Oh Sees – 7th Level Music

Review: Thee Oh Sees – Live at Levitation (2012)

Thanks be to the Reverberation Appreciation Society for capturing Thee Oh Sees‘ first performance at the Levitation Music Festival back in 2012. As a result, we have Live At Levitation (2012). Thee Oh Sees / Oh Sees / OCS / OSees have since played Levitation many times, but this wild set featuring the band’s incarnation of Petey Dammit (bass), Brigid Dawson (keyboards, hand percussion, backing vocals), John Dwyer (lead guitar and vocals), Lars Finberg (drums), and Mike Shoun (drums) is a rare treat. They’d played in Austin, Texas (home of the Levitation festival) before, but not at the festival itself, so they were pumped.

It starts with one of their biggest fan-favorites, “The Dream,” and Dwyer’s guitar already sounds like it’s begging for mercy within the first few chords. Dammit’s bass on “Devil Again” (which is actually a guitar tuned to sound just like a bass) is relentless, and Dwyer sounds like he’s taking a belt sander to his guitar at one point.

The live version of “Tidal Wave” here is even faster than it normally sounds live, showing how amped the entire band was just three songs into their set. They take a moment or two to tune, and for everyone to take a couple deep breaths, before they stomp the gas pedal and launch into “Enemy Destruct,” sending the crowd into a wilder frenzy than just moments earlier.

You could almost call “Robber Barons” “Rubber Barons” because it has this slow bounce to it thanks to Dammit’s bass and Finberg and Shoun’s double-drumming that hits the heavy spots at just the right moments. The centerpiece is “Block of Ice,” which clocks in at over thirteen minutes in length and never relinquishes its groove. Dammit’s endurance on it is stunning, and every time you think the song has reached some kind of crescendo, Dwyer and his crew take it even further.

Dwyer assures the audience that he’s “mostly in tune” before they start the lively “Meat Step Lively,” which has this garage rock jangle to it that I love. The set ends with “Minotaur” and Dwyer singing about being stuck in the maze of a job that he hates but forces himself to wander through each day.

Then they’re off to “the Red Roof Inn” as they hand off the stage to Meat Puppets and The Brian Jonestown Massacre that year.

It’s a great addition to the “Live at Levitation” series and the Osees’ catalogue. Don’t miss it.

Keep your mind open.

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Psycho Las Vegas 2021 recap: Day Four

We’d originally planned to start the final day of the 2021 Psycho Music Festival in Las Vegas at noon to see Warish, but they cancelled their performance before the festival started. So, we had nothing to do but lounge at the pool and spa after breakfast until we headed to the House of Blues venue to see Frankie and the Witch Fingers for the first time. I’d been keen on seeing them, as their last album is outstanding, and clips I’ve seen of their shows looked wild.

They didn’t disappoint. They practically flattened the House of Blues in “their first show in about two thousand years.” A lot of people in the crowd seemed to not know who they were, but were ardent fans by the end. Later in the day, I overheard a guy talking about them to friends: “Frankie and the Witch Fingers! I walked in not knowing what to expect! Holy shit!” He was right. They put on one of the best sets of the entire weekend.

Franke and the Witch Fingers casting Audible Glammer.

We had time for lunch and then headed to the beach stage to see Dengue Fever – a band we’d both wanted to see for a while. They play a neat version of Cambodian funk and disco and had a lot of the crowd dancing in the sand and the wave pool. Their saxophonist is top-notch as well.

We headed back inside to catch to the Rock & Rhythm Lounge, where Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears got on stage to bring some funky soul. Lewis is a sharp guitar player, and the crowd quickly picked up on what he was putting down.

Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears piling on even more funk.

My wife was exhausted by this point, so she went back to the hotel room while I returned to the beach to see Osees pound out one of the loudest sets I’ve seen them play. Part of the volume could’ve been from their usual power bouncing off the water of the beach and up at everyone standing on the beach, and part of it could be from them playing in front of a live audience again after so long. It was a wild set, with people in the pool kicking and splashing water everywhere and the security guards being somewhat dumbfounded by what was happening. Drummer Paul Quattrone was especially on-point during the whole set.

Osees bowling us over with the power of rock.

I also managed to catch some partial sets from Howling Giant, Sasquatch, Mothership, and Black Sabbitch during the festival – all of whom had large, happy crowds in front of them.

The entire festival had a happy vibe to it. Everyone was happy to be seeing live music again and partying with friends again.

Plus, it was nice to lounge at an outdoor pool for a while.

Tickets for the 2022 festival are already on sa le, and they’ve announced some of the bands already confirmed, including metal giants like Mercyful Fate, Emperor, and Boris, as well as prog-metal heavyweights Year of No Light.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Osees – Levitation Sessions II

Never ones to rest on their laurels, or seemingly to rest at all, Osees put together another live-streamed show, Levitation Sessions II, and wowed everyone again with a great set of deep cuts and obscure cover tunes.

The show, recorded in an empty factory that front man John Dwyer describes as like “a fight scene set from Point Blank or the John Wick trilogy,” starts with the rockin’, swingin’ fan-favorite “Tidal Wave.” It’s hard to choose which part you like best. Dwyer’s fun guitar riffs? Dan Rincon and Paul Quattrone‘s double-drumming? Tim Hellman‘s rock solid bass line? Tom Dolas‘ sneaky synths? Dolas’ synths take the forefront on the weird, wonky “Grown in a Graveyard” – a tune that keeps you guessing for its entire length. Then, once you kind of, sort of figure it out, they unleash a raucous version of “The Dream” – which might cause you to trash whatever room you’re in when you hear it, or stomp the gas pedal if you’re driving at the time…until it drifts into psychedelic bliss around the five-minute mark and give you a chance to breathe (but only for a moment). Dwyer absolutely shreds for the last two minutes of it.

“Stinking Cloud” is a jolly tune about death and heavy on synths from Dolas and Dwyer. The garage rock swing of “Enemy Destruct” is outstanding. “Poisoned Stones” sounds as gritty and grungy as you hope it will. “Spider Cider” is silly and fun (with Dolas putting his big synth rig aside to play rhythm guitar, no less). Hellman’s bass seems to hit extra heavy (without overwhelming his bandmates) on “It Killed Mom.”

Another deep cut treat is “Meat Step Lively,” which could almost fit onto an episode of Shindig with its groovy swing. “Snickersnee” is trippy bliss, which Rincon and Quattrone in perfect step as Dwyer stabs at ghosts with his guitar. “Destroyed Fortress Reappears” drifts into heavy synth psychedelia by Dolas and Dwyer and the entire rhythm section produces a hypnotizing beat.

“Web” is another great cut that builds up to a wicked beat and doesn’t let go of you. Hellman’s bass groove is outstanding on it. “Encrypted Bounce” is the longest song on the album, coming in at almost nine minutes, and it’s full of wild garage rock guitar from Dwyer and great fills from both drummers. “Beat Quest” adds heavy 1980s, and then 1970s, synths to the mix.

The encore was a set of Chrome covers: “Chromosome Damage > T.V. As Eyes,” “ST37,” “Looking for Your Door,” and “SS CYGNI.” The first is a fun, upbeat splash of driving beats and warping synths that melts into a lava lamp haze. “ST37” could almost be a Devo track with it’s goofy guitar and weird lyrics. Hellman’s bass takes on a sexy panther tone in “Looking for Your Door.” The final track is a hypnotic repetition of beats and riffs that slowly backs out of the room and drifts away.

Levitation Sessions II does a great job of making you want to see Osees live again as soon as possible. They’re starting to announce tour dates for the fall, so don’t miss out if they’re near you.

Keep your mind open.

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Top 40 albums of 2016 – 2020: #’s 15 – 11

We’re more than halfway through this list now, and we have a welcome comeback album, a live album, an improvised album, a double album, and an EP. What are they? Read on to find out.

#15: Yardsss – Cultus (2020)

You could almost call this an EP, since it’s only three tracks, but two of those tracks are each over twenty minutes long. Cultus is the improvised album I mentioned. It’s a stunning soundscape of shoegaze, psychedelia, synthwave, and jazz that the band created out of thin air with no plan at all. It’s a testament to their talent and an amazing listen.

#14: LCD Soundsystem – American Dream (2017)

Here we have the welcome comeback. LCD Soundsystem returned after a hiatus to bring all of us the dance punk we desperately needed as the country was beginning to tear at each other’s throats in fear and ignorance. Tracks like “Emotional Haircut” skewered hipsters and “Call the Police” addressed xenophobia – all the while making us dance.

#13: Windhand – Levitation Sessions (2020)

My wife and I watched a few live-streamed concerts in 2020, and all of them were good. This one, however, was the only one to give me chills. Windhand always brings power and spooky vibes to their brand of doom metal, and the Reverb Appreciation Society’s sound gurus did a great job of capturing Windhand’s wizardry in this live session. The hairs on my arm stood during “Forest Clouds.” I wanted to run through the streets yelling, “Wear a damn mask and wash your hands!” to everyone in sight to increase the likelihood we could all see Windhand live again soon.

#12: Thee Oh Sees – Facestabber (2019)

It was a bit difficult to choose which Oh Sees record to include in my top 40 list, because they put out a lot of material during the last five years – especially in 2020 when John Dwyer and his crew had nothing else to do but make more music and released multiple albums, EPs, and singles. The double-album of Face Stabber, however, was the album that I kept coming back to and giving to friends as a 2019 Christmas gift. It blends psychedelia with Zappa-like jazzy jams (with the stunning twenty-plus-minute “Henchlock” taking up one side of the double album) and took their music to a different level, which was pretty high already.

#11: WALL – (self-titled EP) (2016)

Holy cow. This post-punk EP from Brooklyn’s WALL burst onto the scene like Kool-Aid Man hitting a brick wall keeping him separated from kids dying of dehydration. “Cuban Cigars” was played all over England’s BBC 6 Music (where I first heard it) and they were the talk of SXSW and the east coast’s post-punk scene. They put together an untitled full album after this, but broke up before it was released. Fortunately, the lead singer and the guitarist went on to form Public Practice. This EP, however, relit my passion for post-punk into a three-alarm fire.

The top 10 begins tomorrow. It includes more post-punk, a rap album, Canadian psychedelia, and an Australian album that never ends.

Keep your mind open.

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Top 35 albums of 2020: #’s 20 – 16

We’re into the top 20 albums of 2020 (out of the nearly 80 new albums I reviewed last year). Who made the cut? Read on…

#20: Matt Karmil – STS371

This EDM record is full of throbbing bass, oil slick beats, and ambient / psychedelic synths. It works its way under your skin and moves your bones.

#19: Ultraflex – Visions of Ultraflex

Cover that looks like a 1980s New Age CD? Check. Synthwave keyboards that could fit right into a sci-fi film? Check. Sexy Replicant vocals? Check. Visions of Ultraflex manages to be both a neat synthwave album and one of the best make-out records of 2020 at the same time.

#18: Oh Sees – Metamorphosed

This album is “only” five tracks in length, and the first three are under two minutes each. The other two, however, make up for the rest of the album’s time length of over forty minutes. It’s a mix of punk rockers and prog-psych-krautrock jams that shows how deftly Oh Sees can move back and forth between styles.

#17: Holy Wave – Interloper

Holy Wave came back with a fine addition to their catalogue. Interloper blends psychedelia with some shoegaze and surf elements and is full of songs about not fitting in or being comfortable anywhere. That alone could sum up 2020.

#16: Oh Sees – Live at Big Sur

Yes, two Oh Sees albums in this list. Live at Big Sur was their second live-streamed show of 2020. They played at the Henry Miller Library and dove deep into their back catalogue to play stuff they hadn’t played live in years. The encore was a barrage of covers, many of them Black Flag tunes.

We’re over halfway through the list! Come back tomorrow for more!

Keep your mind open.

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Top 35 albums of 2020: #’s 30 – 26

Let’s get right to it. Shall we?

#30: The Death Wheelers – Divine Filth

It’s a soundtrack for a post-apocalyptic / zombie / biker film that doesn’t exist (but should) made by four dudes who can swing musical styles (metal, doom, surf, prog) on a dime and love B-movies. You can’t miss.

#29: Oh Sees – Levitation Sessions

The folks at the Reverb Appreciation Society came up with a great idea this year – live-streamed shows that would coincide with a release of the live show in various formats (digital, vinyl, cassette). This one from Osees / Oh Sees was the first one I watched this year, and it was a blast. My wife, cat, and I were dancing around our house to the wall of sound at one point.

#28: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Chunky Shrapnel

Speaking of live music and prolific bands, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard released one of several live albums this year, and this one was the soundtrack to a concert film that saw a limited streaming release and will hopefully be in theaters at some point. Like any live KGATLW show, it shreds.

#27: Damaged Bug – Bug on Yonkers

John Dwyer, lead cat in Oh Sees, not only released several Oh Sees projects in 2020, he also released a new Damaged Bug record – this one a tribute to outsider musician Michael Yonkers. The whole record is full of Yonkers covers, and all of them are great and make you want to search out his other work.

#26: Teenager – Good Time

This is a fun post-punk record and one of the singles from it, “Romance for Rent,” is one of my favorite songs of 2020. The whole album gets in your head and you won’t want it to leave.

Come back tomorrow to see who’s in the top 25!

Keep your mind open.

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Top 35 albums of 2020: #’s 35 – 31

Why thirty-five albums in this list? I reviewed almost eighty albums released last year (and many others released at least a year ago). I always recap the top half of the list, so thirty-five was about right. Everyone agrees that 2020 was a crappy year, but we had a lot of good music. A lot of bands and artists had nothing else to do but create amazing music to keep them and us sane.

#35: Rituals of Mine – Hype Nostalgia

This is a sharp album about being an outsider, love and lust, and knowing when to draw a line in the sand. It mixes electronica and synthwave well and constantly intrigues you.

#34: Sofia Kourtesis – Sarita Colonia

This EP is one of the best electro / dance records I heard all year. It wasn’t on my radar until I stumbled onto it via Bandcamp. It was a breath of fresh air as lovely as it sky on its cover this year.

#33: Melkbelly – PITH

These Chicago punks / post-punks / rockers / do they really need a label? came out swinging with their new album. It’s one of those records that make you think, “Damn, they’re not screwing around.”

#32: Oh Sees – Protean Threat

Am I the only one who thinks that if you cut up the album cover for Protean Threat into four squares and rearranged them in the right pattern that it would reveal a secret image? The album is one of many releases from Oh Sees / Osees this year, who might’ve been the most prolific band of 2020. It’s a wild, fun time, of course, full of blazing rockers and krautrock jams.

#31: New Bomb Turks – Nightmare Scenario (Diamond Edition)

This is easily my favorite re-release of the year. Ohio punk legends New Bomb Turks released a raw version of their classic mid-1990s album Nightmare Scenario for the album’s twenty-fifth anniversary. It shreds and was a much needed adrenaline boost in a year when we didn’t have much to be excited about in terms of entertainment and did have a lot of anger to expel.

Who cracks the top 30? Come back tomorrow to find out!

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Oh Sees – Metamorphosed

Blending punk rock and krautrock, Oh Sees‘ Metamorphosed is a wild EP, but what else would expect from these cats? They’ve been incredibly prolific this year, which has been a boon to us fans of the band. Future live shows by Oh Sees might end up being three hours long just so Tom Dolas, John Dwyer, Tim Hellman, Paul Quattrone, and Dan Rincon can play half the material they’ve put out this year.

Opener “Saignant” is a minute-and-a-half blast of punk fury that leaves you wondering, “What the hell just happened?” “Electric War” unleashes double surf drums, trippy synths, and Hellman’s bass sounding like it’s doing a keg stand while Dwyer’s guitar runs around the room like a mean gremlin. “Weird and Wasted Connection” starts to bring in the krautrock elements, but stays at under two minutes with its post-punk tempo.

The first three tracks are each under two minutes in length. “The Virologist” (Could Osees be the first band in 2020 to come up with that song title? It seems unlikely, as it was ripe for the taking.), on the other hand, is an instrumental that’s over fourteen minutes long. Quattrone and Rincon put down a steady beat, Hellman goes for a bass stroll, Dolas kicks back and meditates with his synths, and Dwyer takes his time with his guitar – letting it stretch out like a cat in a warm window. “I Got a Lot” is over twenty-three minutes with Dwyer repeating “I got a lot on my mind.” several times. Don’t we all by this point? He also sings about wanting a future, to be a teacher, and, more or less, to, as Prince put it, “get through this crazy thing called life.” He also sings, “I wanna get ya real high.” The song nearly does that with its hypnotic drums alone.

It’s a fine EP and another piece of the big Oh Sees / OSEES / OCS catalogue just from this year that includes two live albums, a full album, a remix album, and multiple singles. Oh Sees have shown us that 2020 wasn’t a year to slack off. Sure, it gave some of us extra time to relax, but it was a year to create and focus and work for the betterment of ourselves and others (as every year should be). It was a year to transform, to metamorphose into something new. Put on this EP and get to work.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Oh Sees – Protean Threat

If you’re thinking, “Wait…John Dwyer put out another Oh Sees record and a new Damaged Bug album in the same year?”, well, you don’t know the half of it. Dwyer is one of the most prolific musicians out there and the COVID-19 pandemic gave him plenty of time to create and release new music. Protean Threat is one of six releases from Oh Sees / Osees this year, starting with this album, then the live Levitation Sessions album, then an EP (Metamorphosed), two singles (“Dark Weald” and “Blood on Your Boots”), and a remix of Protean Threat called Panther Rotate. They’re also doing another live session on December 19th, 2020 that will be recorded and released before the year’s end – so that brings their total to seven (and, again, eight for Dwyer thanks to Bug on Yonkers). Much like a live Oh Sees show, they don’t give you much time to rest.

The first track alone on Protean Threat, “Scramble Suit II,” is a machine gun attack right out of the gate with wild beats, weird synths, and wuzzy-fuzzy guitars that knock you off balance before you realize what’s happening. “Dreary Nonsense” is like something you’d hear while barreling down the street in Dick Dastardly’s race car. Dwyer’s guitars are like security alarms blaring after a break-in at a munitions depot. “Upbeat Ritual” adds a sprinkle of jazz-psych to the mix as Paul Quattrone and Dan Rincon‘s double-drumming moves to front and center and Tim Hellman puts down a simple bass line that is deceptively masterful. Hellman knows when to push the fuzz and when to keep it simple in order to produce maximum effect.

On “Red Study,” for example, his bass work gets more complex as Dwyer’s guitar comes in like a curious hornet (sometimes sounding like a saxophone) and Tim Dolas‘ synths sound like an Indian snake charmer coaxing a cobra out of a basket. “Terminal Jape” pushes the fuzz to the limit as Dwyer yells / sings, “The system has been thrown around…The system has been broken down.” That’s among the truest lyrics of 2020. “Wing Ruin” is a cool instrumental track that reminds me of some of Frank Zapppa‘s work with some early Genesis thrown in for good measure.

“Said the Shovel” starts off with a sweet groove from Hellman and the Rincon-Quattrone duo getting all jazzy on us, which is pretty damn cool. “Mizmuth” dollops bloopy synths atop angry praying mantis guitar sounds. “If I Had My Way” is a fun jam with the whole band locking into a tight groove and bringing us along for a fun ride. “Toadstool” swaggers like a drunk vampire.

Someone ringing the “Gong of Catastrophe” could explain the debacle that is 2020. Dwyer sings about “the crumbling of the spires that you thought you knew so well.” COVID-19 has forced many to confront impermanency, whether they like it or not. “Canopnr ’74” has a weird rhythm that is hard to explain. It’s a fine example of Rincon and Quattrone’s complimentary percussion. The album ends with the raucous “Persuaders Up!” I’m not sure how the band keeps up with each other, because each member seems to be trying to outrace everyone else.

Thee Oh Sees are firing on all cylinders right now. Their future live shows in front of crowds are going to be even more off the chain than before if this album is any indication.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Damaged Bug – Bug on Yonkers

Michael Yonkers is an outsider musician who has plenty of legend and mystery floating around him – he built all his own gear, he was in constant pain from a spinal injury, and that he invented drone rock in the late 1960s and early 1970s before anyone knew what it was.

This kind of stuff is gold to music lovers like yours truly and John Dwyer of Damaged Bug and Osees. Dwyer decided to record an entire Damaged Bug album covering Yonkers’ music. The result, Bug on Yonkers, is a great tribute to Yonkers’ work and unveils how much of an influence the man is on Dwyer’s work.

Starting with a synth-driven ballad of “Goodby Sunball” (the title track to Yonkers’ 1974 album), Dwyer and frequent collaborator Brigid Dawson sing about not understanding life and existence (and knowing it must and will continue). Their cover of “I Tried” is a fuzzy, slightly sloppy, and groovy delight (with Dwyer playing flute at one point) and lyrics about trying to salvage a relationship that’s doomed to failure because the other half has given up on it. “Just take your slippers out from under my bed, and never let me see you alive or dead.” Insert mic drop here.

“Microminiature Love” moves along with a garage rock swagger propelled by the bass line Dwyer lays down and the steady, sweaty beats by Nick Murray. “Sold America” is sweet psychedelia with big synths and even bigger cymbal crashes and drum fills. “The Thunder Speaks” is the biggest rocker on the record. It’s a wall of solid grooves coming at you with only a few moments for breath.

“Sunflower” is a much quieter affair, with Dawson taking the lead on vocals and Brad Caulkins playing a jazz saxophone that almost sounds like it wandered in from another song. “Lovely Gold” (the title track to Yonkers’ 2010 album) is a mix of synthwave, psychedelic rock, and barely contained mania. In other words, it’s great. “Smile a While” mixes toms, cymbals, synth warps, and plenty of reverb for a trippy track. The album closes with “In My Heart,” a lovely track of psych-folk that hums like a happy bumblebee buzzing along a California beach while whales surface on the sunlit horizon.

This record will make you search for Yonkers’ material, as any good tribute album should. It’s also a fine addition to Damaged Bug’s catalogue and John Dwyer’s library.

Keep your mind open.

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