Oh Sees Retrospective #20: Mutilator Defeated At Last

One of the most fascinating stories in music history has to be King Crimson. Though their various lineups over the years tended to be more stable than the legendary upheavals of The Fall, the story of them transitioning from the mid 70s lineup to the Discipline era makes for a fascinating tale. I highly recommend at least reading the Wikipedia entry to get the quick and dirty series of events. Effectively resetting the sound and style they had been known for in the 70s, the influence of new members Adrien Belew (who had recently been touring/recording with Talking Heads) and Tony Levin (a criminally underrated and unique bassist, check out 'Elephant Talk' and 'Discipline') didn't so much completely change the band's reputation for virtuosic playing as it did redirect the focus onto polyrhythms, post-punk, and new wave. Of course we all know by now that, other than John Dwyer, there's no certainty with the lineup (and current name) of Oh Sees. They've gone through at least three distinct eras in terms of sound and stylistic focus, to say nothing of the personnel changes. I wouldn't have minded if the mid-era lineup (from 2008 to 2013) stuck around. However, it would have meant missing out on the influences of the members that have rotated through/joined since then, just as King Crimson staying the course would've meant missing out on Discipline and everything to follow.


Oh, right, Mutilator Defeated At Last. That's what I'm here for. I should warn you now, this is going to be longer than usual. There's a-fucking-lot to cover this time out. Anyhow, it was released on May 18^th, 2015...and that's it. Wow, no contradicting release date, it must be my lucky day! Though still retaining Thee Oh Sees as their moniker, this album featured the trio lineup that Dwyer had recruited to tour after the release of Drop. The new drummer, Nick Murray, would only be around for this release (well, he is on Memory Of A Cut Off Head, though that's an OCS release). New bassist Tim Hellman, meanwhile, began to solidify the modern-era lineup. It's worth taking a moment to appreciate what a difference he makes to the overall sound. This is the first time Oh Sees had a dedicated bassist, giving the band a low-end bedrock to stand upon. It's true that Petey Dammit! played bass at times, and sometimes downtuned his guitar and/or played it through a bass amp, though just as often he would strictly stick to guitar, repeating the same riff while Dwyer's own guitar went crazy around him. Oddly, around this time Dwyer was quoted as saying he was tired of keyboards for live shows and that “...the future of the band doesn't hold much keyboard...” Sure, until Tomas Dolas joined in 2018 they didn't have a dedicated keyboardist, though I'm almost positive I've seen live clips on YouTube before he joined the band where Dwyer is playing the organ lines of 'Sticky Hulks' on a little synth or MIDI keyboard...But I digress.


You wouldn't know it from the Metacritic scores, which are surprisingly consistent for Oh Sees, but Mutilator Defeated At Last got some of the band's highest scores yet—outlets like Allmusic and The Needle Drop gave it high praise, rather than the usual middling to above average scores. Ironic, then, that I didn't like it that much when it first came out. I couldn't place my finger on why until I went back and listened to their previous albums. “It's different...it's too polished....it's not as unhinged and wild...it's dialing back the garage rock and experimental elements...” Part of it may have also been that in late 2015 I began to date the woman who would go on to be my wife, and she was introducing me to a metric fuckton of EDM, vaporwave, and lo-fi hip hop. So Mutilator was set to the side and I didn't really think about it.


A funny thing happened on the way to the final opinion. I was in the throes of another serious Diablo III obsession in early 2017, often playing it for hours with the sound turned way down and my own music selections blasting on a Bluetooth speaker. One night I decided to throw the last few Oh Sees releases into a playlist and hit shuffle. Now, in my mind, Mutilator was the poppy/polished album, and A Weird Exits/An Odd Entrances was where they once again really got weird and cool. Pleasant surprise after pleasant surprise hit my dopamine receptors as I thought to myself “damn, this song is fantastic, what album is it from again?” and I'd look down and see that more often than not, the ones that got my attention were from Mutilator. Turns out, this record was the true start of the modern-era Oh Sees after all. If 60s garage rock was the soup base before, then this new era changed to a buffet of 70s music as its foundation. Psychedelic and krautrock stuck around, now seasoned with spicy druggier/jammier classic rock, meaty prog rock, and a few herby dashes of proto-punk, post-punk, and even boogie rock. That's right, Oh Sees beat King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard to boogie rock with Mutilator's excellent 'Turned Out Light.' Let's not get into that tired Sees Vs. Gizz debate, though.


All of this is a long build-up to getting around to saying I now regard Mutilator as a flawless record. It wouldn't be hard to make a case for it being the band's best album ever. I love everything about it—even the strange album cover, with the vinyl record wear-and-tear making it look and feel like something you might discover in the collection of one of your parents from back in the 70s/80s. No song on this release is less than great; many are stone-cold classics that still appear in live sets. 'Sticky Hulks' showed us that they could slow it down and get a bit moody/atmospheric while still giving us something that is undeniably Oh Sees, almost as if they were working on a cover of 'Riders On The Storm' and it mutated into something else. Even the slighter/shorter tracks bristle with inspired ideas and playing: I won't rest until 'Rogue Planet' is the theme song to an Adult Swim show about surfers/skaters in outer space. Meanwhile, 'Holy Smoke' is how you do an instrumental right. Using acoustic instead of electric guitar is a subtle but brilliant change, giving Mutilator more sonic variety while still working well in the overall flow. On a side note, listen to this track and OCS's 'Memory Of A Cut Off Head' back-to-back, the guitar and strings on the latter are highly reminiscent of 'Holy Smoke.' It should go without saying that Mutilator opens with the commanding one-two punch of 'Web' and 'Withered Hand', but I guess I did just kind of say it by saying it didn't need to be said. I think I just made myself dizzy.


Let's move on. Discuss amongst yourselves how it is that this album is only a couple minutes longer than Drop but feels so much more fleshed out and satisfying. Please also take careful notes as I present my TED Talk, “'Palace Doctor' Is An Amazing Cooldown Of An Album Closer That Deserves More Love.” And since I won't be covering them as part of my required curriculum this semester, I'll point those who want extra credit to submit a minimum 300 word essay on how the non-album single made up of the songs 'Fortress'/'Man In A Suitcase' could have been crammed onto the album to bulk up the runtime but it was smartly allowed to breathe on its own. Discuss artistic integrity vs. giving people quantity over quality; compare and contrast this single with the similar Moon Sick EP in regards to it being a fine dessert course following Floating Coffin.


Oh, and a quick reminder before you're dismissed, students: next class we'll be covering Live In San Francisco. Prepare to analyze the form and function of a live album vis-á-vis a band's relationship with their own body of work and the chosen performance style(s). As always, we'll have a purely voluntary luncheon and bong rip session after class. Dig in.

Oh Sees Retrospective #19: Drop

Unless you're someone who keenly follows the personal lives of artists you admire, you may never know why it is that certain albums seem a bit off or very different from what had come before. David Bowie fans must've been mystified when their beloved Thin White Duke of Station To Station fame turned up a year later with the artsy, at-times ambient Low. Do a bit of reading and you'll find out he had developed a hellacious cocaine addiction while living in Los Angeles, to the point he claims he remembers almost nothing about recording Station To Station. Seeking solace and new inspiration, as well as a place not riddled with peak cocaine popularity, he journeyed to Switzerland before settling in Berlin, inspired by the krautrock and experimental music and art of the time. It's always struck me that Drop isn't so different than previous Oh Sees albums but it still feels different; somehow, it just feels off. Turns out there are a number of reasons for this.


Drop was released on April 19^th, 2014. As ever, there has to be a conflicting date to drive me further insane: the Oh Sees Bandcamp page says it was released on the 29^th. I'm assuming that was just a typo since there are several reviews that came out just after the 19^th. But I digress. The album came out at a time of great transition for the band and specifically John Dwyer. You can get the full details on the Wikipedia entry for Oh Sees, but here's the shortish version. In December of 2013, Dwyer announced during a live show “this will be the last Oh Sees show for a long time. So dig in.” After a series of rumors about a Phish-style hiatus or a full breakup, the band clarified by announcing a new record would be released in 2014, hinting at possible live shows. We would also find out that Dwyer was taking some time off to move away from his long-time home, San Francisco. To Los Angeles, in fact; unlike Bowie he doesn't seem to have coked away his memory as a result. In February 2014 Drop's release date was revealed, and that it would be another album recorded mostly solo by Dwyer, as with Castlemania and Putrifiers II. Somewhat lost in all the signal noise was that the other members of Oh Sees—Brigid Dawson, Petey Dammit!, and Mike Shoun—had left the band. Well, it's unclear if they left or if Dwyer wanted to start fresh in L.A. True, Dawson would continue to record with Oh Sees (and OCS!). However, since she never toured with the post-2013 lineups (at least as far as I know, corrections are appreciated!) I personally don't consider her a 'true' member any longer. Call it hair splitting if you will. Sometimes you gotta split some hairs, man.


In revisiting Drop for this retrospective, it became clear that I still have conflicting feelings about it. How much I can attribute these feelings to the influence of Dwyer moving to L.A., it's hard to say. Liars certainly recorded very different records when they were in Berlin vs. in L.A. Anyway, there isn't much concrete information out there about when Drop was recorded. The Wikipedia entry says something to the effect of “it was recorded in Sacramento without the other then-members of the band” but since we don't know when those members left, it could have been anytime from late 2013 to early 2014, after Dwyer had already moved. Anyway, it doesn't seem productive to slide further down that rabbithole, so let's clamber back up to the record itself. As with the other pseudo-solo albums that preceded it, Drop is largely the product of Dwyer and stalwart producer/collaborator Chris Woodhouse. It has the same scattershot character of said predecessors, and though I think it works more often than it doesn't, it certainly has casting stink eyes back to the disagreeable Putrifiers II.


More than any Oh Sees release, Drop keeps me off balance. Its paltry 31 minute runtime simply isn't equipped to allow the variety to cohere into something consistently enjoyable. The album is bookended by its two most compelling pieces: 'Penetrating Eye' rips and snorts out of the gate, ready to throw down and mow 'em down, while 'The Lens' is the band's best attempt yet at a whimsical 60s British orchestral psych-folk piece, with a vague 'Penny Lane' vibe. I appreciate that 'King's Nose' is trying something new but it doesn't pull it off, the transitions between sections seeming sloppy, the song as a whole overstuffed with ideas. I can already hear you yelling about it so, yes, it's true, 'Encrypted Bounce' is a classic Oh Sees track....for live shows. In the studio, recorded mostly solo by Dwyer, it's robbed of the fierceness and band-interplay it needs to take full flight. Listen to the drumming on headphones sometime, and compare it to what the modern live lineup brings to it. In fact, as a whole Drop has that issue of a single person trying to recreate a full band on their own, so that tracks such as 'Savage Victory' and 'Drop' sound oddly hollow and manicured. Throughout most of the album, Dwyer's vocals are easier to pick out, though he often uses a more mellow/soft delivery that makes me picture someone recording the vocals late at night and trying not to wake up their roommate. 'Transparent World' starts off strong, with its blown-out bass/guitar and drunk AF keyboard sounds grinding down the pavement, until the ethereal vocoder-ish vocals kick in, adding nothing. This song should've been an instrumental, it would ease the whiplash transition between it and the following album closer.


Perhaps the best way to sum up Drop is to imagine that Floating Coffin was recorded solo by Dwyer, instead of live-in-studio by the band. And that it used some of the Moon Sick EP tracks in place of the polished coherency of the actual Floating Coffin tracklist. And that it had weak vocal performances. And that it was eight minutes shorter. Anyway, I might be more forgiving of Drop's flaws if it was an EP, though only just a bit more. It's not Putrifiers II but it's no Castlemania, either.

Oh Sees Retrospective #18: Singles Collection Volume 3

What makes a great entry point for an artist? Do you default to their most popular work, their most accessible, their most acclaimed? There is no hard and fast rule about this; some people will always say “start at the beginning”, while others always say “start with a fan favorite, because it's most representative of their work.” As I've been going through their discography I've certainly felt that Oh Sees have a number of great entry points. It's odd, then, that I don't consider Singles Collection Volume 3 to be one. Why odd? Well, one of the things that helps me write my reviews and retrospectives is to go see what others have said. I've always found it very healthy to seek out other points of view because they can sometimes help me crystalize my own opinion. Something I came across a couple times is that Singles Collection Volume 3 is the best place to start. In particular the Pitchfork review belabors this point while spouting off a lot of nonsense, including sloppily saying the compilation ends with “two ten minute pieces.” I guess seven is the same as ten, as long as you're lazy and stupid.


I'll get to presenting my case for it not being a great entry point soon, but let's do the usual rundown. Singles Collection Volume 3 (hereafter simply Volume 3 for sake of ease) came out on November 26^th, 2013. Well, OK, Wikipedia says the 25^th. Whatever. I have no idea why it's so difficult to find precise release dates for music released in the Internet age! Anyway, it's worth noting that if you've only listened to this collection on vinyl, you're missing out. The CD and digital versions contain a live “bonus” track, though even with that added in, Volume 3 is only 46ish minutes long. Yes, that could fit on a record, even if it did cost a little fidelity. I'd even argue they should have, for a reason I'll get to eventually. Let's begin with why it's not a great entry point.

Understand first that my claim is no bearing on the quality of Volume 3. Despite being shorter, it's more consistently excellent than Volume 1 + 2. I would say there isn't a dud in the bunch; I even appreciate the 'Crushed Grass' demo, something I don't normally go for. Now, I do understand what the Pitchfork writer was trying to say with his review. The Oh Sees discography is daunting—I would know—and this compilation is ideal in the sense it has some great tracks and a taste of their live sound. However (and this “however” should be read in a very dramatic, drawn out way in your head) if you're actually familiar with their discography, you'd know this is not a great entry point for these same reasons.

Volume 3 by its very nature lacks the coherence and polish of an actual album. If you sit down and think about these songs, they don't really gel together. The tracklisting doesn't mix the order of the 7”s and label compilations to give it a better flow, so it's literally as though you made a playlist and haphazardly added them in no meaningful way. For example, Volume 3 starts off on a weird note with 'Ugly Man', a strangely mild-mannered and skeletal song that I do love but I don't think outsiders would get. There is also the issue of some tracks being notably more noisy and experimental than the other releases from the era Volume 3 is derived from—the covers of 'Burning Spear' and 'Fbi2' immediately come to mind. And finally, I have to say, the rough audio quality on the live tracks makes Oh Sees seem far more amateurish than they are. Maybe that's not something that would deter all newcomers; fair enough. I find it disappointing, at the very least. We never got a proper live album from the mid-era of the band, something I still wish would happen. Oh, and this recording quality issue is what I was talking about earlier: since the live tracks of Volume 3 don't sound pristine, why weren't they included on the vinyl? Yes I know that the more you try to fit on each side it lowers the fidelity, but if the quality of the original recordings isn't great, who would notice?

While we never got a live album from them, one could view Volume 3 as the final hurrah from the four-piece mid-era lineup of Oh Sees. It's pretty incredible how much they did in only five years—Master's Bedroom feels like a lifetime ago by the time you get to Volume 3! In this way, it also feels like a secret history of Oh Sees, showcasing other sides of the band through covers, two lengthy live tracks (both ten minutes long, remember!), and gifting us one final Floating Coffin leftover (the peppy 'Devil Again') that didn't make it on to the Moon Sick EP. I have to say, while I appreciate how faithful the cover of 'Burning Spear' is, I take issue with it for two reasons. One: it gets the title wrong. I know I'm doing my usual nitpicking thing but come on—the Sonic Youth original is called 'The Burning Spear', not 'Burning Spear.' This may not matter to you, but let me ask you: would you rather watch Predator or The Predator? Anyway, two: it's a boring, safe cover. It doesn't best the original and it doesn't do anything new or inventive with it. Let's get back to being positive though. The two live tracks* are essential listening, not only because it was our first non-bootleg taste of Oh Sees live but also because they're great performances. The medley of 'Destroyed Fortress Reappears' (titled merely 'Destroyed Fortress' because they're trying to give me an aneurysm) and choice Floating Coffin cut 'No Spell' is better than ice cream and sex. Well, alright, that's a bit too far.

It is better than ice cream, though.

Well gang, we solved the mystery of whether Pitchfork has shitty writers....um I mean, we solved the mystery of why Volume 3 isn't a great entry point. In doing so, I hope the takeaway is that this is an essential for established fans. In fact I feel like we need to come up with a new term for this kind of release, the opposite of an entry point, something 'for the fans.' The best I've managed to come up with is “fan fodder”, though there's negative connotations to 'fodder' so I dunno. What's your idea?


*During both live tracks they start singing lyrics I don't recognize. Are they quoting other songs or improvising or am I just not paying close enough attention to the studio versions?

Oh Sees Retrospective #17: Moon Sick EP

I'm starting to think the universe or fate or god or whoever or whatever is following my actions closely. In the last retrospective I briefly mentioned Radiohead, and I came to find out after finishing it that they recently started an online archive containing all of their material to date. This includes albums, singles, promo videos, documentaries, outtakes and rarities...the veritable whole shebang. In a past life I was obsessed with Radiohead (my main email address still has their name in it) and this kind of news would have had me climbing up the walls with excitement. True, I am curious to tuck in someday, especially some of the more obscure EPs and singles I've never heard. The important takeaway is that I appreciate how some bands realize their hardcore fanbase can never be satiated. And while Oh Sees may not have their material all available in one place, they do understand that prolificacy and number of releases doesn't always mean flooding the market. Oh Sees consistently surprise us with things like An Odd Entrances and the recent The 12” Synth release, so newer fans might not be aware of some of the older treasures to plunder.


As mentioned in the last retrospective, the Moon Sick EP followed Floating Coffin by a mere three days, coming out on April 19^th, 2013...Or did it? The Oh Sees Bandcamp page says it came out on the 19^th, but all other information I've found indicates it came out on Record Store Day, which was the 20^th. Insert obligatory 4/20 joke here. Anyway, exact release date doesn't matter—the point is, it came out so close to its parent album that it was a huge surprise. Now, sure, it is just four leftover songs from the Floating Coffin sessions, and they definitely wouldn't work if you tried to insert them into the album.* Due to this you might assume it's just scraps that fell off the table for we, the hardcore, to pounce on and devour like we're starving orcs. Yet I think it's a bit dismissive to say they're just four leftover songs. Yes, this EP isn't as coherent and cohesive as the usual full album or a mini album followup like An Odd Entrances—but this isn't necessarily an indication of its overall quality.


In a shocking twist, revisiting the Moon Sick EP so soon after finishing the Floating Coffin retrospective has helped make it clear to me why I don't love that record. There's a hard to explain quality I notice in some the best Oh Sees albums, something I can only describe as a sense of being unhinged, of going for it, of being gonzo and not striving for perfection. By contrast to this EP, even when Floating Coffin does get weird or unhinged, it comes off as still being polished, in control, and orderly. It really does feel as though the 'crazy' stuff was set aside for this EP. Just a thought.


Moon Sick blasts the fuck out of the gate with 'Grown In A Graveyard.' After asking “are we rolling?”, Oh Sees unleash an absolute beast of an opening track, all off-kilter drums and queasy synth sounds and pummeling bass. John Dwyer is in classic form, his vocals swallowed up in the chaos swirling around him as his guitar is absolutely coated in delay and effects, firing off tracer rounds toward the moon. This is followed by 'Sewer Fire', a midtempo rager that splits the difference between krautrock trance, psychedelic noise, and garage rock furor. Listen closely at the end for a snippet of Pink Floyd's 'Money'--why it's there, I have no idea, but it's part of the gonzo spirit, maaaan. While I know it's then-collaborator Lars Finberg handling vocals on 'Sewer Fire', I bet most people, like me, forget this and think it's Dwyer up to this old tricks. If you've never listened to this EP before, you may still have heard 'Humans Be Swayed', a fan favorite that is sometimes played live (if I recall correctly, there's a live performance on YouTube, with Ty Segall on drums, no less!), which to me has always seemed like a modern cousin to Warm Slime's 'I Was Denied' in terms of an ear worm melody/vocal and rollicking energy. We end the proceedings with 'Candy Clock', which is such a strange detour both from Floating Coffin and the previous tracks of the EP that I love it. Between the harpsichord, the viola, the “la la la” vocals, and the whimsical 60s British orchestral psych-folk aesthetic and lyrics, this track is a hidden gem. It's so...perverse putting a track like this at the end to balance the other songs. I adore it; being gonzo doesn't always mean cranking the volume and distortion, after all.


As with other lesser known non-album releases from Oh Sees, Moon Sick is the kind of deep cuts/outtakes release that rewards hungry fans for their persistence and their hunger. Yes, it's only four tracks and yes, it's Floating Coffin leftovers. Yet it speaks to the consistency and quality control of this band to not only not shoehorn these songs onto the parent album where they wouldn't have worked, but also to have the foresight to release them in an all-killer, no-filler EP format. Here they can shine in the sun and not be relegated to a dark cutting room floor somewhere or swallowed up in a singles collection. Moon Sick is a special treat for fans, and I'm excited they keep doing stuff like this to (maybe I'm making an assumption here!) reward the faithful.


*Though if some enterprising person wanted to propose a 'fan edit' that combines the two releases, I'd be ever so curious what they come up with.

Oh Sees Retrospective #16: Floating Coffin

It's always a little strange when something obscure you hold near and dear to your heart bumps up against the mainstream. I'll never forget back in 2000 when Radiohead (a popular band, to be sure, but not as legendary as they are now) appeared on Saturday Night Live. I was nervous as shit to see the reaction of my high school peers. Would everybody suddenly jump on the bandwagon, and as a result, steer the band further into the mainstream, perhaps even dragging them there, kicking and screaming? Turns out I shouldn't have worried because nobody was talking about it. I bring this up because in some sense, 2013 was the peak of mainstream crossover for Oh Sees. 'Tidal Wave' was used in 2011 in an episode of Breaking Bad; 'The Dream' was used in Grand Theft Auto V in 2013. More and more mainstream press started to cover them and review their records. I'll admit, I was a bit worried they might steer into more poppy/populist music. I needn't have worried, just as with Radiohead. Floating Coffin may have come out at the height of their mainstream dalliance but it's an Oh Sees record through and through.

That said, I don't think anyone could deny this era was where Oh Sees started to become a band that you might see on a late night talk show. I have the sense that the 2011-2013 era was the real jump in fandom numbers for Oh Sees. A lot of people seem to say either Carrion Crawler/The Dream or Floating Coffin is the first Oh Sees album they heard; even more people view them both as cornerstones of the Oh Sees discography. It's interesting, then, that Floating Coffin is the last gasp of the classic mid-era of Oh Sees (this is with the exception of the Moon Sick EP and Singles Collection Vol. 3) as the four-piece of John Dwyer, Brigid Dawson, Petey Dammit!, and Mike Shoun. People were just coming on board as Dwyer pivoted the band into another effectively-solo album, Drop, announced a hiatus, and then came roaring back with a new lineup and album. But we'll get to all that in good time, my friends. I should note that Lars Finberg did contribute drums and guitar to this record, helping achieve its beefy sound, but he didn't tour to promote the album and never officially joined as a member.


Floating Coffin was released on April 16^th, 2013, and thankfully, there's no confusing mentions of it being an EP unlike the last two albums. Ironic, then, that a mere three days after Floating Coffin came out, the band released the four leftover songs from the recording sessions as the Moon Sick EP for Record Story Day. But I digress. Setting aside its reputation for quality, Floating Coffin seems to also have a reputation for being a heavier, more energetic, and darker album than what had come before. Sure, it is more focused than the scattershot Putrifiers II, though I do think this “ALL HIGH ENERGY ALL THE TIME LET'S ROCK!” idea is a bit overblown. Don't get me wrong, side one of the record especially goes for the throat and never lets off the gas even if it's not always going a thousand miles an hour. Listen a little more closely, however, and you'll see hints of the psychedelic and prog rock styles that dominate modern Oh Sees records. The sludgy, gooey 'Night Crawler' has wonderfully zonked out sounding keyboards and a blown-out wall-of-sound that suffocates the ears. 'Strawberries 1 + 2' starts off like the rest of side one before evolving (devolving?) into a slower paced swagger. The increased psychedelic influence is also felt on the underappreciated 'No Spell', a krautrock jam that spends its last minute or so zoned out, receding into the background like the visual trails you see on acid.


It's exceedingly rare that I consider something perfect, in the literal sense of the word. Floating Coffin doesn't seem to have a weakness in its armor that can be exploited, Smaug-style, to bring it down. The album cover is cool as shit, the title is awesome, there isn't a weak song in the bunch, it's paced well and never gets stylistically monotonous...so why is it, then, that I don't find myself reaching for this record as much as other Oh Sees releases? Well, if you'll allow me a brief detour back in time: do you remember how, in the retrospective about Warm Slime, I posited that it's possible to see the flaws in something but still love it? The inverse is the case for Floating Coffin. I think it's as flawless as any work of art can be; it knows exactly what it is, what it's trying to go for, and it completely succeeds. Yet, I don't love it. It's a fantastic record and believe me, I get why other people adore it and adorn it with high regard. It's taken me so long to write this retrospective not because I haven't felt like writing recently, but because I've been trying to tease out why it is that it doesn't click with me...and I still have no idea. I was going to say that I don't think 'Minotaur' really fits the album and is an odd choice for the closer yet the more I listened to this record the more it grew on me.


You can't tell, but I shrugged just now.


I suppose that's how it goes with art sometimes, and with life, too. Some things will always be inexplicable. I've never been able to explain why I don't love Inception, other than “it's not as deep and complex as people say it is”, but that's more about other people's feelings than my own, and has no bearing on how I feel about the movie. It simply didn't capture my heart the way it seems to for other people. So it goes with Floating Coffin. If you're one of its many lovers, I wish you both the happiest life together.

Oh Sees Retrospective #15: Putrifiers II

I have a really bad habit of buying a book with every intention of reading it immediately and it ends up getting put off and put off. It sits out, undisturbed, usually on either a nightstand or a coffee table; it gathers dust and is occasionally glanced at with increasing self-criticism. Well, I'm happy to report that I am currently reading something: How Music Works by David Byrne. As it's written by someone deeply involved in the artform, it gives me somewhat of a similar feel as the legendary book/longform interview that Francois Truffaut did with Alfred Hitchcock. Anyway, the section about how recording technology has shaped music, and vice versa, is filled to the brim with minor “ah ha!” moments. Such as? Well, such as, once multi-track recording was introduced, artists no longer needed a full band playing together live in the studio. If you were a Brian Wilson-esque auteur, you could even record each instrument and vocal line yourself. Some artists did and still do record as a full band in the studio, though the choice is now more about the aesthetic qualities and level of control over the music this allows than it is about how much more convenient it is not to corral a group of musicians. I used to always assume when John Dwyer did what are effectively solo albums under the Oh Sees name, it was because he wanted to get something out fast without having to get the band together. With more Oh Sees history under my belt, I now realize how wrong I was.


Coming as it did between beloved juggernauts Carrion Crawler/The Dream and Floating Coffin, Putrifiers II has persistently struck me as an overshadowed, oft-forgotten album. Released on September 11^th, 2012, it's yet another Oh Sees record labelled as an EP but is clearly a full-length LP. Some versions of the cover art/back art have EP on them, some don't. Why this happened, I have no idea, and I could find nothing to explain it in my research. I'm not even sure which album art is “official” since there's at least two variants with different wording. I should say before we get any further that I haven't heard the Australian bonus disc with the demos. As my Singles Collection Vol. 1 & 2 retrospective made clear, I don't find demos and outtakes all that interesting, sooooo let's just focus on the album itself. One more sidenote before we get down to brass tacks—the cover art, and art elsewhere in/on this album, is terrible. I'm not the biggest fan of Warm Slime's art, which was done by the same artist (Kyle Ranson), but at least it's abstract and has interesting use of colors. Putrifiers II just seems like it's trying to be bad, an even more ugly version of the figure on the cover of Tears Of The Valedictorian, now rendered in anemic tones of gray with clashing/eye piercing rainbow text.


It's clear to anyone familiar with the band's work why Putrifiers II is overshadowed, so let's break down why it's oft-forgotten. For starters, the production is oddly skeletal sounding. It was mostly recorded/performed solo by John Dwyer, so even the more typical garage rock songs sound a bit too thin and polished, like somebody trying to replicate a full band's sound. 'Wax Face' has always struck me as a bit bloodless and forgettable, while 'Flood's New Light' comes off as if it were a Castlemania leftover without the rough edges and lower-fi production that made that record so beguiling. Speaking of, in some ways the solo recording style and diversity of sounds on Putrifiers II make it feel like an unofficial sequel to that album. Yet unlike Castlemania, there's something very disjointed and poorly paced about the varied styles of its successor. From backloading the record with two English psych-folk string-laden tracks ('Goodnight Baby' and 'Wicked Park'), to putting the swampy Velvet Underground-esque dirge 'So Nice' too early in the running, to the way the two longest songs start off side B of the record and neither of them have enough ideas to justify their length...it's a mess that never gels and clicks in the mind the way that Castlemania eventually does.


The biggest top-down flaw with Putrifiers II is that it feels rushed and careless. Sure, Oh Sees's prolificacy means they won't put out an absolute banger every year, but that has never stopped them from being consistently interesting and putting out a product that feels complete. Putrifiers II comes off as much like an odds-and-sods compilation as it does a fully realized artistic work. I mean, is that supposed to be a flute solo on 'Will We Be Scared?' Maybe he forgot to go back and play an actual solo or melody line that would keep your attention, because the last minute and a half of the song is nothing but bored vamping. 'Lupine Dominus' is as slight as its runtime suggests, one of the most forgettable krautrock jams they ever recorded, with a lead guitar line that sounds like somebody trying to learn to play a trumpet for the first time, all puckered and teethy and duck farty. Meanwhile there's the absolute waste of time 'Cloud #1', a drone/noise track of someone sustaining random atonal keyboard chords for a couple minutes, something anybody could make in their sleep. It doesn't help that the track seems carelessly thrown in between two songs and does absolutely nothing to either bridge the transition between them or to contrast with them in some thoughtful way. Even when it can use 'trying something new' as an excuse, Putrifiers II's songs still need another edit or reworking to achieve what they were going for. I really want to talk about the title track, which is trying something new yet fails because of what an overlong and undercooked experiment it is...but I suspect you get the point by now. No need to flog a dead putrifier.


I understand that this all feels like I'm savaging the album. It's never my intention for these retrospectives to perform like an assassination, let alone an autopsy. Yet I can't find much positive to say about Putrifiers II. It is without question the most average, the most bland, the most forgettable Oh Sees album to date. In some ways, sure, its variety might make it a good gateway record for new fans, though it's a gateway you'll never return to once you're on the inside. What I mean is, it's not awful, it simply suffers from comparison. I defy anyone to name a single song on this record that is a true standout in the Oh Sees discography, one that has a musical idea or song-type that hasn't been done a dozen times before, and also done much better. I get that some people really dig Putrifiers II, and it baffles me—it's like saying Rogue One is your favorite Star Wars movie. It's an opinion, so therefore I can't really deny its validity, but I sure as hell will question its validity. For me, both projects are full of ideas that were done much better elsewhere, and what is “new” is done poorly. Nobody asked for a film telling the story of how they got the plans for the Death Star, and nobody needs Putrifiers II if they've heard other Oh Sees records.