THE (Thee) Oh Sees thread

Tillman said:
getting them out of the basement of the Gizzard thread because they deserved their own thread a long time ago.

Face Stabber rules nerds!
Click to expand...
Agreed, can’t wait to spin my copy again when I get home! It’s honestly hard for me to pick a clear favorite, but I feel “The Daily Heavy” sets the albums vibe very well. I’m also in the camp that loves “Captain Loosely,” although it’s nothing I ever expected to hear on an Oh Sees album. I could see it on a Damaged Bug album.

And honestly, a little sad to see the rawness fade out with John becoming more technically proficient every year, but they’ve always been a changing sound and I think that’s what makes them so exciting to anticipate every year. I welcome all the forthcoming craziness from them with an open mind and an open ear.
 
Face Stabber came in a week or so ago, but I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet. How's everyone else's copy? I went the blue version.

The gatefold is giant! It's a nice package with the printed inners and the art is great this time around.
 
jaycee said:
Face Stabber came in a week or so ago, but I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet. How's everyone else's copy? I went the blue version.

The gatefold is giant! It's a nice package with the printed inners and the art is great this time around.
Click to expand...
Spinnin’ my copy right now. Mines got a sprinkle of surface noise during the quiet ending of “Face Stabber” on Side A, but other than that it’s flat and sounds great.

Really loving this album a little more with every spin. Not even sure I could pick a clear cut favorite at the moment.

And this is definitely their highest quality packaging yet. Very nice thick gatefold; reminds me of the Music Matters or Tone Poet quality.

—also some surface noise within “Captain Loosely.” Just cleaned it yesterday too, so I suppose I’m stuck with it.

Maybe I’ll spin Smote Reverser after this.
 
LeSamourai said:
I'm just starting to listen to them, but so far I've enjoyed Smote Reverser and Mutilator Defeated at Last (in digital format... we'll see if I end up liking them enough for the ol' vinyl treatment).
Click to expand...
Album recommendations for you—Floating Coffin, A Weird Exits, Orc, and obviously Face Stabber.

If you want to check out their older folkier stuff I recommend starting with Thee Hounds Of Foggy Notion.

Oh yeah, and see them live!!!
One of the best live acts I’ve seen!


Currently listening to Face Stabber, it’s been my morning coffee spin all week, and it really gets better every spin. The longer songs are becoming more familiar, although I think “Henchlock” is more worthy of the longer running time as the groove sort of devolves in the middle part.

I’m also such a big fan of “Captain Loosely.” It’s placement in the album is absolutely perfect. It’s an “eye of the storm” moment, or one of reflection, (perhaps? 🤔). Nice quiet moment before heading off into the 20+ minute closer.
I love it.
 
Last edited:
Anyone notice they totally screwed up the tracks per side?

Label has it divided properly into the two halves that end with the long jams. However, in pressing it, they slapped Gholu on the end of side B for no good reason. If they had done it the right way, as the labels indicate, all sides would be about 19.5 minutes except for Henchlock. Instead, now side B is 21.5 minutes and side C is 17.5 minutes. Weird.
 
Does anyone dig the early, psych folk Thee Oh Sees?
Definitely a different band, but it’s still great.
Every spin of Thee Hounds of Foggy Notion gets better and better.

Personally haven’t heard the early OCS albums.
 
Dark Star Boogie said:
Does anyone dig the early, psych folk Thee Oh Sees?
Definitely a different band, but it’s still great.
Every spin of Thee Hounds of Foggy Notion gets better and better.

Personally haven’t heard the early OCS albums.
Click to expand...
I have always sort of glossed over it but recently picked up Thee Hounds of Foggy Notion and really enjoy it. The movie is pretty cool too.

 
dhodo said:
I have always sort of glossed over it but recently picked up Thee Hounds of Foggy Notion and really enjoy it. The movie is pretty cool too.

Click to expand...

I originally wrote off the folkier, more acoustic side of them pretty early on in my fandom but started going back through hose earlier albums around last fall or so. Definitely not as exciting or envelope pushing as the newer wilder side, but there’s some beautiful gems within that backlog.

Thee Hounds Of Foggy Notion is definitely my favorite of their earlier work. Seems like a nice summary of everything they had done up until that point.

That being said, I think I’ve only been through about half of their earlier discography. Don’t want to reach the end too soon, but man I adore this band and it’s hard not binging it all away.



On a different note, after going through most of their discography recently (I’m seeing them next Thursday so I’m reacquainting myself with everything) and I’ve got to say that i think Face Stabber is their best work thus far. It’s somewhat of a masterpiece.

And I was one of the opinion it was bloated at first.
 
Nice KEXP Dwyer interview:

John Dwyer of Oh Sees on His Prolific Output, Tinnitus, and The Joys of Multiple Drummers

www.kexp.org www.kexp.org

Here's a couple bits that stood out to me if you don't want to read the whole thing:

Are there any plans for new Damaged Bug material?

Yeah, I'm in the process of working on some. I have like 40 songs put up right now but none of them are done. It's been a slow process but I'm working on a little secret surprise project. Basically, I was working on the 40 songs by myself for a long time and not getting anywhere.

Even though I'm happy with some of them I just couldn't get over the hump so I decided to stop working on that and work on a little pet project idea I had for Damaged Bug and that actually worked really quick because it covers and it was really easy...not easy but just much faster when you have the map laid out for you. So me and Tom Dolas, who plays keyboards right now in Oh Sees, came and worked on that with me and we made twelve songs. I'm gonna get some drummers in to play on that and then I think probably me and Brigid are gonna sing on it. I can't tell you what it is, unfortunately, but hopefully that'll be coming out next.

That's so exciting!

It's exciting for me too because it's an artist that I really love and I'm very excited to surprise them with it. It's Madonna! [laughs] That would be amazing.

[laughs] That would be so good! How long are we going to have to wait for this?

I'm hoping to have it done before the end of the year so hopefully I'll be out early next year. And then I'll finish the record that I've been working on which is just really slow coming. I'm really happy with that one too it's just I need to add some vocal content basically. Right now it's all instrumental, like 80 percent instrumental, which just won't fly.
Click to expand...

I know other people who have it and they get nauseous from it and then they can't play music anymore because it hurts. Which would be terrible. So awful. I think maybe I got really lucky and have some like really dumb Irish ears or something. I don't know why they're not on fire right now. They should have blown up and there should be blood pouring out of them but for some reason it's been tolerable.

If anything, it means I can't hear the moron next to me in a restaurant talking so it's been a blessing in disguise for me because I'm an insufferable person as well so if I'm not yelling at some stranger in line at the bank because I can't hear them then all the better for both of us.

Is there a point of hearing loss for you where you would stop making music?

I would imagine at some point like Beethoven or something where you just put your head on the piano, I don't know. But I would paint. That was a quote from Brian Chippendale, "When I go deaf I'll just paint and read more." I was like, "That sounds good to me too, man." I'm already 44 about to be 45 this week.
Click to expand...
 
Seeing these guys tonight. Bought my buddy a ticket to film or record (audio), or both, the show tonight. So hopefully I can share that with you all in the next week.

Oh Sees live is becoming a yearly highlight.
Can’t wait!
 
Well, apparently the audio recorder died at some point during the show, so not sure how much of it we got. I’ll keep you all posted.

But here’s a video of “The Dream” with a little bit of “The Daily Heavy.”




Also have a video of “Plastic Plant” where John plays the breakdown solo one handed while his other holds his overflowing foamy beer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top