Oh Sees Retrospective #33: Live At Big Sur

 While I do still want to see them live someday, there is a small, cynical part of me that is glad I've never seen Phish in concert because they have such a high capacity to disappoint me. As I became a fan during the dark times (late 2004 to early 2009), I had a lot of time to catch up on old shows, diving deep into online fan tapes and the official LivePhish.com store/site. Having already heard a lot of the most recommended “best” and “fan favorite” concerts, I decided to listen to shows that I might have actually gone to in my area, to get a sense for what an 'average' show might have been like. While not outright terrible, Phish—especially in the post-hiatus, 2003-2004 incarnation—are sometimes known for playing sloppy or jam-light shows from time to time. And this is where my disappointment would always come in. I could forgive forgotten lyrics here or there, a flubbed section of a song here or there, but if a show had no tasty improv, or at the very least, some interesting segues between songs? Count me out. So, while I don't mean to rush the conclusion of this Retrospective entry, I have to say up-front that I was not looking forward to revisiting Live At Big Sur. Will I be just as let down this time? We'll find out in a bit.

Live At Big Sur was released on January 9^th, 2021. For whatever it's worth, it was recorded on December 19^th, 2020, so a pretty quick turnaround. It's officially known as Live At Big Sur, but sometimes also referred to as Live At The Henry Miller Library Big Sur. I'll be going with the shorter designation for sake of ease. The webcast, now posted for free on YouTube, is preceded by 12ish minutes of a bizarre improv jam over footage of...well, I'm still not sure for the most part. Best experienced for yourself. Now, please correct me if I'm wrong but I think this was purely a digital release, so no limited edition color variant vinyls to lust after. Maybe I'm alone in this but I find it exceedingly odd that there's been no physical release at all, even on CD. But I digress. It's not on the Bandcamp page for this release so for those wondering, here's what John Dwyer had to say about the performance/release: “We’ve dipped deep into the dark waters of our song-sack of holding and found several more never-before-performed-live tunes & paired them up with some oldies we’ve knocked the dust off of as well as some fan favorites and general surprises to make the merry very. That’s right, we’ve been paying attention. Recorded from dusk till dawn 2 at the gorgeous Henry Miller Library in Big Sur. Same killer crew, similar killer vibes. An enchanting pre-holiday evening to tell you that we miss and love you. Play it loud and have one on us. And keep your chin up for goodness sake."

As usual, here's the tracklisting, with the album the song is from in parentheses:

1. Rogue Planet (Mutilator Defeated At Last)

2. I Can't Pay You To Disappear (Dog Poison)

3. Opposition (Carrion Crawler/The Dream)

4. Crushed Grass (Carrion Crawler/The Dream)

5. Heavy Doctor (Carrion Crawler/The Dream)

6. Ticklish Warrior (A Weird Exits)

7. Gholü (Face Stabber)

8. Withered Hand (Mutilator Defeated At Last)

9. Voice In The Mirror (Dog Poison)

10. Tunnel Time (Floating Coffin)

11. Gelatinous Cube (A Weird Exits)

12. Poor Queen (Mutilator Defeated At Last)

13. Lupine Ossuary (Mutilator Defeated At Last)

14. Dead Medic (Dead Medic 12” single)

15. Jealous Again (Black Flag, Jealous Again 12” EP)

16. Nervous Breakdown (Black Flag, Nervous Breakdown 7” EP)

17. Wasted (Black Flag, Nervous Breakdown 7” EP)

18. Fix Me (Black Flag, Nervous Breakdown 7” EP)

19. Levande Begravd (Liket Lever, Levande Begravd/Hjärtats Slag 7” single)

20. J'ai Mal Aux Dents (Faust, The Faust Tapes)

Live At Big Sur is a very scattered release, in terms of choices of covers as well as the band's own songs. It's weird to have three songs from the same album in a row, and it's also weird to have four songs from the same album in total. Not sure if those were conscious choices or just how they wanted the set to flow and feel. Overall the songs are heavily biased towards short tracks and I think it's easily my least favorite setlist of their recent live releases. Before 'Dead Medic', a welcome rarity, there is only one song that is over four minutes long! I will say it's cool to get some bustouts and never-before-performed-live tracks but that only goes so far in my book.

As for the covers...Well, I'm not that huge of a Black Flag fan. I've always been of the opinion that hardcore punk bands got truly interesting when they started to get weirder. I mean, do more people know Double Nickels On The Dime or Paranoid Time? Given their recent style and penchant for improv I think it's odd Osees only did songs from Black Flag's very early hardcore punk era, before they started to get more ambitious musically and had tracks that routinely went past four minutes. I'd love to hear Osees tackle the legendarily sludgy, stoner metal-esque side two of My War: three songs in 18 minutes, an eternity by hardcore punk standards. Featuring Greg Ginn's guitar insanity at its first true flowering, side two is sort of like if early Bardo Pond had an angry frontman. Anyway. They're well done and faithful covers, and...that's it.

As for the Liket Lever cover, I'm not even going to pretend like I know who this band is. They're apparently a punk band from Sweden who, as far as I can tell, only released one 7” and then disappeared from the historical record. Much like the Black Flag covers, it's well done and faithful, but I can't think of much else to say about it. The Faust cover is much more exciting, given that Osees constantly get compared to Can (for good reason, mind you!) but not other krautrock mainstays they also definitely draw from. Faust aren't as well known for their lengthy jams but give a listen to the original version of 'J'ai Mal Aux Dents' or their quintessential song 'Krautrock' and you'll hear the parallels quite easily. Though in some sense just as well done and faithful as the other covers, this one benefits from having more of an open musical template to play with, as the original song isn't a digestible pop song either. It's also nice given how short and jam-less most of the rest of the show is to finally hear them get psychedelic with it.

Which is, in addition to the somewhat strange song choices, my biggest gripe with this live album. I gotta have my jams, Johnny boy...and Live At Big Sur is like dry toast. That said, if you really like 'Dead Medic' and the studio albums this draws heavily from, you might find a lot to enjoy here.

Next time: Levitation Sessions....II!

Oh Sees Retrospective #32: Weirdo Hairdo

 

“In order to have that incredible groove that makes you dream, you have to think not of the groove, but of the dream.” -Mike Gordon

“I'll play it first and tell you what it is later.” -Miles Davis

“I'm not crazy about country-western music. But the lyrics are good.” -Alice Cooper

During various points of my life, I was either actively learning/playing trumpet or making music using the limited instrumental inventory and software available to me. Sadly, I've never had the experience of collaborating with other people, let alone improvising music in the solo or collective sense. I am fascinated by artists who specialize in playing jazz, jam band, or improv/free music, because it's something I envy and would love to try my hand at. It feels like speaking a different kind of language with other people; being lost in this constantly evolving interplay and development must be like nothing else on Earth. Although I don't know John Dwyer personally, I can safely assume he feels the same, given his increasing appreciation and participation in jamming and improvisations. Sure, evidence of his affinity goes back to at least 2010's forgotten Sword & Sandals release, but it was only with Mutilator Defeated At Last that studio albums started to reflect his love for setting the controls for the heart of the sun, or hitchiking on a krautrock convoy, lost in the reverie of a serene velocity down the Autobahn. Once we were through listening to Smote Reverser for the first time, we had confirmation that the next few years would continue to provide some tasty jams. And so, during their Red Rocks performance in 2021, when he announced before 'Scutum & Scorius', “...this one's for all the Heads out there, smoke 'em if ya got 'em”, it felt like the first time that we (Dwyer and the audience) were no longer just winking at each other for liking this kind of lengthy spectacle and drug-friendly-but-not-required music. It was open season.

If there's one release in their discography that has come to define “this one's for all the [Osees] Heads out there” for me, it's Weirdo Hairdo, a three song (!), 41 minute long (!!) not-quite-album, not-quite-EP, that is longer than most previous Osees albums, including Protean Threat. Ah, but I digress. Weirdo Hairdo was released on December 17^th, 2020, available physically only as a limited edition 'Pilsner' vinyl pressing. The Castleface site describes it as a limited edition 12”, and refers to there being four songs, which is both confusing and incorrect. The one thing I couldn't find any information on is when these three tracks were recorded. I'm guessing it must be from the Protean Threat sessions or some random recording session that didn't produce a new studio album. I think we can definitively say it wasn't leftovers from the Face Stabber sessions, since that's what Metamorphosed (partially) was composed of.

The title track starts us off, sounding like a hangover from Panther Rotate. It's almost as if they know their fans might be listening to everything in a chronological playlist and this makes a smooth transition from that to Weirdo Hairdo. Actually to me it kinda sounds like when you get a vinyl pressing with some defects and the needle will pop/skip in exactly the same part of a song every time you play it. Lucky things don't continue on like this, and 'Weirdo Hairdo' turns into another patented Osees 20 minute banger, a “kitchen sink” drive down to the deep jam goal line. Stuttered, echoing Dwyer vocals bounce around your brain, sort of like if 'Aumgn' by Can was on a sativa instead of an indica high. Tomas Dolas does a great job of squeezing all sorts of delightful blorbs, burbles, and bleats out of his synths throughout the 20 minute endurance race. Tim Hellman and the drummer duo do that perfect thing that rhythm sections ideally strive for during these sort of tracks where, if you don't pay close attention, they seem to merely be holding the reins of the groove, keeping the carriage steady, that sort of thing. But give a closer listen and there's all sort of interesting accents and divergences going on. What else to say? I love how druggy and hypnotic and looped out the ending sequence is; reminds me of an Animal Collective segue about to hit.

'Don't Blow Your Mind' was performed during the Protean Threat rehearsal posted on YouTube. This studio run-through has a lengthy jam section after the song portion ends and never returns to the chorus again. It's credited to Alice Cooper & The Spiders, but it's actually from the pre-Alice Cooper incarnation of that band, formerly known as The Spiders. Technicality or no, it's an amazing performance and a great cover. Alice Cooper may be overdue for a critical reevaluation and canonization like we've now afforded the Grateful Dead and ABBA. But I digress yet again. 'Don't Blow Your Mind' has some of the more nuanced and interplay-focused improv Osees have put forth. The forward momentum and ever shifting instrumental bedrock remind me, in spirit but not in results, of a particularly focused and energetic Tortoise track like 'Seneca' or 'The Suspension Bridge At Iguazu Falls.' Something about the chords Dwyer starts playing at the end as the jam peters out makes me imagine this segueing into the descending guitar line in the opening of 'Carrion Crawler.' Closing song 'Tear Ducks' is a cloudy meander, with a languid bassline and some particularly acid-peak sounding vocals from Dwyer. If I'm being honest it sounds more than a little like 'Crawl Out From The Fallout', but I can forgive that because of the subtle use of acoustic guitar late in the track, as well as how cool the whole thing sounds. To paraphrase I Heart Huckabees, is it a crime to like cool sounds?

I don't have too much more to say on Weirdo Hairdo. My only complaint is that it is what it feels like it is: a gathering of three different songs that are pretty different from each other. It doesn't hang together like a true album, with finessed sequencing and flow, in the way The White Album or the better Radiohead albums do. And there's nothing wrong with that! I won't dock points just because a release is patched together; it isn't trying to pass itself off as “the next studio album from Osees!” I could even see this being a top ten favorite for true Heads. For those who have slept on it, like I did, it's time to wake up and smell the bong smoke wafting out of the van windows.

Next time: Osees at Big Sur! Another live one!

Oh Sees Retrospective #31: Panther Rotate

 

In 2021, during a bumper-crop year for live albums and collaborations, John Dwyer released an album called Endless Garbage. Though seemingly of-a-kind with the Bent Arcana and Moon-Drenched improv records, it's actually quite a different beast. As explained by the man himself, “...one day, I hear a frenetic, free drummer playing in his garage a few blocks from me. And I think “interesting”. I stand outside his garage staring at the wall, like a fool, for a minute, then decide to leave a note on the car parked there. This is how I ended up meeting and working with Ted Byrnes. He wasn’t creeped out, and he ended up sending me a pile of truly spontaneous drums recordings from the carport to work with. I decided to have every musician come in one at at time and just take a wild pass at their track over the drums. None of these people had ever met or played together. I was the connecting thread.” So, rather than a group playing together in a room, Dwyer presented each participant with the different drum tracks and had them freely improvise over it. He also added some of his own playing, and mixed/edited the whole project into something a bit more consistently interesting and intelligible.

When is a remix album not really a remix album?

In 1998, Bill Laswell released Panthalassa: The Music Of Miles Davis 1969-1974. Though it is ostensibly billed as a remix album, Laswell did far more than just add some beats here or there or elongate the music to danceable lengths. As Allmusic.com put it, he “...occasionally deleted the rhythm sections, brought up obscured instruments, added Indian and electronic droning sounds from elsewhere on the tapes, constructed moody transitions, and premiered previously unreleased passages from Davis' sessions.” This is interesting because in some sense this makes Panthalassa a remix of a remix. Much like what Can was doing contemporaneously in Germany, Miles Davis and resolute collaborator/producer Teo Marcero would edit down tapes of lengthy jams, sometimes repeating vamps/run throughs of different song sections, other times cross-editing different takes of songs together. A great example is found on the seminal Bitches Brew album. The song 'John McLaughlin' (which features no trumpet or playing from Miles Davis at all) is actually an edited excerpt of an especially great solo from McLaughlin during a take of the album's title track.

When is a remix album not really a remix album?

Panther Rotate was released on December 11^th, 2020. As near as I can tell it was entirely done by John Dwyer, as no liner notes or info I found indicated that any of the other members of the band worked on it—well, other than obviously providing the original source material. It's billed as a remix album, and was made concurrently during the Protean Threat sessions. Before listening, I always had the impression it was just the standard modern-style remix album; the truth isn't quite so simple. The official description goes like this: “A companion LP of remixes, field recordings, and sonic experiments using all sounds generated by the hum and crackle of the desert farm.” Meanwhile, the blurb accompanying the original limited edition 3D lenticular vinyl edition of the release goes as follows: “Remixed, Reimagined, Respooled takes from the Protean Threat tapes. Served Up Piping Hot On Half And Half Colored Vinyl And Featuring A Special Lenticular Cover.” So perhaps the best way to think of Panther Rotate is as a companion piece, though in my mind it can also fairly be considered as its own thing. Even though the track titles directly reference the song names on Protean Threat, this certainly isn't as simple as 'Scramble Experiment' is just 'Scramble Suit II With Beats And A Rapper.'

When is a remix album not really a remix album?

Late in his career, Miles Davis became hugely interested in the popular R&B and hip hop of the day. Though finished after his death, Doo-Bop became an early example of mainstream jazz acknowledging the links to newer genres like hip hop and electronic music. Though far from his best album, Doo-Bop gives us a glimpse of what Miles might have continued to make. Inadvertently, it does give us a preview of the future. Album producer Easy Mo Bee took unfinished trumpet takes by Miles and built songs around them to finish the album, even adding samples and rappers in a pseudo-remix technique. It does beg the question though: if Miles Davis didn't finish/approve of the record himself, is it really his album? Is it even an album at all if some of the tracks are effectively remixes of unfinished songs?

When is a remix album not really a remix album?

Let's talk for a bit about what this album is before I get to my thoughts on it. Panther Rotate, along with the Damaged Bug side project and the recent improv collaborations he's been doing, is a clear indicator that John Dwyer is a restless spirit who wants to bring the truly experimental bent back to this creations. And mind you, I'm using the word experimental in the true sense of the word, not the lazy shorthand for “it's a weird and/or noisy album.” Hell, most of the tracks on Panther Rotate are titled with the word experiment in them! Listening to this release, I can't help but imagine Dwyer wanted to amuse himself between sessions with the full band. Maybe this started as something he was only doing to challenge himself and only later decided to release it. Who knows.

If anything, I would say there's two immediate touchstones for this album: early OCS records and Alien Soundtracks by Chrome. Now, anyone familiar with the latter may assume I'm thinking of it because Osees did covers of songs from it for the Levitation Sessions II performance. However! I had actually heard of/heard this record before their covers, and the abstract, fragmentary nature of the music on Alien Soundtracks is mirrored in the structure and feel of Panther Rotate. It's not quite a 1:1 comparison of course, and that's where the early OCS output comes into play. I'm going all the way back to the very first OCS release, the double album known variously as 1, OCS, and 34 Reasons Life Goes On Without You/18 Reasons To Love Your Hater To Death. Oh wait, on the OCS Bandcamp it's now 35 Reasons. Whatever! I digress. The point is, it's not the early folky aspects of the OCS sound but the experimental stuff that Panther Rotate calls to mind. True it's not as noisy and droney and atonal as OCS 1 can be, but the spirit and similar “throw it all at the wall and see what sticks” vibe pervades both. I mean hell, 'Untitled 3' from OCS 1 is a found sound recording of someone walking in gravel and doing something with water(?), while 'Poem 2' on Panther Rotate sets a whimsical, bizarre Dwyer poem to vintage crowd sounds and a distant brass ensemble. I don't remember any of that on Protean Threat, do you?

When is a remix album not really a remix album?

Madlib, early in his career, began to learn instruments and perform jazz under the Yesterday's New Quintet name. These records, which began releasing in 2001, were not actually a real quintet. Instead it was just Madlib playing all the instruments and doing the production. In 2003, Madlib released Shades Of Blue. Though early in his career, legendary jazz label Blue Note Records invited (soon to be legendary) jazz-head hip hop producer Madlib to take a journey through their archives and see what he could come up with. As with the equally influential work of his friend and collaborator J. Dilla, Shades Of Blue would cast a long shadow, influencing a new generation of music makers, crate diggers, producers, and beat makers, in particular the then-nascent lo-fi hip hop scene. Anyway, Shades Of Blue is a hard release to pin down, not a typical remix album at all, seeming to bring the past, present, and future together by being equally jazz and instrumental hip hop at the same time.

When is a remix album not really a remix album?

All of this leads us to....well, I'm still not entirely sure. I've been struggling with Panther Rotate, in a good way. It's a difficult record to wrap your head around, not in terms of “getting it” but in terms of “getting it and deciding if you like it.” I suspect this was and will continue to be a very divisive release in the ol' Osees discography, much like OCS 1. The simple fact is that experimental music just isn't everyone's cup of tea, and though Panther Rotate ain't exactly Metal Machine Music (which still holds up today, and just keeps getting funnier every time I listen to it) I can for sure see some fans tilting their heads, puzzled at what the hell this is supposed to be. As for myself, my reaction thus far has been similar to other experiments by bands I love, like Metal Machine Music or (No Pussyfooting) insofar as Panther Rotate is also:

1. Interesting but inessential listening

2. Not especially compelling to listen to on repeat

3. Best enjoyed on as many drugs as you can get your hands on

Like a lot of experimental releases, there won't be certain songs you gravitate toward. Rather, this is very much a collection of ideas and moments. Some are but brief flashes of chaos, like the electronic beeps and whooshes of the breakdown during the end of 'If I Had An Experiment', which sounds like a drunken, lurching, inside out version of its parent song. Others will go for extended grooves that fade in and out, or stop and start, like the opening 'Scramble Experiment', interrupted at 1:13 by a glitch escaping from an Autechre song before it continues on until 3:00 when we apparently enter a swamp or marsh with buzzing flies and mosquitoes. For my money the most thrilling parts of Panther Rotate come when no familiar terrafirma is below us and we're in the dark realms of Dwyer's restless urges. 'Terminal Experiment' presents us with a slow motion bassline that feels like it's being played by someone actively fighting falling asleep, over and over, as all sorts of flotsam and jetsam goes by in the background. It reminds me a bit (a bit!) of some of the more free floating and spacey moments from really out there Grateful Dead jams from the late 60s to mid 70s, part free jazz skronk and part psychedelic fireworks and daisies being sprayed across the sky.

When is a remix album not really a remix album?

Released in two parts initially in 1994 and 1995, John Oswald's two-CD set called Grayfolded is one of the more interesting cult items of a cult band. The title is a pun on the Grateful Dead, and as this “plunderphonics” project was officially commissioned by bassist Phil Lesh, Oswald was given full access to their vault, choosing to focus on two album length suites edited together from over a hundred different performances of 'Dark Star' from 1968 to 1993. Nowadays you can find innumerable mixes on YouTube of jam band performances, themed around certain ideas: Phish Ambient Mix, Grateful Dead Space Mix, Phish's 'Tweezer' megamix, and the like. But in his time, Oswald's project was unique, a for-fun-only release still beloved by fans who remember/know of its existence.

Kinda like what we'll tackle next time, Weirdo Hairdo.

Oh Sees Retrospective #30: Metamorphosed (& More)

 

Part of what's great about being a fan of Osees is that they know they have a rabid fanbase who never feel overloaded with releases. Most of us, I'd wager, obsess over music in general, not just Osees releases, and the band see something of themselves in their fans in this way. Just as John Dwyer would be psyched to discover the side projects of Can or archival Miles Davis fusion era boxsets, he must also know his fans love releases like Metamorphosed, a weird wobbly beast of an album with three short leftover Face Stabber outbursts on side A, and two lengthy jams (recorded in one day while in Mexico for a festival) on side B.

And then I had to go and make things even more jumbled by also wanting to talk about two singles that are unrelated to anything on Metamorphosed in this Retrospective. You're welcome!

Metamorphosed was released on October 16^th, 2020. It has been given many, many different pressings and variants, so I won't even attempt to list them all given how wrong my info was on Levitation Sessions 1. As alluded to earlier, in this Retrospective I'll also be talking about two singles: 'Dark Weald' and 'Blood On Your Boots.' The former was released with no b-side on November 3^rd, 2020 as a digital download, as well as a few limited 7” vinyl pressings. The latter was released on November 5^th, 2020, as part of the compilation Be Gay, Do Crimes put out by Girlsville Records. The compilation was officially released on August 1^st, so I'm guessing the November 5^th date was when Osees could sell it separately. Anyway, we're going to start with the two singles and then get back to Metamorphosed.

'Dark Weald' was first heard in a slightly more embryonic form in the 'rehearsal' performance the band released on YouTube leading up to Protean Threat. Though I couldn't find any info to confirm this, 'Dark Weald' is presumably an outtake from those sessions that just didn't quite fit in anywhere on the album. I can kind of understand that—it's a bit weirder and not as hard hitting as the rest of the songs on Protean Threat and I can't think of a good spot it could slot into. It has an overall sound that feels like it could've been made by the Floating Coffin era lineup until about halfway through when it descends into super 70s prog keyboard territory for the rest of the runtime. 'Dark Weald' is a real hidden gem in their non album/non EP material, well worth the $1 to add it to your rotation. If I'm being honest I think a song like this helps define and necessitate singles collections. They're so overdue for Singles Collection Volume 4 and 'Dark Weald' would be a great addition. 

'Blood On Your Boots' I have less to say about, and even less info about. Based on its sound it has to be from the current lineup, maybe even being another Protean Threat castaway, but I couldn't find anything about its origins. The song has a surging, ascending quality and feels as though it ends right as it's truly getting going. I'd love for them to bust this out live, maybe segueing into or out of another song to take advantage of its momentum. Unlike 'Dark Weald' I could totally see this being somewhere in the latter half of Protean Threat.

OK, now for the main attraction: Metamorphosed. 'Saigant' absolutely tears down the house from the second you drop the needle, and is arguably heavier than a lot of what passes for metal today. I can definitely see why it was left off of Face Stabber, because it already had its necessary amount of kick-down-the-door, tear-the-roof-off short songs. Letting off the throttle a bit, 'Electric War' settles into a pounding drum-and-bass-led throbbing pulse as twirling guitars and burbling keyboards coat the background. Side A draws to a close with one final Face Stabber orphan, 'Weird And Wasted Connection', which seems a bit undercooked and appropriately outtake-y. All the usual Osees sonic elements are there, but used in kind of boring and half-committed ways. Despite being sub-two minutes it overstays its welcome.

Next we flip this beast over to side B, where the real meat of Metamorphosed lies. According to an interview with Dwyer on the Coachella Valley Independent website posted around the time of the Levitation Sessions 1 broadcast:

“That album (Face Stabber) is just such a behemoth, and was too much to listen to for some people.[...]There’s a lot of material that wasn’t throwaways, but just didn’t fit with the aesthetic of the record. I saved those for another EP, and it took a while to get enough material for it. Then we went down to play a festival in Hermosillo in Mexico, and part of the deal for playing the festival was that we’d get to spend a day at the beach and have a day of studio time there. We went in there and just jammed, and got two pretty great tracks.[...]It was supposed to be an EP, but it turned into a 40-minute album. That’s just the way it goes with us; we have constant creation.”

While I wonder if his experience jamming more on tour and on studio releases like Metamorphosed and Face Stabber led Dwyer to start up his improv/jazz side projects, I should try to focus on discussing these two long jams that are in front of me. Though it's the shorter of the two, I find 'The Virologist' more repetitive and tedious. It's essentially just a long vamp with soloing over the top. The bass and drums are doing almost exactly the same thing for more than 13 minutes straight while Dwyer and Dolas make spacey noises and occasional ear piercingly loud guitar interjections. I can see some Osees devotees really digging this track, but much like 'Nervous Tech (Nah John)' from An Odd Entrances it doesn't do anything for me. 'I Got A Lot', however, does something for me. It's still not as good of a long jam track as 'Henchlock' but it reminds me a bit of early Can ('Yoo Doo Right') or Velvet Underground ('Sister Ray') in terms of being a long, brute simple, repetitive track with hypnotic vocals that are constantly shifting in delivery and style, and coming in and out of the song. All of that said, I think both of these jam tracks sound more or less like what you'd expect from unedited improv. They're the sort of tracks that are great to play as background music for something else, like grinding levels in RPGs or watching those color changing candles melt while you're on edibles. But as 'songs' you'll give your full attention to, they unfortunately don't work as well. I'm sure it was really fun to play them but listening to them with undivided focus and/or while sober is a bit dull.

Well, much like John Dwyer, I got a lot on my mind, because I've never actually listened to Panther Rotate and it's next on the Retrospective itinerary. As I finish writing this sentence I'm about to hit play...

Oh Sees Retrospective #29: Levitation Sessions 1

As a fan of jam bands and jazz/improv music, I have a strong affinity for live albums. There is just really something about hearing people create in the moment, weaving new music and collectively improvising something that no one could plan or write. While I've certainly seen my share of great concerts that had no jamming/improv elements, it's something that, once you get into it, you seem to expect it out of every show going forward. Anyway, aside from this point, what other criteria make for a great live album? Well, there's no objective formula, but I think it can usually be categorized as one of three things: 

1) Historic nature of performance-- Jimi Hendrix's various live releases of his Woodstock performance would constitute a good example. It's not a great show by his usual standards but it's historic AF.

2) Excellent performance from one of the best concerts on the tour--Miles Davis's Live-Evil is taken from the last two dates of a multi-night performance. (You can hear for yourself on the Cellar Door Sessions box set, the last two nights were where it all came together, too)

3) Unique tracklisting (rare songs, unexpected songs/covers, different kind of performance than usual)--Phish's various Halloween shows have certainly embodied this. (Bonus points if you include their November 2nd, 1998 concert, which followed their Halloween night performance of The Velvet Underground's Loaded. The band decided to perform Dark Side Of The Moon during the second set as a response to low ticket sales. The show also ends with a rough cover of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' just cuz)

Some live albums have more than one of these elements, naturally, yet all great live albums have to have at least one. Since Osees have spent the last year and a half saturating us with live albums, let's start seeing how they shake out. We'll go chronologically as per usual, bringing us to Levitation Sessions, which I'll henceforth be referring to as Levitation Sessions 1 so we don't get confused when we get to the second one.

Here's the tracklisting, as well as the release each song is from in parentheses:

1) Carrion Crawler (Carrion Crawler/The Dream)

2) I Come From The Mountain (Floating Coffin)

3) The Static God (Orc)

4) Sewer Fire (Moon Sick EP)

5) Chem Farmer (Carrion Crawler/The Dream)/Nite Expo (Orc)

6) Dreary Nonsense (Protean Threat)

7) The Fizz (Dog Poison EP)

8) Corrupt Coffin (Castlemania)

9) Together Tomorrow (Face Stabber)

10) Night Crawler (Floating Coffin)

11) Terminal Jape (Protean Threat)

12) Rainbow (Help)

13) Heartworm (Face Stabber)

14) Transparent World Jam (Drop)

15) Block Of Ice (The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In)

Before we scuttle on, I need to address a couple things. So, 'Transparent World' is listed as 'Transparent World Jam' on some of the tracklistings, though I'm not sure why. It's the full song with lyrics, and not just a jam on part of it. On the YouTube upload it isn't listed as a jam, so I've no idea what's going on here. Also, after 'Block Of Ice' ends and there's a bit of silence, there's an unnamed short jam the band is playing that lasts for about a minute. Not sure if you'd count this as a bonus track or just something they were tooling around with as a warmup or what. Anyway, I digress.

Levitation Sessions 1 was filmed in the parking lot of Pappy And Harriet's, a bar/restaurant in a pioneer town in (where else?) Pioneertown, California. From the webcast I think they literally did set up in the parking lot while Pappy And Harriet's were shut down for covid-19. The desert minimalist look of their setup reminds me a bit of Pink Floyd's Live At Pompeii. (Intentional, or coincidental? You decide!) The webcast premiered on September 26th, 2020, though it's unclear which day it was recorded on. A digital download release followed on October 9th, 2020, along with physical releases, which I'll get to in a bit. Worth noting first is the March 9th, 2021 upload of the webcast on the Levitation YouTube channel. Anyway, physical releases: so far, other than the obscure cassette release, Levitation Sessions 1 has only been issued on vinyl once. I'll just go ahead and copy the explanation from Discogs.org: 

“Each edition includes a 7” with the final track from the show, "Block Of Ice" split over two sides & pressed on Desert Sand colored vinyl.

3 Editions planned to be limited to 1000 each

Due to a very high demand / success and because benefits of specifics release are donated to charity or venue the "1000 each" limitation was lift off

- NIVA Edition - proceeds will be donated to the @nivassoc Emergency Relief Fund. (https://www.discogs.com/release/19149424 )

- ZEBULON Edition - benefitting @zebulonla in Los Angeles, California (https://www.discogs.com/release/19144819)

- HOTEL VEGAS Edition - benefitting @hotelvegastexas in Austin, Texas (https://www.discogs.com//release/191253”

Got that? The important bit is that each edition is still the same color as the rest, so don't break the bank, collectors.

As you can tell from the tracklisting, quite a lot of the band's history is represented on Levitation Sessions 1, albeit filtered through the lens of the modern five-piece, double drummer lineup. That said, though, there really isn't much of the jamming or improv I associate with this live lineup until the typically lengthy workout of 'Block Of Ice.' Sure, the segue from 'Chem Farmer' into 'Nite Expo' is buttery smooth, but there isn't much else that shows off their chops. And much like 'The Dream' has garnered a reputation for being played too often by the band, I'm similarly getting frustrated with live releases that only truly cut loose with 'Block Of Ice.' I know they jam out more often, and on other songs to boot, so why play it safe here? Well, the focus was on other things tonight. Namely, an extremely high energy/heavy rocking set of songs, and a mouth watering tracklist of rarities. 

Opening with 'Carrion Crawler' instantly scores points from me, and featuring back-to-back obscure faves 'The Fizz' and 'Corrupt Coffin' with proper full-band arrangements? Take my money! The cherry on top has to be 'Sewer Fire', though, which brings me to my most important point about this live album: if it's not clicking with you the way their others do, take John's advice to heart, “meant to be played loud.” Hearing 'Sewer Fire' on headphones loud as fuck will get you where you need to be to vibe with this live album. Think sativa, not indica: the setlist is leaned very strongly toward high energy, hard rocking songs, with only 'Transparent World' and the aptly named 'Night Crawler' slowing the pace, though maintaining the brutality. Crank the bass and that keyboard/bass combo on the latter song will flatten your chest. 

People who loved the brisk song lengths of Protean Threat and the band's earlier harder rocking/punk/garage side will no doubt love this record. While it's not my pick for the band's best live album, Levitation Sessions 1 absolutely sets a high standard for future sets to compare to. 

Next time, though, we're headed back: back to the studio, and back to the Face Stabber sessions. Meaning? Meaning, we'll take a mosey around Metamorphosed as well as detour a spell for the singles 'Dark Weald' and 'Blood On Your Boots.'

Oh Sees Retrospective #28: Protean Threat

 

I know a lot of people who maintain the same look for most of their lives. It's as though they reach a point and they say, y'know what, this is going to be what I look like for the next 30 years. Same general style, same haircut, same overall health, etc. Not me, though. Over the course of my life I've been very restless, sometimes exercising regularly, sometimes living like a sloth...sometimes shaving my hair and facial hair off entirely, other times letting my hair go for more than a year. I seem to just...get bored of being the same way all the time. It's interesting to see a new face in the mirror every once in awhile. I feel like John Dwyer understands this fundamental truth, and this is why he changes Thee Oh Sees to Oh Sees to O Sees to...wait, wait, don't tell me...

Oh wait, after Face Stabber they became Osees. Right? Right. Well, then.

Welcome back to the Retrospective series! And so we enter the new era, the Osees era. Another name change, another change in direction? Let's find out.

The elephant in the room before we get to the actual Protean Threat album is the preceding rehearsal webcast/performance, on March 21, 2020. I have to admit to only watching/listening to this a couple times since it happened, and I don't know that I want to do a full-on side-by-side comparison. In fact, I know I don't want to do one. I will say that for fans of this record, it's a unique look into songs before they were quite 'finished.' To these ears the performances sound pretty darn close to the album versions (with one exception), albeit this rehearsal performance has a shuffled order. Here's the rehearsal tracklist, for those curious, with their position on the eventual album in parentheses:

1. Terminal Jape (5)

2. If I Had My Way (9)

3. Mizmuth (8)

4. Red Study (4)

5. Scramble Suit II (1)

6. Gong Of Catastrophe (11)

7. Canopnr '74 (12)

8. (I think this might have been changed a lot since the rehearsal, or I'm totally wrong and this is some unreleased song, but I think this is Wing Ruin. Nothing else on the album matches closer to it...) (6)

9. Dreary Nonsense (2)

10. Said The Shovel (7)

11. Toadstool (10)

12. Upbeat Ritual (3)

13. Persuaders Up! (13)

14. At first I thought it was a cover of 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' by The Clash but, nope. It's their cover of 'Don't Blow Your Mind' by Alice Cooper & The Spiders. Not sure if it should be counted as a separate track but at some point I think they're just jamming.

Finally, to Protean Threat proper. Released on September 18, 2020, it followed Face Stabber by just over a year. It featured the same core group from those sessions, with no additional/guest musicians this time out. Dylan McConnell, who has done several covers for Osees over the past few years, in addition to side projects like Moon-Drenched, gives us a typically abstract dose of jagged, vaguely digital looking reflective shards, like an early 80s post-punk album cover designed on a Windows 3.1 Printshop program. In keeping with trying to gather all the info about various pressings, my research on Discogs.com turns up pressings in 'Half Glass Of Kool-Aid', Neon Orange, Neon Pink (a Rough Trade exclusive that came with a sampler CD of earlier Osees songs), and black.

Just as Face Stabber answered the question, “what would it have been like if a punk band eventually made a prog rock record?”, Protean Threat answers the question, “what if that band then immediately went back to making punk rock, but forgot to turn off their effects pedals and keyboards?” In other words, it's a glorious bit of whiplash for a band who seemed destined to make either the next Tales From Topographic Oceans or, shudder, the next Be Here Now. Instead, we got a transformation that is more akin to what it would have been like if after Kid A Radiohead had said, “dy'know what, let's have a bit of that grunge/Pixies stuff again lads”, and it was actually really good.

If I'm being honest, however, I have to say on first listen I was underwhelmed by Protean Threat. It wasn't that I disliked it, since the rehearsal had prepared me for the change in material and song lengths. Moreso my initial impression was of a band who were simultaneously trimming the fat and just kind of sounding like themselves. In my younger years this lack of constant innovation and/or pushing to extremes would have derailed my enjoyment of this record. But nowadays I can look past my own taste preferences and enjoy this album for what it's trying to be, and what it succeeds at.

Further listens have revealed a wealth of great songs and moments.' Said The Shovel' and 'Terminal Jape' prove for the umpteenth time that this band has a hell of a lot of range and the ability to shift between styles. The former is a ghostly slow rhythmic groove that gives way to 60s keyboard stabs and an off-kilter bassline, and the latter, a new contender for “heaviest fucking song since the last album's heaviest fucking song.” 'Toadstool' kind of sounds like Primus or a jammier Residents. Am I crazy? Anyway, it's the longest track and shows how this new, svelte style of song lengths doesn't mean a dearth of undeveloped ideas or multiple filler tracks of half-baked sub-three-minute clangor. 'Toadstool' almost repeats in a circular song structure, like riding on a carousel while the band is all around you.

Now, can we just take a minute and talk about how incredible the Osees rhythm section is? Tim Hellman, Dan Rincon, and Paul Quattrone own tracks like 'Gong Of Catastrophe', a fitfully sleepy Can-esque jam that puts on autopilot as it cruises into the desert sky hitting its afterburners here or there before coming in for a controlled landing. The trio gallop all over instant classic 'Dreary Nonsense', sure to be a banger in setlists for years to come. Lastly I have to gush over the Stereolab-like pop-kraut groove on 'Canopnr '74', propelled by Hellman's throbbing bass.

Now, all of that said, my current tastes tend toward the psychedelic, the jammy, the elongated, the languid, so I find I can't quite reach the level of adoration for Protean Threat as I have with the last limb they were going out on. I was happy to continue cruising along the Mutilator-to-Stabber ley lines to further revelation, terror, and terrible revelations. True, we don't exactly know if Protean Threat is the start of a new branch on the Osees tree, with dense but brisk songs sounding mostly like their sound up until now, because they haven't had a true studio followup to it. Anyway, maybe a better way to put it is: Protean Threat is like microdosing, I enjoy it in theory but I honestly think I'd want it to be more intense and to last longer.

While we eagerly await the next studio album, we'll continue the Retrospective by taking a heavy swing onto the tree next door, harvesting studio outtakes/jams, a remix(!) album, and live albums. Oh boy do we have us some live albums to get to!