Oh Sees Retrospective #18: Singles Collection Volume 3

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


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

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

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

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

It is better than ice cream, though.

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


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

Oh Sees Retrospective #17: Moon Sick EP

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


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


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


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


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


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

Oh Sees Retrospective #16: Floating Coffin

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

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


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


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


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


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

Oh Sees Retrospective #15: Putrifiers II

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


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


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


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


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

Oh Sees Retrospective #14: Carrion Crawler/The Dream

I've never been a Christmas kind of person. It's been my least favorite holiday for a long time, and it seems to always be a melancholy time of year. 2019's holiday season has so far been especially difficult because I'm on my own, living at a friend's place in Columbus. He's vacationing abroad with his girlfriend until after the new year, and my wife and I are in the middle of one of those awkward “we're not speaking” kind of arguments. This is all the cherry on top to what will go down as, no hyperbole, one of the worst years I've ever had. So while a lot of people seem to love the end-of-year seasonal traditions, like looking back on the past year by ranking movies and music in top ten lists, I just want this fucking year to be over. Given all of this, my preferred form of looking back is to revisit some of my all time favorite things and to not think about anything that happened in 2019. Sure, I just saw Knives Out in the theater (a fantastic film, by the way) but I've also been rewatching, say, Pulp Fiction and the best episodes of Trailer Park Boys.


As for music, you ask? Well, aside from mainlining Microcastle by Deerhunter and First Come, First Served by Dr. Doooom aka Kool Keith, I also can't stop listening to Carrion Crawler/The Dream. And no, it's not just because I'm writing this retrospective. Much as it may be a foregone conclusion that I love this album, we'll at least try to see if anything bahs my humbugs when I once again put down my fandom banner and put on my critical lenses.


Let's ignore the fact that the back of the record sleeve says this is an EP: Carrion Crawler/The Dream is the third and final full length release from Oh Sees in 2011, arriving on November 8^th. If anyone has a concrete answer as to why the back sleeve says EP, I'd love to know. I would speculate, based on interviews and comments from the band, it was because originally this was going to be an EP based around 'The Dream.' When they wrote 'Carrion Crawler' (and perhaps one or two more tracks) they decided to put it all out together. Recorded and mixed by stalwart Oh Sees collaborator Chris Woodhouse, the album was finished in only five days and done entirely live as a full band in the studio. This approach paid off like a hacked slot machine for Frog Eyes on the similarly bombastic and long-song-heavy Paul's Tomb (A Triumph). Whereas the key to that album was adding a second guitarist, Carrion Crawler/The Dream takes full flight by adding Lars Finberg as the second drummer. It doesn't hurt that Oh Sees also delivered one of their most cohesive batch of songs yet, with a special emphasis on krautrock rhythms and song structures.


Look, we all know that this record is a classic in the Oh Sees canon. Most fans I've encountered seem to adore it and keep it permanently in their top five. We also all know that 'The Dream' is one of their towering achievements; it's been a fixture in live shows for years now and it's still their most popular song on Spotify. What we all might not know, or perhaps remember, is how many other fantastic songs come alongside 'The Dream.' Nobody ever seems to talk about 'Robber Barons', with its patient pace and wall of sound guitars. Also undeservedly forgotten, 'Chem-Farmer' has an absolute unit of a bassline that will rattle your skull if you crank it on a good set of speakers or headphones. Speaking of skulls, I would totally buy this record just for the cover art alone. I mean, wouldn't you? Yeah you would; I knew I liked you.


Special commendation must be given to 'Carrion Crawler' as one of the most perfect album openers in the history of Oh Sees album openers. It careens down the road with an addictive descending guitar riff that nods so heavily toward Pink Floyd's 'Interstellar Overdrive' it risks headbutting the piper at the gates of dawn, if you catch my drift. It makes me embarrassed because I didn't make the connection until they started using part of 'Interstellar' as a soundcheck/introduction to some live shows in the last year or two. Now, if I did have any nitpick with Carrion Crawler/The Dream, it's that 'Opposition' (or 'Opposition (With Maracas)', if you have the vinyl record) and 'Wrong Idea' are slight little trifles that seem underwritten by comparison to the rest of the songs...although...


...Although I do think they're purposefully positioned to mitigate the time and reality warping effects of 'The Dream.' I suppose this means I have to unpick that nit, then.


So, there you have it. A foregone conclusion about how great this album is...um, well foregone. No surprises, eh? Well, you know something? The holidays aren't always about surprises, wrapped gifts that tantalize with their mystery contents. Just as people still watch the marathon of A Christmas Story year after year, sometimes you want something familiar—indeed, something that familiarity has worn away the flaws of. You may not think this is a perfect record though I'd be willing to bet all the reindeer in Norway that you'd be hard pressed to name another Oh Sees album that is both a great entry point for newcomers and a hardcore fan favorite. But I digress. Happy holidays, and always remember: the dream, it seems, is peeking into real life.


[Unimportant footnote: I'm still not sure what part of Can's 'Soul Desert' is contained in 'Contraption/Soul Desert', even after listening to the original song and also the demo of 'Contraption' on Singles Collection Vol. 1 & 2. I think maybe it's just some lyrics or a riff or chord....?]

Oh Sees Retrospective #13: Castlemania

Now that we're deep into the discography of Oh Sees, it's got me thinking about what it is about certain bands that inspires such loyalty from fans. To put it another way, do people keep following Oh Sees and exploring their earlier releases because of a consistent quality? Is it because they continue to surprise us by trying new things, adding new members, changing their name, and/or taking stylistic left turns seemingly on a whim? Is it because John Dwyer is such a good looking fellow? I suspect the reason (or reasons) differs for every fan. When it comes to Castlemania, though, I've noticed that lovers and haters alike have the same reasoning for their feelings toward it: it's different.


Following up the release of Singles Collection Vol. 1 & 2 by only a couple months, Castlemania arrived in this world on May 10, 2011. Like Dog Poison, it was mostly recorded by Dwyer at home, with significant contributions from usual collaborator Brigid Dawson as well as then-fresh faced new boy Ty Segall. Unlike Dog Poison, Castlemania feels like a fully realized, finished project. You get the sense that he had these songs and ideas sitting around, and they wouldn't work with a full psych/garage rock arrangement, so he took another crack at doing them like he would have in the early days. This means more acoustic guitars, sure, but it also means a more expansive palette of sounds and instruments than on the OCS records. Moreover, when the album does rock, on 'Corrupted Coffin' and 'A Wall, A Century 2', it's hardly Help leftovers; rather, it's a skronky noise fest and a menacing, suffocating stomper, respectively.


While it doesn't sound so different from other Oh Sees projects that you'll be reaching for the sleeve to confirm the artist name, it can be said that Castlemania largely exists in its own sound world. Few Oh Sees albums are better served by a listen on headphones. In fact, between its grim lyrical content and insular atmosphere, I recommend enjoying it on headphones at 1 in the morning after everyone else has gone to bed while you're still awake taking bong hits and beer sips and thinking about life and death. In terms of the mix of poppy songwriting and the eerie/dark 60s psychedelia permeating out of the grooves, Castlemania brings to mind Olivia Tremor Control and their affiliates in the Elephant 6 collective. I mean, couldn't you see it showing up on shelves in 1999 next to Her Wallpaper Reverie and Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume 1?


What strikes me the most about this album is how long it took me to appreciate it. Back in 2011 when I discovered Oh Sees, I wrote a short, dismissive review of Castlemania, which is so poorly done I won't bother linking or quoting it. When I think back to my views at the time, and my taste in music, a better way to explain my initial negative opinion is that I was more inclined to expect things from records instead of letting them tell me their tale. I was such a huge instant fan of Help and Carrion Crawler/The Dream that it's all I expected or wanted from Oh Sees. When Castlemania turned out to be more like Olivia Tremor Control and less like Ty Segall, I couldn't even begin to hear it for what it was.


It's only with the last eight years of growth, further musical experiences, and especially doing this retrospective that I've come around to Castlemania. I defy anyone to not want to sing along to 'I Need Seed.' It's infectious and fun, contrasting with the chaotic intensity and clangor of the title track. I love the structure of this record, the way it balances its variety of tones and styles while still making for a coherent journey. In particular I love how 'The Horse Was Lost' seemingly closes out the album, with its distant saxophone moans and flute-like organ, before a minute of silence leads into the three covers that actually close the album. It's as if you just watched an intimate performance in someone's living room and now they're doing a few covers as an encore, with two of them sung by guests/friends. Sure, the very last song on Castlemania is a weirdly dour affair that sounds like Nico's The Marble Index, but I'm going to let that nitpick slide because I happen to love that album and being different is part of what makes Castlemania great. One criticism that does still hold for this record it's that you really have to be OK with Dwyer's affected vocals from this era. He purposefully sounds more bratty, nasally, and croaky than his natural voice, and if you find that kind of thing hard to overlook, this won't be a tolerable listen for long.


Since it's sandwiched in the 2011 releases between a sexy double album compilation and an adored fan favorite, and also since it's so different from their other records, Castlemania is easy to overlook and to skip over. I know many fans are eager to get to Carrion Crawler/The Dream. Sure, it's an almost universally beloved album; it's high on the list of recommendations for new fans and often makes top five placings in rankings of personal favorites of the devoted. Of course I'm excited to get to it. But give Castlemania its due first. Absolutely give this one another chance if it hasn't clicked with you before. It eventually did for me, and while it's never going to be one of my favorites, at least now I'm able to see it as the excellent and unique gem that others have been digging for years.

Oh Sees Retrospective #12: Singles Collection Vol. 1 & 2

Compilations, whether they be greatest hits packages, outtakes and rarities, or singles collections, are tricky things to approach critically. After all, do you judge them as a whole? On a song-by-song basis? In the case of greatest hits, it’s not necessarily something the band chose to do, and even if they are involved, it’s largely done for commercial rather than artistic reasons. As for outtakes, rarities, and singles compilations, they’re rarely given the same care and organized thought that goes into proper full-length releases. By their nature, they come from a limited pool of material, often with jarring stylistic or production differences, coming from different years in a band’s career. While Oh Sees’ Singles Collection Vol. 1 & 2 does its best to be a coherent listen, its most fundamental issue is actually none of the above. It purports to contain all the singles and EPs the band had released up to 2011, and careless reviews such as AllMusic’s accept this tale. In all fairness, it’s not so much a lie as an omission of the whole truth.

2011 is up there with the most prolific years in Oh Sees history: even setting aside this double album compilation, you’ve got two other full length albums to tackle, chew on, and digest. Amongst fans, this middle period of the band is overwhelmingly the favorite era, and the two albums released in 2011—Castlemania and Carrion Crawler/The Dream—regularly show up on lists and Internet posts of fan rankings. Obviously, I’ll get to those eventually, but I couldn’t go any further with this retrospective without noting what an embarrassment of riches this year was. Anyway!

Released on March 8, 2011, Singles Collection Vol. 1 & 2 (hereafter referred to as Singles for simplicity) does indeed include a metric fuckton of hard to find Oh Sees material. Collectors and completionists will still want to track down all the original releases, in particular the recently reissued Grave Blockers EP, because they are not all contained in full on this compilation. For the rest of us, there’s still a lot to take in even if it’s not the whole non-album Oh Sees story. Just trying to research the releases that the tracks on Singles came from, to say nothing of following the chronology of the tracks, made my eyes cross. Sadly, my vinyl copy of this release is back in America, so I don’t have the full info inside its glorious sleeves. I apologize for not supplying my usual level of detail on this front, but happily I am moving back to the States in a matter of weeks and I should have my records out of storage soon after. I hope.

This being a release intended for hardcore fans and not some kind of A Young Person’s Guide To King Crimson-esque introductory release to let the curious get a taste, I won’t bother telling you get your hands on this ASAP. You either have it already or you are getting around to it soon. With that out of the way, let’s hold Singles up to a critical eye and see what I can shake out.

Is every track on here a winner? No. I’ve never been a huge fan of demos in general, so ‘Catiastic Tackle - Demo’ is wasted on me, and ‘Contraption - Demo’ provides no useful hints to where it starts and ends when paired with its eventual ‘Soul Desert’ twin on Carrion Crawler/The Dream. ‘Kingsmeat’, meanwhile, feels like an overlong and undercooked scrap on the cutting room floor of Help, containing a vocal so distorted and unintelligible it sounds like it was recorded through a bullhorn from a quarter mile away.

Does Singles suffer from pacing/tracklisting order issues which cause it not to flow very well? Yes. The stretch from ‘Hey Buddy’ to ‘Grave Blockers’ has songs I do love, such as the underrated folk chestnut ‘I Agree’, yet it’s still too many slow and low energy songs in a row; more than once, I’ve fallen asleep to side B of the record. No, I’m not exaggerating for comedic effect.

Most importantly, are there some kick ass Oh Sees tracks on here? Fuck yeah. They definitely outweigh the bad ones. The cover of Ty Segall’s ‘The Drag’ is a reverent tipping of the hat to a then-up-and-coming garage rocker. ‘Carol Anne’ opens the compilation with a roar, followed by John Dwyer delighting us with a line about falling off his skateboard and turning his nipples into a belt(?) at the start of the next song. And then there’s ‘Bloody Water’, one of Oh Sees’ most infectious songs, with especially excellent backup vocals from Brigid Dawson.

In the context of their discography, Singles serves as a clearing of the plates, a chance for everyone to catch up before the next leg of the voyage of the S.S. Oh Sees. Fans of the early to middle period of the band looking for more will be well served by stopping in this port. Before he would sail with his crew into the more krautrock influenced second half of their middle period, John Dwyer would first strip the band down to himself and Brigid, producing the wonderfully weird Castlemania, an album even more varied and unfocused than Singles. I mean that in a good way. What else can you say about an Oh Sees album that has more in common with Olivia Tremor Control than it does Can and The Necessary Evils? Ah, but I’m getting ahead of myself.