What’s the first thing you think of when someone mentions Thee Oh Sees? Probably their riot-sparking live show, right? Visions of a guitar-chewing, melody-maiming John Dwyer careening across your cranium, rounded out by a wild-eyed wrecking crew that drives every last hook home like it’s a nail in the coffin of what you thought it meant to make 21st century rock ’n’ roll?
Yeah, that sounds about right. But it misses a more important point—how impossible Thee Oh Sees have been been to pin down since Dwyer launched it in the late ‘90s as a solo break from such sorely missed underground bands as Pink and Brown and Coachwhips. (While Dwyer still records songs on his own, Thee Oh Sees is now a five-piece featuring keyboardist/singer Brigid Dawson, guitarist Petey Dammit, drummer Mike Shoun, and multi-instrumentalist/singer Lars Finberg.)
That restlessness extends to everything from the towering, 13-minute title track of 2010’s Warm Smile LP to the mercurial moods of 2008’s The Master’s Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In. And then there’s the Bay Area band’s recent track record, as Thee Oh Sees chased the home-brewed symphonies of 2011s Castlemania with the scrappy high wire hooks of Carrion Crawler/The Dream.
Originally envisioned as two EPs, it was cut live to tape in less than a week at Chris Woodhouse’s Sacramento studio in June, reflecting the battering ram bent of the band’s live show better than any bootleg ever could.
“As I’m sure most would agree,” Dwyer explains, “Castlemania was more of a vocal tirade. This one’s meant to pummel and throb.”
That it does, whether you blast the slow, speaker-bruising build of The Dream, the sunburnt organs and dovetailing guitars of Crack In Your Eye, or the interstellar instrumental that is Chem-Farmer, a perfect example of what happens when you take a well-oiled machine—a gang of rabid road warriors, really—and add a second, groove-locked drum set to the mix.
To listen is to realize that Dwyer’s music is as manic as the underground comic inclinations of his artwork; colorful and confusing in a way that’s more than welcome. It’s downright refreshing, like a slap in the face at five in the morning.
Or as Dwyer puts it, “You have to leave a mark somehow."
Carrion Crawler/The Dream hits the shelves November 15th via In The Red Records.
Fans can catch Thee Oh Sees perform at this year's Treasure Island Music Festival Oct. 16 as they tour through the end of the year.
Carrion Crawler/The Dream Track Listing
1. carrion crawler
2. contraption/soul desert
3. robber barons
4. chem-farmer
5. opposition
6. the dream
7. wrong idea
8. crushed grasss
9. crack in your eye
Thee Oh Sees Tour Dates
09/04 - Bumbershoot Festival - Seattle WA
09/05 - Biltmore Cabaret - Vancouver BC w/Bare Wires + Chains of Love
09/06 - Sugar - Victoria BC w/Bare Wires + Chains of Love
09/09 - MusicfestNW - Portland OR
10/16 - Treasure Island Music Festival
10/19 - Halifax Pop Explosion - Halifax NS
10/20 - Cabaret du Mile End - Montreal QC w/Demon's Claws
10/21 - Horseshoe Tavern - Toronto ON
10/31 - Bar Pink - San Diego CA
11/04 - Fun Fun Fun Fest - Austin TX
11/05 - Prophet - Dallas TX
11/08 - Siberia - New Orleans LA
11/09 - Hi Tone - Memphis TN
11/10 - he Bottletree - Birmingham AL
11/11 - E.A.R.L. - Atlanta GA
11/12 - Krankies Winston - Salem NC
11/13 - Sonar - Baltimore MD
11/17 - 285 Kent - Brooklyn NY
11/21 - The Bug Jar - Rochester NY w/Total Control + Paul Cary and the
Small Scaries
11/22 - Lager House - Detroit MI w/Total Control + Paul Cary and the Small
Scaries
11/23 - Empty Bottle - Chicago IL (early show) w/Total Control
11/23- Empty Bottle - Chicago IL (late show) w/ Total Control + Paul Cary
and the Small Scaries
11/26 - Moe’s - Denver CO
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