Oh Sees Retrospective #1: OCS

Going back to the very beginning of a band or artist with a long, varied career is one of my favorite things to do. Sometimes they hit the ground running and sometimes there’s an incubational period before their sound and abilities fully congeal. In the case of John Dwyer’s Oh Sees, however, they started life by going under a different name…and being a side project.  By the time the first Oh Sees album was released, he had spent years in the bands Coachwhips and Pink and Brown. I won’t speculate too much about his motivations for starting another band, though I will say it seems clear in retrospect that one reason might be that Oh Sees is fully controlled by Dwyer. He is the only constant element since its inception as well as being its mouthpiece and frontman.

Anyway, let’s talk about the album already!

Released on an unknown date in 2003, the first Oh Sees album (well, OCS album) isn’t the solo project I assumed it to be. According to Discogs.com, some of it is credited to Jeff Rosenberg, so it’s hard to say how much of this has Dwyer as driving force or not. But I digress. This debut goes under a series of different titles depending on where you look. Known variously as 1, OCS, and 34 Reasons Life Goes On Without You/18 Reasons To Love Your Hater To Death, it’s technically two different CDs released as one set. It’s unclear whether they’re supposed to be regarded as one album but for the sake of ease I’m going to talk about them as separate works.

Disc one, using the 34 Reasons title, kind of sounds like Dwyer was listening to a lot of John Fahey, Jandek, and Throbbing Gristle. Spastic fingerpicked guitars trade dance moves with harsh tape noise and on occasion, other somewhat competently played instruments such as keyboards, pianos, and drum machines. Here or there, you can hear Dwyer and/or other people say things or mutter. Little care or thought seems to be put into any of it, suggesting perhaps it was improvised or recorded with no second takes, or even recorded under a self-imposed time deadline. Perhaps it’s better to label it carefree than careless? I dunno. There is a certain eerie late night atmosphere to it all, and if you have any interest or patience for this kind of experimental music, you’ll find some of its untitled 34* songs, or moments of them, to be more enjoyable than you might expect. I don’t think I’ll ever want to return to it yet it did grow on me a bit during second and third spins.

As for disc two, 18 Reasons, well, if you wished that 34 Reasons had less structure and more patience-testing noise, tape hiss, and feedback, then have I got something right up your alley! Don’t misunderstand me, though. I’m not automatically opposed to experimental/noise music. After all, Throbbing Gristle’s ‘IBM’ is one of my favorite songs by them, and one of my friends used to do a collaborative music project called Gargoyle Monument that sounds quite a lot like 18 Reasons. The issue I have with noise music is that I think it’s more interesting in small doses and it’s more enjoyable when leavened with other musical elements. To be fair, these 18 untitled songs aren’t just straight up ear shredding noise. Some tracks, such as 4 and 9, are downright Lynchian—in other words, imagine mysterious rustling/rumbling sounds and dark foreboding textures. Still, CD two of the debut is mostly ear shredding noise. Mostly. I have a higher tolerance and patience for this sort of material than most people but even I was only able to sit through its entirety once. If you don’t care for noise music but still want to know what the first album is all about, stick to 34 Reasons and you won’t miss anything. Ancestor of Carrion Crawler/The Dream, this ain’t.

Much like fans of Oh Sees will tell you not to bother with their first few releases, fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 will warn you against watching the first two seasons, especially the true “first” season of the show, done on local access station KTMA in Minnesota. If you’re willing to slog through all the growing pains, poor quality VHS recordings, and awkward production quality and performances, there’s moments that at least gesture in the direction of greatness. So it is with 34 Reasons and less so 18 Reasons. They have moments here or there that diehard fans of the band and/or adventurous music listeners might enjoy, yet there’s no getting around the fact that the two-CD debut is an inessential release and should only be attempted when you’ve worn out all the good stuff.

*Since this album is long out of print and I couldn’t find it on any digital music services for purchase, I had to track down a shady website download for this review. CD one technically has 35 songs, despite its title, but the final track won’t play for some reason. I’ve seen people refer to the full album being on YouTube but all I could find was an upload of the first song.