I don’t know anything about Tommy G’s parentage, but the title of the S.F. skate icon/guitar hero’s latest solo effort could easily apply to his style, a hybrid of everything from surf’s-up mariachi to garage-y noise pop to lumpy-as-oatmeal funk to mellow Saturday-afternoon alt.dub. Whatever you call it, Tommy G has carved out an increasingly impressive musical oeuvre. Leaning more toward timelessness than predictability, Return of the Bastard sounds as dialed-in as Tommy’s ever been. It’s still fusionistic, spacey, and slightly experimental in approach, but there’s more of a sense of direction this time around. Guerrero’s gonna get there, alright, but he might just stop to smell the roses first.
