Both vinyl and cassettes are making a comeback, but what about VHS tapes? It appears Ty Segall believes the movie format of yesteryear is long overdue for some recognition.

The ever-prolific garage-rocker just surprise released a new album dubbed Emotional Mugger via Drag City, but technically, that could have been anywhere from two to five business days ago, because Segall’s latest LP appears on a VHS tape that he dropped in a handful of fans' and journalists' mailboxes.

The 11-song album (see the track list at the bottom of the page) plays out like a bit of a double feature. As Pitchfork reports, one copy runs the album first, which is then followed by a screening of the 1993 film, My Life, starring Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman. Other copies boast Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, while another appeared on an overdubbed Blockbuster tape -- another relic of humankind’s recent past:

The packages included a crumpled letter bearing the definition of “emotional mugging” (something to do with a non-verbal, non-physical communication resulting from our oversaturated, digital lives). You can watch Segall relay the information while dressed as a doctor in a video on the new Emotional Mugger website or read it in full below:

What is emotional mugging?

Emotional mugging is a psychoanalytic subject to subject exchange formed as a response to our hyper-digital sexual landscape.

The over communication relayed in cell based technology and content driven media further detaches passengers of our modern society from deep emotional understanding. These detached residents seek meaning and physical contact which is readily available via traditional social standards often displaced thru the lens of the modern id. These individuals turn to salutation based sexual exchange and solo vice in return for a confirmation of non-emotion. This state of being that is well considered normal in our modern society is riddled with denial depravity and causes destruction on both the internal and external levels.

EM is an unfortunate but tragically essential practice in the age of digital intimacy. Essentially “mugging” is non verbal and non-physical emotional exchange, regardless of the status of the mugger and the muggee. Mugging can help to fill the holes in our ego, and the gaps in our society.

Unlike traditional mugging EM is a victimful crime wherein both the perpetrator and subject are victims of their emotional purpose whether the ego intention is subversive or provocative.

Sexual response has been common for both roles and have often led to meaningful non physical sexual relations.

Emotional Mugger follows last year's Manipulator and Segall's Mr. Face EP, which landed in January. He also dropped II with his band, Fuzz, last month. Over the summer, the guitarist formed a new outfit, Broken Bat, with members of Melvins, Redd Kross and OFF!. In September, he announced yet another venture, GØGGS, with his Fuzz bandmate Charles Moothart and Ex-Cult’s Chris Shaw and issued their first single, “She Got Harder.”

Emotional Mugger Track List
1. "Squealer"
2. "California Hills"
3. "Emotional Mugger/Leopard Priestess"
4. "Breakfast Eggs"
5. "Diversion"
6. "Baby Big Man (I Want A Mommy)"
7. "Mandy Cream"
8. "Candy Sam"
9. "Squealer Two"
10. "W.U.O.T.W.S."
11. "The Magazine"

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