KING TUFF plays the Horseshoe on October 14. See listing. Rating: NNNN
When you just need some fun fuzz rock in your life, King Tuff, aka Kyle Thomas, always hits the spot. This is especially true of his new album, an insouciant blend of polished gems and lo-fi experimental ditties emphasizing the Vermont musician’s weirdness.
Each song is built on dazzling, thickly distorted guitar riffs and solos. Thomas’s love-them-or-hate-them vocals – sneering, wheezy, bratty – take up more space this time around, and the addition of truly soulful backup singers brings some semblance of emotion into the game.
The songwriting is above all playful. Insane intros start most songs. Chaotic guitar experiment Radiation and wickedly tender ditty I Love You Ugly sit alongside the Marc Bolanesque Beautiful Thing and catchy standout Headbanger, whose dynamite chorus (again, those backup vocals!) makes your soul soar. Meanwhile, Eyes Of The Muse, with its chiming AM-radio guitars and superbly crafted bombastic arrangement, reminds you that Thomas, like Ty Segall (who guest drums on Headbanger) and Mac DeMarco, is far more talented than his don’t-give-a-shit, goofball-slinging-an-axe image would lead you to believe.
Top track: Headbanger
