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 #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 #15: Putrifiers II

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


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


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


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


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

Oh Sees Retrospective #6: Sucks Blood

2007 was a watershed year for music and videogames. Go back and look at a list of releases in either medium and you’ll find some of the most beloved and influential titles of the modern era. 2007 felt so jam packed with excellent albums that it inspired me to start my music blog at the beginning of 2008. More than any other year I experienced during the time I was keeping up with new releases, 2007 felt like a tidal wave of variety and excellence. I’m still discovering albums from 2007 that I missed out on the first time around. I don’t know if I would have enjoyed Sucks Blood as much back then, but today it’s another addition to the list of great-to-exceptional albums from that year.

Somewhat lost in the shuffle of a stellar year for music, Oh Sees released Sucks Blood on March 20^th (or May 15^th, according to Wikipedia). Confusingly, the album cover continues using The Oh Sees as the group’s name, though the inside cover lists them as their soon-to-be-semi-permanent moniker, Thee Oh Sees. I guess we’re still going through a transition, something borne out by the music. In addition, Dwyer and the group were going through a couple other changes. 2007 was the year that Dwyer’s Castle Face Records was founded (indeed, it was started to release Sucks Blood). More importantly, the album features the debut of Petey Dammit as bassist and second guitarist. If I recall correctly, he often played the role of bassist by running a typical electric guitar through pedals and/or a bass amp to get a fatter, lower sound, possibly using a lower tuning as well. Sleater-Kinney’s two guitarists use similar techniques, and as with Dammit’s work with Oh Sees, it’s an effect I really love as it gives a rock band a more unique sound.

Despite its fearsome title, Sucks Blood is actually a very mellow and sluggish record, and in some ways it serves as a more focused, better produced version of The Cool Death Of Island Raiders. Sucks Blood starts off with the red herring of ‘It Killed Mom’, a loud rocker that points to the future before the album immediately pulls back into the freak folk style that had defined the Oh Sees project. At least this time the production isn’t as overstuffed and distant/muffled sounding as Cool Death. Also crucial is that the songwriting is consistently excellent—‘Golden Phones’ and ‘Iceberg’ being some obvious career highlights, featuring Brigid Dawson’s lovely backup vocals. I’m not crazy about the odd choice of church bells used in the background of ‘Iceberg’ but I will give them credit for using the singing saw way less often. When it does make an appearance on the aforementioned ‘Golden Phones’, it actually blends in well and adds to the slow, dreamy feel of the track. Finally, as with the previous record, I dig the use of the two untitled drone tracks to lend some variety to the proceedings. Actually, the second drone track is worth noting because it’s the closest Oh Sees ever got to ambient music. It’s a field recording of outdoor wind and bird sounds, providing an appropriately languid and mellow end to the album.

Sucks Blood is a great record, a hidden gem in the band’s vast discography as well as the flood of other great 2007 releases. It serves as a satisfying capstone to the first phase of the band’s life, the last time they couldn’t be classified as a rock band. While I am very excited to get to the garage rock era of Oh Sees, I really want to take the time to say how much I’ve enjoyed exploring the freak folk era. It’s a different side of this band and Dwyer’s work in general, and it’s given me a different appreciation for them that I didn’t have before. Anyway, next time on the retrospective: get ready to crank the volume and enter the mosh pit.

Oh Sees Retrospective #5: The Cool Death Of Island Raiders

For the first few years of his career, alt-country/indie folk artist Bonnie “Prince” Billy changed the name of his group with every release. In an interview with The Boston Phoenix in 2003, he explained his motivation: “Well, I guess the idea is that when you have a name of a group or an artist, then you expect that the next record, if it has the same name, should be the same group of people playing on it. And I just thought we were making a different kind of record each time, with different people, and different themes, and different sounds. So I thought it was important to call it something different so that people would be aware of the differences.” Dwyer seems to have similar motivations with changing the name of his Oh Sees project over the years. He even explained that he revived the OCS name for the Memory Of A Cut Off Head album because he now sees OCS and Oh Sees as two different bands.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Despite the 5 on its album cover, The Cool Death Of Island Raiders is not the fifth OCS album. Rather, it sported the name The Ohsees upon its release on June 13th, 2006 (or March 7^th, according to Wikipedia). Adding Brigid Dawson as a third member to the evolving Oh Sees group, Cool Death may on the surface sound like a logical progression of the preceding OCS albums. After all, it’s also a freak folk album with some experimental elements mixed in.

However, it’s the things that do set Cool Death apart from the past that make it one of the most unique and frustrating albums in John Dwyer’s discography. The two drone compositions work very well with the flow of the songs and feel more naturally implemented and interesting than past excursions into noise. I especially love the way the second drone emerges from the clamor at the end of ‘We Are Free.’ The biggest negative for me is the overall sound and feel of these tracks. Bizarrely recruiting David Sitek of TV On The Radio as producer, this record has none of the crisp yet not overly polished style I associate him with. Rather it’s a cluttered, chaotic mess, with songs like ‘Broken Stems’ and ‘You Oughta Go Home’ in particular having too many unnecessary layers of sound. Why they used the distracting singing saw so often I’ll never know. Listening to the versions of songs from Cool Death on the stripped down Thee Hounds Of Foggy Notion reveals the buried gems that were there all along.

Positive additions come in the backing vocals of Dawson and the change from acoustic to electric guitar. I’ve never really found Dawson all that essential to sound of this band, since her vocals often blend too much with Dwyer or get lost in the high throttle sound of Oh Sees in full flight. Heresy, I know—but even I can’t deny how much she brings to Cool Death, and maybe as I move forward from here I’ll appreciate her more. With the guitar change, we have the most seemingly inconsequential and historically significant addition to the sound. ‘The Guilded Cunt’ is a strong opening track for a band with no shortage of these, the delay effect on Dwyer’s guitar soon to become a signature staple. When they return to acoustics on ‘Losers In The Sun’, it can’t help but seem like a backstep. It doesn’t help that this track is also one of the worst in Oh Sees history, with its apathetic mess of overly repetitive strums, bumbling drums, and pointless bird sounds.

Two steps forward, one step back: Cool Death is one of those transitional albums in a band’s career that certain fans may love but everyone else will find unsatisfyingly interesting. Animal Collective’s Here Comes The Indian and Miles Davis’s Miles In The Sky-era records are good analogues. To be perfectly honest, I couldn’t stand this record when I gave it one and only one listen a few years ago. I was expecting something much closer to the modern Oh Sees sound and I recall thinking, “what a pointless mess.” Revisiting it has improved my opinion, although only to the level of “a mess, but not a pointless one.”