Oh Sees Retrospective #27: Smote Reverser

A wise man once sang, “people change/but you know some people never do.” The paradox of Oh Sees has always been that they're always the same and they're always changing. What this means is that you may go on a two or three album stretch without one you thoroughly enjoy. You may wish they'd return to certain styles that were more prevalent on previous records. You may also ride the waves and change with them, getting at least something out of every release. And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife, and you may...whoops, sorry. Couldn't help myself. Let's talk about Smote Reverser.

Unleashed from the depths on August 17^th, 2018, Smote Reverser was the true beginning of the band steering into heavier prog rock, metal, and jam band influences. It showcased the core modern-era foursome of John Dwyer, Paul Quattrone, Dan Rincon, and Tim Hellman, supplemented by (soon to join as a full time member) Tomas Dolas on keyboards, vocals from Brigid Dawson, and um...'marching boots' by recording engineers Enrique Tena Padilla and Mario Ramirez. There is a credit given to Heather Lockie of 'sampled viola' on 'Last Peace', though I'm not sure if this means it's a sample taken from a recording she did or if they had her play in the studio and sampled that. I'm not familiar with her credited groups on Discogs though her website reveals she's a multi-discipline artist and creator, so big ups to her. Anyway, hardcore completionists and/or record collectors will have their hands full with this album, as it saw four different color variants in addition to the basic black edition. Now, I know not everybody is a fan of the cover art but I think it's dope as hell. I would totally put it on the side of my van. I was psyched when the creature reappeared in the 'Poisoned Stones' music video. It's worth noting that the artist behind the cover, Matt Stawicki, is a longtime fantasy/scifi artist, who has done a ton of book covers as well as (of great personal interest to me) a couple Magic: The Gathering cards.

Smote Reverser is an interesting album to end this retrospective series on, for a number of reasons. First, from reading/watching reviews and forum posts, it seems to be a very divisive record. It has a fairly even split between people who think it's one of the Oh Sees's best and started them in a great new direction and people who think it's overly indulgent and has more bad songs than good. Second, I'm sure people are wondering why I'm not also doing Face Stabber, which is a valid question. As stated in the previous retrospective, my opinion of it hasn't change since I wrote my initial review, and since I have nothing new to say about it seven months later, there isn't much point. Lastly, it's an interesting one to end on because Smote Reverser is one of the releases that my opinion changed the most about since I first heard it. You might say I was smitten and then it was reversed.


Sorry, I know, that was really reaching. Let's dig in.

The first couple listens, I loved it and thought it was a masterpiece. I understood the complaints by people who didn't like it, though I chalked that up to the fact that they didn't vibe with the direction Oh Sees were going in. As time has gone on, though, I see Smote Reverser as more of a mixed bag that averages out to 'merely good.' I quite like some tracks, while others are either underdeveloped or overbaked. We may as well start with 'Anthemic Aggressor', since at twelve minutes long it's the most remarkable track on the record. And I mean “remarkable” in the literal sense, that there's a lot to remark about. Now, I don't dislike 'Anthemic Aggressor' because it's so long. I'm on record as a huge fan of jam bands like Phish improvising for twenty minutes or more, and I'm a founding member of U.H.B.: United 'Henchlock' Boosters. No, to me 'Anthemic Aggressor' is bad because it's simultaneously underdeveloped and overbaked. It's essentially just an instrumental jam session that isn't particularly good. The soloing is often dull and uninspired, and some of the sounds are grating and atonal in a bad away. You can find much better examples on Face Stabber and previously released live albums/tracks of this sort of improv. I also feel like the musical bedrock of the track is one of the weaker repetitive riffs/vamps Oh Sees have ever done. The drumming is spastic, and not in a good way, and the bass is so simplistic it's dull as unpolished shit. I feel like some of the issues I had with 'Warm Slime' are present here, though I'll remind you, I actually like 'Warm Slime', and I almost always skip 'Anthemic Aggressor' when I put the album on. While I'm throwing shade, allow me to darken the doorsteps of 'Enrique El Cobrador' and 'Nail House Needle Boys', two tracks that are pretty weak and forgettable. The latter features a drum/percussion break that is so mundane it almost has to be a joke.

The borderline-frustrating thing about Smote Reverser is that there's also a lot to love, things I want to take out of the shade and to hold up so they can shine in the sunlight. Overall I'm excited by the new metal/prog/jam band direction that Smote Reverser sailed toward. I also delight in Tomas Dolas; he brings a lot to the table and I'm glad he joined full-time after this album. I appreciate how prevalent keyboards have become in the current Oh Sees sound. More importantly, Smote Reverser has some of the band's best material. 'Beat Quest' is a fantastic closing song, emphasizing the dual drummers throughout its runtime and making for a much better drum showcase than the weak breakdown in 'Nail House Needle Boys.' Also have to give some love for the gooey keyboard/synths around the 2:45 mark, as well as how the track starts out melancholy and develops into a jubilant organ-led ending. The other bookend of the record, 'Sentient Oona', perfectly sets the atmosphere for the songs to come, with some great “ooh ooooh” backing vocals from Brigid Dawson and a whipsnap entry into the main riff before it cools down again. 'C', meanwhile, is like Red Lobster's Lobsterfest for people who love crunchy and boogie-ing 70s-inspired guitarwork. Perhaps the biggest surprise is 'Overthrown', which just stabs your face with its heaviness. Unless you have epilepsy, I highly recommend the video for 'Overthrown', especially with the lights off, and especially if you're enjoying some psychoactive substances.

Weak songs aside, I suspect I would still enjoy Smote Reverser as much as I did on first listen if Face Stabber didn't exist. It's hard not to look back on it as a warmup for Face Stabber. To me it does most of what this album does well and does it even better. I'm not at all saying Smote Reverser is retroactively irrelevant or not worth a listen. I have my issues with it, sure, but I still listen to it on a somewhat regular basis when I'm in the mood for Oh Sees. It's totally valid not to share the opinion that Face Stabber is a better version of Smote Reverser; it's got some really strong highlights as I discussed in the previous paragraph. The best comparison I can think of is that Smote Reverser is like taking several different food items from different cuisines and mixing them all together, whereas Face Stabber is like a carefully planned five course meal. It just has so much more variety in sounds and textures and ideas, and all of it works well together and flows nicely. Smote Reverser doesn't flow well, it's more of a stock market graph with ups and downs, screams and laughs.

Kind of like this retrospective series, really.

Oh Sees Retrospective #26: Live In San Francisco

The first music festival I ever went to was the 2007 Pitchfork festival in Chicago. Partly I was going since I had a good friend who lived there and we hadn't seen each other in awhile. Mostly I was going for the music, and specifically the first night which was presented by All Tomorrow's Parties and their 'Don't Look Back' concert series. Basically, ATP invited bands to play one of their 'classic' albums live in full. This edition had Slint performing Spiderland, GZA performing Liquid Swords (sadly wasted on me since I didn't like hip hop at the time), and Sonic Youth performing Daydream Nation. Ever since then, I've fantasized about seeing other bands performing their best records. When artists actually do a tour or a single performance of a 'classic' album, it's usually years after the initial release. Not so with Memory Of A Cut Off Head, which was performed in full during a short OCS tour in late 2017, including two San Francisco shows. While I would certainly give up my clear vinyl copy of Thee Hounds Of Foggy Notion to see Oh Sees perform Help or Face Stabber, it is nice to have one live album that features a beloved record.


Culled from shows on December 17^th and 18^th of 2017, Live In San Francisco would be released on June 28^th, 2018. One thing I can tell you right off the bat is that it's one of the modern releases with the hardest to find information, in terms of websites not reviewing/covering it. I don't see it discussed much online, even on Reddit and other fan/music forums. I get the sense it snuck out there and only the truly hardcore/record collectors were able to get their hands on the various limited edition vinyl versions. The other big reason it's a hard release to research is that its title is exactly the same as the Oh Sees Live In San Francisco, so if you put “OCS Live In San Francisco” into Google most of the results end up being about the Oh Sees one. Anyhow, the OCS lineup for these shows bizarrely didn't feature Nick Murray or Patrick Mullins, who contributed to the studio album. Instead the cast includes John Dwyer, Brigid Dawson, Tim Hellman, Tomas Dolas, and Paul Quattrone, supplemented by a string section made up of Emily Elkin, Eric Clark, Heather Lockie, and Heidi Maureen Alexander. Elzo Durt, who provided the cover art, also did the awesome art for Carrion Crawler/The Dream. I recommend checking out his website, he's got a fantastic 60s concert poster throwback style. The last bit of business I need to address is that I purchased the digital version from Bandcamp since it's not on Spotify and some of the track names are fucked up or weirdly shortened. Another instance where I can't tell if somebody was lazy or didn't doublecheck their work. 'Neighbor Ton None'? 'On & On Cooridor'? Hey, you know what one of my favorite songs off Thee Hounds Of Foggy Notion is? 'Dreadful Day.' You can't see it but I'm shaking my head right now.


Live In San Francisco is mostly a faithful performance of the studio versions of the Memory Of A Cut Off Head songs. As I said earlier, it's literally the album in full, in exact order, with some 'bonus' old favorites at the end. Like with the Pitchfork 2007 'Don't Look Back' performances I saw, there are a few little wrinkles here and there to make this live release a worthy companion to the studio versions. Dwyer uses a bit of echo/delay on his guitar, often between songs, and it's a cool effect. The noise/drone section at the end of 'The Baron Sleeps And Dreams' gets some big cheers from the audience, which always makes me smile. 'Time Tuner' gets a bit of David Bowie 'Heroes'-esque sustain guitar from Dwyer, giving it even more of a Nico vibe, and it's a bit slower and longer than the studio version. I enjoy the Dwyer banter sprinkled throughout, including him pronouncing the band's name at the start as “Oh See Ess”, so now we all know it's not “Oh Sees.” Oh, and there's a bit during 'The Chopping Block' where someone says something I can't quite make out but it makes Dwyer crack up and makes me realize how much this song sounds like David Bowie's 'Space Oddity.'


Otherwise, there isn't much to say about this release that I didn't already say about Memory Of A Cut Off Head, so I'll cover the final three throwback tracks for curious parties. Once the string players leave the stage, we get a nice Thee Hounds Of Foggy Notion throwback with 'Dreadful Heart' and 'Iceberg.' The former is prefaced by a dedication to a friend of Dwyer, and is really close to the Hounds version. 'Iceberg' gets a weirdly self-deprecating “This is another old that we played for nobody a long time ago...” comment from him and a dedication to someone named Garth. There's a bit more to 'Iceberg' in this performance, including some gorgeous Rhodes organ, presumably from Tomas Dolas. And then there's 'Block Of Ice', and hoo boy!


To date, this is the longest track on any Oh Sees release. It starts out like the version on The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In, with a fatter bottom end thanks to organ/keyboards from Tomas Dolas. They extend the hell out of the song and Dwyer absolutely cuts loose on his electric guitar just like the epic, live album closing 'Contraption' on Oh Sees' Live In an Fransisco. Send 'em home with their minds blown! I can only imagine listening to this on acid. Around the eight minute mark you can really tell why Dwyer brought on Dolas full-time. He's a decent improviser in his own right and tries to keep up with the guitar madness going on. They return to the main riff and lyrics around 14 minutes in, and if you aren't paying attention to the runtime you might think they're about to wrap it up. Nope. You still have like ten minutes left, dig in! Around 15:35 it mutates into 'Ghost In The Trees'—why the tracklisting doesn't reflect this, I have no idea—before going off into more jamming and wrapping up with another runthrough of the 'Ghost In The Trees' riff/lyrics. Over the course of this performance, Dwyer does everything from silky delay trails/loops to grimy noise blurts and groans to bluesy riffs. It never quite flows logically but that doesn't really matter. It's all about the pure spectacle, like that live Frank Zappa album where they play 'Louie Louie' using the giant Victorian organ at the Royal Albert Hall. After the calmer/hushed tone of the rest of the Live In San Francisco album, it's a jarring change, though not strictly in a bad way.


In all honesty, if you own Live In San Francisco, you don't really need Memory Of A Cut Off Head. This may be a bit controversial, since some people always prefer to have studio versions of music. For me, though, Live is superior in every way. It's like having the original album plus three interesting, unique throwbacks as a meaty bonus, kinda like ordering a 12 oz. steak and getting three sliders as the side. Well, I guess one of the sliders should be a double bacon cheeseburger. Alright, let's stop torturing the metaphor. For fans of Memory, this is an excellent companion piece. For people who aren't especially big on the album, however, the three bonus songs are worth the price of admission alone. I've sure spent $7 on worse things.

Oh Sees Retrospective #25: Memory Of A Cut Off Head

As I near the end of this retrospective series, it seems fitting that I'd eventually get back around to talking about OCS. Now, you might argue that since I'm not covering Damaged Bug and other John Dwyer side projects, I shouldn't technically be writing about Memory Of A Cut Off Head. Yes, part of the reason he revived the OCS name is that he now considers Oh Sees and OCS to be distinct entities, though this is a bit of a sleight of hand. Early releases under the OCS name are certainly distinct in style and tone from, say, Help or Smote Reverser, but in the early-era of the band the subtle name changes slowly blurred OCS into The Ohsees and then into Thee Oh Sees and finally into Oh Sees. The lineup from the early OCS days also slowly morphed into the mid-era foursome, so even if I am cheating a bit on this one, I still think it's a relatively fair cheat. And anyway, Memory Of A Cut Off Head features contributions from Nick Murray and Tim Hellman, who were/are from the modern-era Oh Sees lineup, as well as future Oh Sees member Tomas Dolas, so there!


Like many surprise Oh Sees releases, the revival of the OCS name and announcement of an album seemed to come out of nowhere. Memory Of A Cut Off Head was released on November 17^th, 2017, mere months after Orc. Technically speaking, this record is billed as a collaboration between Dwyer and Brigid Dawson. This is interesting because she was never nearly as a big presence on old OCS records. They were dominated by Dwyer...which makes sense, since I think we all forget Dawson didn't join OCS until album five, The Cool Death Of Island Raiders, which was released as The Ohsees, not OCS. So I guess she was never really a member of OCS until 2017? Eh, maybe this is needlessly splitting hairs. Memory Of A Cut Off Head (hereafter referred to as simply Memory) is a fun throwback in terms of the OCS style. To have Patrick Mullins back is pretty huge, as is the reappearance of former Oh Sees drummer Nick Murray (who we last heard on Mutilator Defeated At Last, or the Fortress single if you want to be a stickler for details). Tim Hellman is an interesting addition to the OCS sound, since if I remember right they never really had a bassist before. John Dwyer must love him as much as I do! Tomas Dolas contributes unspecified keyboards to the album, marking this his first appearance on an Oh Sees/OCS album, though he's billed as Thomas Dolas because...I don't know. It's either laziness or whitewashing, and I'm much inclined to believe the former. Luckily this would be rectified on Smote Reverser.


Going into this retrospective series, I was most curious to tackle the early OCS output and in particular to revisit this one. I had only given a couple cursory listens to Memory before coming back to it for this series, and it's been an eye opening experience. I had almost forgotten how nice Dwyer and Dawson's vocals sound together in a more psych folk/orchestral folk setting, especially when he's singing more hushed and melodically. It's also much easier to pick out the lyrics, which are quite dark and suffused with death and sadness. For example, 'The Remote Viewer' offers the chucklefest of a chestnut: “we are junkies of despair.” Anyway, if Memory is a return to any era of the band, it's a return to the old OCS sound circa 2. However this time it's much more “professional” and full sounding, with the welcome addition of string arrangements. In fact they're essential to this record and its style. There's a very good reason the OCS Live In San Francisco has string players on it. Some of the Beatles-esque/early Pink Floyd whimsical psychedelia and orchestral folk elements I've detected on the 'solo' Oh Sees records like Castlemania and Drop are in full bloom here. There's other intriguing instrumental flourishes, such as the harpsichord on 'The Remote View' and another welcome trotting out of Dwyer's flute skills for 'On And On Corridor.'


On a side note, the overall buoyant feel and especially the Rhodes-style organ in the beginning of album closer 'Lift A Finger By The Garden Path' always makes me imagine a slower, more folky 'You're My Best Friend' by Queen. Am I the only one who hears it? Probably.


Perhaps the greatest change to the OCS sound comes in letting Brigid Dawson step forward as a true collaborator. As far as I remember, Memory is the first time she sang on an OCS/Oh Sees songs alone, and presumably she helped write at least some of the lyrics. Overall, hearing her voice alone reminds me a lot of another female singer but I can't put my finger on who for the life of me. 'Time Tuner' definitely starts off sounding like Nico. I know I also made this comparison for one of the last songs on Castlemania but 'Time Tuner' could have gone on The Marble Index and nobody would have done a double take. Anyway, this record makes me curious to hear more full-blown collaborations between Dwyer and other people. I know at some point he was rumored to be working with Ty Segall but that either didn't happen or it ended up just being Segall co-producing Orc. I'm a big fan of Segall's two collaborations with White Fence, in particular Hair, so I'm still holding out hope. But I digress. With all the changes and updates to the sound, and the addition of Oh Sees members, it's easy for me to forget the way Memory actually is a throwback in a few crucial ways. Obviously there's the mellow/downer atmosphere, as well as the prominent use of acoustic guitars and occasional singing saw contributions from Patrick Mullins. In addition, I love that the ending of 'The Baron Sleeps And Dreams' is a drone throwback to similar moments/tracks on OCS releases. One last throwback that isn't really an OCS throwback: the album cover was done by Jonny Negron, the same artist as Drop, which makes total sense because the color palette is almost exactly the same. I find his style more limited and less appealing than Ryan Beatty; as ever, your mileage will vary.

I've struggled with a way to conclude this retrospective because I have very complicated feelings about Memory. Let me start by saying it's absolutely tops as far as OCS-billed releases. It's as if it presents an alternate history wherein John Dwyer kept The Coachwhips going and so didn't steer his OCS project into going in more of a rock rather than a folk direction, becoming the Oh Sees we know in our timeline. Memory, therefore, is like if he kept putting out OCS records between Coachwhips projects, so that in this alternate timeline OCS developed/matured into this particular nuanced, orchestrated sound, while also allowing Dawson to step forward more often. Now, all of this said, though I may not have any issues and problems with Memory, I don't adore it. It works for me but it isn't something I foresee wanting to listen to consistently over the coming years. It's quite similar to how I feel about the Damaged Bug records. They get released, I listen to them and admire them and appreciate them for what they are, and I don't have many, if any, relevant complaints...yet they don't fully bewitch me. Well, that's subjective taste for ya. Next time we'll find out if OCS in a live setting makes any difference.

Oh Sees Retrospective #24: Orc

I have to be honest, when I first saw the announcement back in 2017 that the forthcoming Oh Sees record would be called Orc, I thought man, that's lazy as hell. This is a band with a series of excellent album titles—yes, I even like Drop for its varying meanings—and Orc just seemed arbitrary. Sure, Dwyer was turning up the fantasy influence in the lyrics and overall aesthetic of the band, but “Orc”? Really? Plain and simple “Orc”? Not even “Warrior Orc” or “Orcs Brew” or something? Well, perhaps this paring back of the title was a nod to the band changing their name to simply Oh Sees, dropping the Thee. As it turned out, while a couple listens of Orc won't sound so different from A Weird Exits/An Odd Entrances, there's more changes going on than the surface level name change and stripped back album title indicate.


Orc was released on August 25^th, 2017, and along with the band name shortening to Oh Sees, there were a couple other crucial changes. As discussed in the last retrospective, Ryan Moutinho quit the band two days before the release of An Odd Entrances, and in early 2017 Paul Quattrone took his slot, maintaining the dual drummer setup we've all come to love. This addition would also solidify the modern-era lineup (minus Tomas Dolas, who only became an official member after Smote Reverser). By the by, for those curious, Quattrone is always in the left stereo channel and Dan Rincon is always in the right. I'm assuming they kept this convention going forward though I don't recall if the liner notes continue to specify this. The other big change is that this is the first Oh Sees album not to have Chris Woodhouse as recording engineer/producer/collaborator, after a streak stretching all the way back to Sucks Blood in 2007. I'm sad to report I wasn't able to find any information explaining why Woodhouse stopped working with Oh Sees. Judging by his Discogs credits, he hasn't been very active in the last year or two. He even left The Dock recording studio he helped found. Hopefully nothing bad happened to him, or anyway, between him and Oh Sees. Anyway, this led Orc to be a production handled by the team of John Dwyer, Eric Bauer, Ty Segall, and Enrique Tena (who is referred to in Smote Reverser track 'Enrique El Cobrador', which means “Enrique the debt collector”). It's weird, I always forget Ty Segall worked on Orc. I'd think this would be a bigger deal to people but I don't remember anyone bringing it up or commenting on it. By 2017 Ty Segall was arguably more mainstream and popular than Oh Sees, yet none of the professional music magazine/website reviews made even the smallest fuss of his involvement.


To these ears, Orc is a slightly-more-modern sequel to Mutilator Defeated At Last. It's solid all the way through, has no weak tracks, and it's an across-the-board fan favorite. It also has a reputation as a dark/heavy album akin to Floating Coffin. This isn't completely deserved, at least musically. Yes, lyrically the album is pretty dark and heavy, a strange mix of almost self-consciously poetic turns of phrase and disturbing imagery, continuing the apocalyptic scifi/fantasy concepts of the last two records. For example, opener 'The Static God' is from the point of view of a self-destructive/masochistic character, trying to bum cigarettes and wondering aloud, “I'm leaning in/into the whip/does it satisfy me?” Not to mention there's a track called 'Cadaver Dog', for god's sake! Musically, the album is quite heavy though it does have more variety than Floating Coffin, so the reputation is only partly deserved. Before I get to said variety I should touch on the heaviness, as Orc has some of the band's most crunchy riffs and metal-tinged moments. 'Animated Violence' is one of the heaviest tracks of the modern-era, rivaled only by 'Face Stabber' or 'Heartworm.' However, this heaviness is leavened expertly with slower/calmer moments and songs, like the five minute long viola-led second section of 'Keys To The Castle' and the slow dance fantasia of 'Drowned Beast.' There's also the aptly named 'Cooling Tower', which sacrifices heaviness for grooviness, and has a churning/chugging up-and-down riff that reminds me a bit of both parts of 'Unwrap The Fiend.' Also, is it just me or does the drumming on this track really sound like Can circa Ege Bamyasi? They've been a huge influence on Oh Sees for years but the grooviness and repetition of the drumming on this track is absolutely out of Jaki Liebezeit's wheelhouse, specifically 'Vitamin C.'


The main difference that sets Orc apart from the previous few releases is that the songs are more dynamic and sectional. This is part of where the increased prog rock influence comes in. Sure, the songs being a bit longer than normal, overall, accounts for this feeling as well, but only partially. 'Nite Expo' and 'Keys To The Castle' both have a rather linear development instead of the usual pop song verse/chorus/verse, while 'Raw Optics' is the kind of solid album ending instrumental that you want to write home about. It's a classic 70s prog rock/acid rock track and I absolutely adore the drum solo section. It's a much more interesting and enjoyable version of the 'Drums' improvisation sections of the second set of Grateful Dead shows. This song, more than any other, points to the jammier direction of Smote Reverser and Face Stabber. While we're on the subject of instrumentals, it's worth noting that Orc has three of them, and two of them are back-to-back in the tracklisting, with the third coming one song later. In theory this risks backloading the album with samey sounding material, but Oh Sees have mastered so many styles of music and the dynamics of instrumental songwriting/jamming that they're among the most compelling songs on Orc.


Since I'm not going to do a retrospective on it, I want to briefly mention the Dead Medic EP. At only two tracks it's difficult to call it an EP though both tracks add up to 20 minutes, so maybe this is one time I need to stop being so pedantic and listen to the artist's intent. Near as I can tell the title track is an in-studio jam, with frenetic drumming and all kinds of psychedelic splurts and burbles going off like slow motion fireworks reflected on the surface of a lake. The other track is a cover of an old school Swedish band I won't even pretend to have heard of. Reminds me a bit of what I remember Amon Düül II sounding like, though I haven't listened to them in years so I recommend finding out for yourself.


As I don't have anything negative to say about Orc, I do want to also take the time to briefly detour to mention a truly terrible and insulting review of the album on Under The Radar. They gave it a ridiculously low 2/10 score, and that's whatever; I hate scoring systems, I haven't used them for years, and that's not why I was so bothered. Moreso I'm blinded by rage with the condescending tone and jabs at nerd culture in this useless, masturbatory excuse for a review. I don't know what it is with the “professional” music press in the UK always being huge pretentious assholes in general, and especially about psychedelic and prog rock music. If you guys sometimes disagree strongly with what I write, prepare yourselves for this bullshit: http://www.undertheradarmag.com/reviews/oh_sees_orc/


OK, detours are over. Given the context of the records to follow, you can look at Orc as being the svelte and focused version of what Smote Reverser and Face Stabber mutated the sound into. By this I mean that Orc lacks most of the jammy/noodly stuff that turns some people off of the latest two albums. This isn't to say Orc is a pop record with short songs, far from it. A better explanation is that it trims all the fat and the sprawl and only leaves the best, most essential parts in these songs. Myself, I love the fat and the sprawl, too. Sometimes I want 'Nite Expo' and sometimes I want 'Henchlock', just as sometimes Oh Sees want to title an album “Orc” and not “The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In.” What else is there to say? You know Orc, you love Orc. Zug zug.

Oh Sees Retrospective #23: An Odd Entrances

In the late 90s, if you'll pardon the cliché, it was the best of time and the worst of times to be a Radiohead fan. The best, because the Internet brought together us fans who obsessed over every obscure single, EP, and recording update on the band's official website. The worst, because after releasing OK Computer in Summer 1997, we would have to wait until October 2000 for the next album, Kid A. As if to placate their rabid fanbase, less than a year later Radiohead released Amnesiac, a companion album to Kid A, taken from the same recording sessions (well, other than 'Life In A Glasshouse'). You may be thinking I'm about to draw parallels to A Weird Exits and An Odd Entrances, though you'd be mistaken. To me the true Radiohead parallel is OK Computer and the North American-exclusive Airbag/How Am I Driving? EP. This mini-album, as it was labelled on the cover, serves as a companion piece to OK Computer, full of excellent tracks which either didn't make the cut or didn't flow well with the rest of the album. Despite repeating the song 'Airbag' from OK Computer, it's a release that can be judged on its own merits, just as An Odd Entrances can be despite repeating...well, alright, it doesn't technically repeat any songs, but we'll get to that a bit later.


Following A Weird Exits by a mere three months, An Odd Entrances (I'll be using the same single noun shorthand from the last retrospective hereafter) came out on November 18^th, 2016. Its arrival was somewhat clouded by the announcement two days prior from drummer Ryan Moutinho that he had quit the band mid-tour. Reading the interview with him I linked in the previous retrospective, you get the sense he left in order to pursue his own projects and to step out from the role of 'the drummer' that he had consistently been roped into. Oh Sees would briefly perform, once again, as a trio before Paul Quattrone joined sometime in early 2017. Anyway, in doing research about Odd I was surprised to learn that a couple of the limited edition vinyl versions came with a 7” Flexi-disc of previously unreleased track 'Classic Bananas.' It's a fantastic song that deserves more listens and awareness. Furthermore, it's strange that it wasn't included on either Weird or Odd. If I had to hazard a guess I'd say it's because it's a bit of a throwback to the mid-era sound and the production style doesn't quite match the albums. Also, this reminds me: where the hell is Singles Collection Volume 4 already?!


Clocking in at roughly ten minutes shorter than its predecessor, Odd is a strange beast indeed. It's not quite short enough to be an EP, in my opinion. It's described as an appendix on the Bandcamp page. Then there's Spotify, who have it under 'Singles'! I'm going to go with the Airbag/How Am I Driving? EP nomenclature and refer to it as a mini-album. The closest parallel I can think of in the Oh Sees discography is actually the Moon Sick EP. Both it and Odd contain a batch of great songs (mostly slower/weirder material), they can stand on their own, and they can be taken as supplements to their parent albums. In terms of standing on its own, Odd has plenty of delights that don't require knowledge of Weird to enjoy. It starts with 'You Will Find It Here', one of, if not the best, opening songs on any Oh Sees release. Whenever I make mixes to get other people into this band, it's always my go-to opener. 'The Poem' sounds like it could be on one of the 'solo' Oh Sees records, like Drop or Castlemania. Whimsical lyrics, the guitar sound, and the overall atmosphere make me think of The Beatles circa 1967 or the first Pink Floyd album (also 1967....huh). It's perhaps worth noting that a full half of the tracks on Odd are instrumentals, something the band would continue to sprinkle on future records. I must make quick note of 'Nervous Tech (Nah John)', which is a better version of what 'The Axis' turns into toward its end. However, it's still the weakest track on Odd, relatively speaking, and it goes on too long without enough development. Liner notes indicate it's “derived from 'Go Ahead John' by Miles Davis” which makes a ton of sense when you listen to them back to back. John Dwyer still isn't really soloing in the way that makes the lengthy Miles Davis track slightly more compelling (though I also think that song goes on too long and isn't one of the best from the fusion era Davis releases). It's more like his improv on 'Contraption' off of Live In San Francisco, which is enjoyable in small doses but not for eight minutes straight. If I learned anything from the feedback from the last retrospective, your mileage will vary.


Perhaps more interesting to discuss is how Odd complements/contrasts with Weird. Let's focus on the sibling tracks from both releases. I recommend making a playlist and listening to them “in order”; it's a fun experiment. 'Unwrap The Fiend Pt. 1', from Odd, is pretty straightforward, other than the self-destructing keyboard ending, and establishes the Fiend riff/motif. 'Unwrap The Fiend Pt. 2' is a bit slower/groovier and the guitar has a greater variety of textures. I love the churning/chugging “chorus” part, always makes me visualize machinery moving things around a factory or a sped-up overhead shot of cars driving through a city center. 'Jammed Entrance' is ironically on Exits and has a killer bassline and noodly keyboard/synth solos while Dwyer takes a break from guitar. The drummers are really getting down on this track, it's a feast for percussion lovers. 'Jammed Exit' is equally compelling, with a more simple bassline and a mix that places more emphasis on the keyboard/synth. Can't forget to mention Dwyer's flute soloing on 'Jammed Exit', something that I often forget is there if I'm using Odd as background music while I drive or play videogames. Sure, 'Jammed Exit' is more monotonous than 'Jammed Entrance' but eh, it still works.


As with the Moon Sick and Airbag/How Am I Driving? EPs, mini-album Odd is a worthy quick follow-up to its parent album, one that can stand on its own merits and that can also serve as a companion piece. Lost until the last minute in all of the discussion of these twin releases is the fact that Odd would be the last time the band would operate under the Thee Oh Sees moniker. Starting with Orc, they'd shorten it to Oh Sees, though whether this was a way of signaling a slight change in musical direction or to reflect the new lineup with Paul Quattrone on drums, we'll have to find out next time.

Oh Sees Retrospective #22: A Weird Exits

There's a question I've been grappling with since the start of this retrospective series, something I've been putting off answering until the time came. And it's this: can you talk about A Weird Exits without also constantly talking about An Odd Entrances? In some sense this retrospective series is about examining each Oh Sees release in a sort of contradictory manner. What I mean is, I try to consider them on their own merits but also as part of the greater discography. With these twin releases, though, the waters become ever more muddied. I mean, An Odd Entrances is its own thing yet it's also leftovers that didn't work with the Weird Exits songs...yet it's not long enough to be a full album...yet it can reasonably be judged on that basis because it feels like a complete, intended experience and not like a leftovers collection. It's complicated, is what I'm saying. For whatever it's worth, I am going to try to judge the two releases on their own strengths and weaknesses and not get sidetracked by comparing 'Jammed Exit' to 'Jammed Entrance' or the two parts of 'Unwrap The Fiend.' There's enough to cover with A Weird Exits as it is, so I'll probably save most of that for the retrospective of An Odd Entrances since I won't have as much background info to go over.


Released on August 12^th, 2016, A Weird Exits is the first studio album to feature the foursome lineup with two drummers. Now, sure, Oh Sees did have two drummers on Carrion Crawler/The Dream and on a smattering of other songs over the years, but they never stuck with it as they have since 2015. A Weird Exits (hereafter simply Weird) and An Odd Entrances (hereafter simply Odd) are culled from the same batch of recordings. According to an interview with drummer Ryan Moutinho (http://www.thereprise.org/features/2017/2/22/thee-oh-sees-ryan-moutinho), it was a marathon three or four day session, after which John Dwyer finished/mixed the rest on his own. The music is more collaborative in spirit than Mutilator Defeated At Last because the band had been touring consistently for more than a year and they were jamming and coming up with song ideas on the road. Anyway, while I'm pleased that the last few releases have had no confusion when it comes to release dates and if they're an EP or not, we do have two topics to hash out before we proceed. First, what is the excuse for the lack of consistency of the title of 'Crawl Out From The Fall Out'?! It's listed as 'Crawl Out Into The Fall Out' on the vinyl record and on Wikipedia/Discogs but the Oh Sees Bandcamp and Spotify pages have it as 'Crawl Out From The Fall Out.' Now, you might be saying, it's a minor detail, who cares? Well, crawling out into something is rather different from crawling out from something. The next time you're near a burning building tell me which you'd rather be doing, if given the choice between the two. The second and more important issue: the liner notes mention something about an organ line lifted from an album which in turn lifted it from Jimi Hendrix. I did my usual diligent research and figured out it's 'The Axis.' The organ line on it is either a sample or a recreation of part of a track by Solo Organ. The part in question comes around the 8:00 mark of the second track from this album: https://soloorgan.bandcamp.com/album/atom-heart-and-beyond-the-infinite The artist's real name is Douglas Katelus though this is incorrectly spelled as Doug Catelis on the sleeve, because nobody cares about the details except me, I guess. Again, you may be saying, minor detail, who cares? Well, when it comes to crediting people for the work they did, it isn't a minor detail because it can lead to issues with songwriting credits and royalty payments. Johnathan Dryer, err I mean John Dwyer should be ashamed.


Whew OK, now that I got all of that out of my system...


Weird continues the trend started by Mutilator Defeated At Last, putting even more emphasis on psych/prog/metal and further scaling back the garage rock. Make no mistake, Weird is still heavy at times and knows when it's time to rock but the overall atmosphere is not as frenetic and manic. Compare 'I Was Denied' from Warm Slime to 'Ticklish Warrior' to get an idea of what I mean. Now, I rarely mention Oh Sees lyrics because they're usually just window dressing and are often hard to make out without looking them up online. I want to briefly touch on them for this retrospective because it was around this time in the band's discography that (lyrically) marked the start of John Dwyer's further descent into conceptual scifi/fantasy worldbuilding/story telling. It's interesting that this album has two instrumentals, thereby putting more emphasis on the words when they do appear. Anyway, 'Dead Man's Gun' and 'Unwrap The Fiend Pt. 2' are filled with stuff about nuclear war and surviving in the post-apocalypse and all kinds of crazy shit, to put it bluntly. Suddenly the video for Face Stabber track 'Poisoned Stones' seems less like it's meant to be a joke—perhaps, like the Gizzverse, Oh Sees have their own universe? Ehhhh no, let's not go there.


Some people truly love Weird and Odd and consider them a peak. They aren't quite up there for me though I do understand. Smote Reverser really set them into a slightly different direction that not everyone is down with. Though I don't outright love Weird or Odd, there is a lot to enjoy. Superficially speaking, the way the two releases play off each other with the album titles is really clever, and I think the always underrated Robert Beatty nailed it with his art for the covers. It's undeniable that Weird has some classic tracks that are live set staples, such as the meaty 'Plastic Plant' with its drum breakdown near the end, and the throttling 'Gelatinous Cube', which has one of the coolest introductions of any Oh Sees song. In fact while I'm piling up the praise, can we all take the time and appreciate Tim Hellman? He's the unsung hero of Oh Sees history—I've said before that I do love Petey Dammit! but having a dedicated bassist does wonders for the modern-era sound. I love the warm/round tone of Hellman's bass, and as a musician he has that indefinable ability to be both rock solid and groovy as hell. If you don't have access to speakers or headphones with decent bass response, you're missing out on a lot. Similarly I want to praise John Dwyer's guitar sound and playing style on Weird and Odd. I've been a big fan of psychedelic delay/echo/reverb effects since first hearing the trumpet wails during the opening of Miles Davis's 'Bitches Brew', and I think Dwyer really started to give me the goodness during the modern-era of Oh Sees. Every time I hear the beginning tune-up/jam part of 'You Will Find It Here' my third eye opens and I can see for miles. But that's on Odd and we're not talking about that yet!


The flaw of Weird that brings it down in my estimation is that it ends with 'The Axis.' I don't like anything about this song. Dwyer's vocals are so affected and hokey that they're distracting. It's a terrible choice for closing track not simply because it's bad but also that it doesn't fit in with the tone of the rest of the record. It feels like an inside joke that got out of hand, an anti-love song/breakup song with lame lyrics. It ends up being further ruined by Dwyer's redlined guitar and irritating noise. It smacks of listening to too many Dave Fridmann produced albums from the mid 2000s, all blown out and clipping and distorted and ruining what would otherwise be good albums. For example, listen to Some Loud Thunder by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! and The Woods by Sleater-Kinney. I loved the latter at the time but it hasn't held up for me, production-wise. It's the classic issue of subtraction by addition: does this production style add anything to make the songs better? I'd argue it's a distracting gimmick that only works for some specific records (Embryonic by the Flaming Lips is an example of when it works well). Anyhow, I'm all for experiments but 'The Axis' is a failure and I have no idea what Oh Sees were going for.


Let's not end on a negative, though. 'The Axis' aside, Weird is a solid entry in the Oh Sees discography. To me it's the sort of album in a band's history that is above average and certain fans will end up adoring it yet when measured against everything else it just isn't as exceptional and cohesive as the top tier. Weird is a B but it's a solid B, and there's no shame in that.

Oh Sees Retrospective #21: Live In San Francisco

Did you ever meet the kind of person who says “what's the point of going to see concerts? I have to deal with a crowd of people, pay for overpriced drinks, and often the sound sucks. Why not just stay home and listen to the albums?” What a jackass, right? Well...I used to be that person. To be fair, I had seen a couple concerts so I felt justified in my opinions. The error in my reasoning was that I hadn't been going to the right kind of concerts. I mean, if you're going to get people to come see you, the onus is on you to provide them with something beyond the album experience. You need to improvise/jam, to do medleys, to have a visual spectacle of a stage show, to mix-up setlists and play rare/older material, to rearrange songs and perform them in new ways...you get the idea. The possibilities seem limitless yet so many bands, even bands I love, stick to the standard, boring concert experience. Though I've sadly never seen them live, Phish and Animal Collective put great care into their live shows; arguably, Phish put more emphasis on their live shows than they do on their studio albums. I get the sense Oh Sees split the difference pretty damn well, if Live In San Francisco is anything to go by. While we did technically get a live album from Oh Sees well before Live In San Francisco, it almost doesn't count since, y'know, there wasn't an audience present. And anyway, this one is a more accurate representation of the live Oh Sees experience.

You know what time it is: let's run down the vitals. Live In San Francisco was released on July 1^st, 2016. It was taken from shows (July 15^th-17^th, 2015) during the tour following the release of Mutilator Defeated At Last. By this point the trio lineup had expanded and mutated; drummer Nick Murray left after the release of Mutilator, and in came Dan Rincon and Ryan Moutinho. It's also worth noting, despite the comments I brought up in the previous retrospective, John Dwyer is definitely playing some kind of keyboard or synthesizer, especially on 'Sticky Hulks.' It didn't occur to me until after I finished that retrospective, by the by, that Dwyer's Damaged Bug sideproject began around this time, so perhaps that was some kind of influence on his words and actions? As far as I'm aware, Dwyer never played any sort of keyboard/synth during live shows before Drop. But I digress. You may be aware that the initial vinyl release of Live In San Francisco (hereafter simply Live) came with a DVD of the full album (which, sadly, I don't own, so I can't comment on it) but you may not know that the limited edition version also came with a 7” Flexi-disc of 'Ticklish Warrior.' It's on YouTube, if you want to check it out, though the upload I found has a bit of pop/hiss and it's not an especially revelatory performance anyway. One last thing—does anybody know what the story is with the bleeped out words right before 'I Come From The Mountain' and at the end of 'Sticky Hulks'? My research only turned up speculation that it was the name of the soundman during these concerts, though if that's the case, I'm still confused why they would need to bleep it. Maybe whoever it is told their significant other they had to leave town for a wedding when they actually snuck away to run the sound for these three nights instead? Just a theory.

Like with the preceding studio album, Live is flawless. It ticks all the boxes of what you want from a live album. The recording quality is excellent and puts the two live tracks on Singles Collection Volume 3 to shame. Since this live release is culled from three nights of shows, you get the impression they picked the best performances and finessed it into something that has the flow and dynamics of a single live set. While diehard fans will always want more, Live is the perfect length, managing to cover a lot of ground in just under an hour. We get tracks from all the back to the Carrion Crawler/The Dream era, with 'Gelatinous Cube' previewing the then-forthcoming A Weird Exits. In addition, this buffet includes non-album deep cuts 'Man In A Suitcase' and 'Tidal Wave.' I can't help but pause here and mention the conspicuous absence of any songs from Putrifiers II or Drop—it's almost like they made this for me! Anyway, assuming you also have the DVD, the only thing this live album lacks is the smell of weed in the air and somebody spilling beer on you. I am confident, however, that if you, dear reader, want those things you could easily provide them yourself. One last thing I wanted to note is that it's quite odd how not many outlets reviewed this release. One outlet that did is a now-defunct website that Metacritic has a choice quote/blurb from saying Live has fifteen tracks, because I guess nobody but me bothers to pay attention to the details when it comes to Oh Sees. Oops, am I throwing shade again? I should save some, Summer is only a few months away.

I almost forgot the most important thing about Live: the lengthy workout of 'Contraption.' At almost 16 minutes it was the longest track they had released up to this point. More important is that it and a few other tracks hint at the jammier direction the band would start to take in the studio, most obviously with Smote Reverser onwards. An important distinction to make is that this long 'Contraption' jam is closer to the earlier style of Oh Sees stretching out, lacking any meaningful solos or concentrated group interplay as we see nowadays live, or even on Face Stabber. So yeah, it's not so much a long jam with traditional solos like Cream's first live album as it is Dwyer making all kinds of guitar drones/groans/moans and psychedelic noise while the rhythm section keeps the krautrock pulse going. I know I keep bringing them up and maybe nobody else sees it but me, but Dwyer's instrumental pyrotechnics are almost akin to a spacey/experimental Phish jam, very abstract and rhythmically/melodically “out” or “outside” in the jazz sense of being “out”/”outside.” I have to say, I prefer the current drummer duo of Dan Rincon and Paul Quattrone, though this is likely because they've had more time to play together. Listening close on headphones, Ryan Moutinho does work well with Dan Rincon. Take careful notice of the part around the 12:30 mark where the drummers push things up a notch and Dwyer lets them shine as his guitar gets even more blown out and droney. I think somewhere in here he switches to his keyboard/synth as well, though it's hard to distinguish the two from each other because of how many effects he's been using on his guitar. Make no mistake, the rest of Live is also straight fire, as the kids say—'Gelatinous Cube' and 'Toe Cutter/Thumb Buster' are beasts that show off the dynamics of these live legends and will flatten your chest if you aren't careful. It's not all about 'Contraption', though 'Contraption' is all that*, as the kids say.

With its mix of old songs with new (and brand-new!) songs Live served as a bridging of the gap between the mid-era of the band and the modern-era. This has the side effect of leaving me wishing for a proper live album from the mid-era, and of course, also a proper live album from the modern-era Face Stabber lineup with Tomas Dolas on keyboards. However I get the distinct feeling I am inspecting the teeth of a horse I was just gifted, so I better stop before I get out my magnifying glass and tweezers and start picking nits, too. It's hard to imagine any Oh Sees fan not adoring Live, though if you're like I used to be and you don't see a point to live shows, this may be the cure for your ignorance.

[On a side note, I'm not sure why the track is only called 'Contraption' and not 'Contraption/Soul Desert', like it was on Carrion Crawler/The Dream. None of the info I was able to find indicated they credited Can for the track on this live release, as they did on the studio version, so it must be lacking whatever it is that made the songwriting co-credit necessary before. I'm still terrible at picking out the distinction between the two versions in terms of having/lacking 'Soul Desert.' Perhaps this is one Oh Sees nut I'll never crack.]


*...What's that? Kids don't say “all that” anymore? Hmph. What about groovy? Why are you shaking your head and walking away? Hello...?