Thee Oh Sees have just released their eighth album this month on Tom Lab/Castle-Face. Over the past 11 years, frontman John Dwyer has delved into nooks of rock'n'roll so deep and obscured, the impression they leave is leagues aways from his previous work with Coachwhips and more recently with the Hospitals. Taking up a more weird folk vibe than the former, Dwyer and company retain their roots in 60s rock'n'roll music taking cues from bands like the Seeds and chemically melding a modern folk aesthetic to it, and coming up with a sound that's uncanny. Over the past couple of years, the folk strum has reached a new height in underground music circles, as bands like Pink Reason, Goodnight Loving, and Thee Ohsees are all playing with the genre and coming up with some pretty fresh and diverse sounds and given rise to something completely new. When underground music fans just a decade before were hung-up on specific styles, and never leaving the paths of their linear record collections, it seems as though our collective taste for music has opened up in ways that have allowed artists to explore their own appetites.
With the release of The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In, Thee Ohsees have stepped up their sound as compared to their last effort Sucks Blood, with a dirgeful pop leaning. With more upbeat rhythms, Dwyer and crew go from Velvet Underground-angled songs such as "Graveyard Drug Party" to ominous builds that reek with doom and come off as something you might hear out of the Pixies in another song, "Maria Stacks." The Intelligence covered their song "Block of Ice" on their latest album, Deuteronomy, months before Thee Ohsees' version hit the street, which has to be a first in the rock arena. And though the cover hints that many of the material on this release may stem from Thee Ohsees earlier catalog, the immediacy of their music suggest the contrary.
As their folk froth rises from the bowls rock'n'roll rooted in decades past, Thee Ohsees songs are sung in a haunting male/female melodies that gives them a cultish texture and truly allow them an unique sound. You can get The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In here, and if you're reading this from across the big pond, keep your eyes peeled for their European tour later this month.
and here's a clip of Thee Oh Sees performing "Ghost In The Trees" @ Pub 340, courtesy of liam117, right here...
