Fungus II

by Wasted Shirt

Overview

One of the first rules of rock & roll is: you need a good drummer. The whole charmingly inept thing may work for a singer or guitarist, but if the drummer can't keep it together, the center will not hold and we all know how that plays out. So if one-man garage punk industry Ty Segall (not a bad drummer himself) was going to launch yet another project, joining forces with Brian Chippendale shows sound judgment on his part. Chippendale is the drummer and co-founder of Lightning Bolt, and whatever one might think about their assaultive style, his work has always been a remarkable example of precision in support of chaos, his tight yet frantic bursts of rhythm bounding all over the place but also giving the noise around him a unexpectedly stable framework. Chippendale is a good man to have around if you want to get noisy, and that's what Segall had in mind when he and Chippendale formed Wasted Shirt, who make their debut with 2020's Fungus II. Part of Segall's charm is his gift for finding something tuneful in even his most outre music, and that's certainly true on Fungus II, where a pop-friendly vocal hook floats over the top of "Zeppelin 5," acoustic guitars add a freak-folk ambience to "The Purple One," and damaged but swaggering rock fuels "Double the Dream." While there's a playful element at work, much of Fungus II sounds ugly, and that's just the way they wanted it; the dominant elements here are harsh, bellowing vocals, ragged volleys of heavily distorted guitars, and freaked-out electronic manipulation. Chippendale's drumming really does set this apart from Segall's more left-of-center efforts -- if noise rock has a Neil Peart, it's him. Chippendale's style is very busy, but there's a strong internal logic to his explosive bursts of percussive energy, and the closing "For Strangers Entered the Cement at Dusk" demonstrates that when he needs to lay down a groove, he can do so with clean efficiency. Wasted Shirt is a collaborative project in the best sense, as the strengths of both Segall and Chippendale are at the forefront on Fungus II, and if this album is less accessible than most of Segall's recent releases, it has excitement and daring to spare. ~ Mark Deming

Product Details

Release Date:	02/28/2020
Label:	Famous Class / Revolver Usa
UPC:	0767870659713
Rank:	89436

Tracks

1. All Is Lost
2. Zeppelin 5
3. Fist Is My Ward
4. Harsho
5. Double the Dream
6. The Purple One
7. Fungus 2
8. Eagle Slaughters Graduation
9. Four Strangers Enter the Cement at Dusk

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Wasted Shirt   Primary Artist
Denee Segall   Vocals

Technical Credits

Heba Kadry   Mastering
Susan Sage   Cover Art
Brian Chippendale   Group Member
Ty Segall   Group Member,Engineer