guitar, Dick Dale, and thus is hard to shake from that classic sound. Which is a shame, because there is almost nothing better to listen to on a sunny warm day then some raucous surf music. Luckily Ty Segall, Andrew Lutrell, David Fox have our backs and in 2008 they put out a self-titled album under the name The Traditional Fools. I was lucky enough to see them this past week and I can't glow enough about how much fun they were as well as how fun the crowd was, which included Mikal Cronin, Charlie Moothart and Roland Cosio (Fuzz), and I'm like 75% sure I saw Chad Ubovich (Meatbodies) crowd-surfing with all the others musicians, too--all indie underground rock idols, at least to me.

The album itself is a mix of covers and new songs that combine surf vibes with the fast guitar, drums, and yelling voices that are key garage/punk sounds. The classic surf guitar sound of the 50s lends itself super well to the raw garage style, something that Ty Segall is king of at the moment. Davey Crockett', the albums first track, is a cover of Thee Headcoats and it picks up the pace and rocks it out. Meanwhile, original songs like 'Snot Rag' are guaranteed to make you wanna bounce around wherever you are, home, car, even a BART platform (which has literally happened to me more than once, and fuck it! I've decided I don't care if I'm the only one who can hear what I'm dancing to). There are songs on the album that are not surf rock at all, like 'Please' and 'TL Defender' and the album's more interesting because of the shifts in style. If I have one complaint about this album, it's that it's way way too short, clockin' in at just over 22 minutes. This wouldn't be a problem if these dudes would just record another album, though ::COUGH COUGH COUGH::