Thee Oh Sees, a strange yet engaging band, sometimes. The prolific aspect of their releases is unmatched by most other bands today. The constant attack and release of albums proves to be interesting while offering different styles and recording techniques, but it also proves to be the downfall of their catalog. This experimentation with quick releases is usually something that I enjoy, the more music by a band I like is a good thing, or so I thought.
My introduction to Thee Oh Sees came through a Pitchfork review of Help. I had been enjoying the diverse collection of bands recently creating music with a 50′s/60′s retro feel to them, and upon investigating I slowly developed a strange appreciation for the band. Help is packed with quick psychedelic gems that immediately appeased my need for a particular sound. Two of my favorite songs by the band appear on the album. Both the opener “Enemy Destruct,” and the classic “Can You See?” are brilliant songs. They capture the use of lo-fi perfectly, using the available space well enough that every instrument has room to stretch around the distortion of the guitars.
Thee Oh Sees are obviously capable of writing great songs, such as the ones previously mentioned, but they hinder their own potential by releasing every bit of material that might flow across their collective inspirational streams. Help and The Master’s Bedroom is Worth Spending A Night In are both very strong releases which is to say that the production is somewhat clean and most of the songs are catchy while a couple are really great. Albums like Dog Poison and their new release Warm Slime are much weaker, with the former incorporating bad production and terrible song writing while the latter has good production with poor song writing save two or three great songs.
Warm Slime begins with a thirteen minute track that starts off like a standard Oh Sees song before breaking into an eleven minute pulsation revolving around one melody. The song is a little less than half of the albums running time and it seems to drag the album down right from the start. The other songs that are weaker examples of Thee Oh Sees talent are: “Castiatic Tackle,” “Flash Bats,” and “MT Work.” The songs that are strong and seriously catchy are: “I Was Denied,” “Everything Went Black,” and “Mega-feast.”
When Thee Oh Sees get it right, which happens less often than it should, they really, really get it right. The songs that score are extremely catchy, bouncy, full of life, and shine like the scorching rays of the sun. The songs that succeed are powerfully intoxicating no matter how many time you hear them, and even the feedback guitar solos of some of them grow into appreciation. But, the songs that fail are a terrible reminder that I am going to have to wait another three months for them to release another albums worth of songs that might be great. The songs that Do Not succeed make me want to take all of the songs that Do succeed and put them all on one album and declare: Here! This is what you should have done! Wait for these great songs to accumulate and place all of them on a strong full-length release! But, I guess I will just have to ride their wave the way they me to.
