Live in San Francisco - EP

Album Review

On the second installment of its Live in San Francisco series (with the honor of the inaugural release going to White Fence), Castle Face Records delivers a short but sweet live set from Fuzz, a Ty Segall project hell-bent on crafting some of the Bay Area's gnarliest riffs. Though it's just four tracks long, it features all of the bluesy Sabbath and Blue Cheer-inspired guitar worship that made the band's self-titled debut such an engrossing release. With just one song — titled "One," incidentally — from that previous album, the other tracks here will be new to anyone who hasn't kept up with Fuzz's 7" output, making Live in San Francisco an opportunity to catch up on some of the perception-altering jams that more casual Segall fans might've missed the first time around. Beginning with a punishing wall of thick fuzz and ending with a rowdy, and probably less than sober, crowd singing of "Happy Birthday" to Segall (who was celebrating another spin around the sun on the day the album was recorded), Live in San Francisco is the perfect combination of reckless and just plain wrecked, and will be thoroughly enjoyed by Segall disciples and stoner rock fans alike.