█████████████████████████████████████████████████ ░ ▓▓ ██████████████████████████████████████████████████ ░ ▒▒ ████████████████████████████████████████████ ░ ▒▓ █████████████████████████████████████████ ░▒ ▒▒ ░██████████████████████████████████████▒▒▓ ▓ ███████████████████████████████████████ ▒░ ████████████████████████████████████ █ ██████████████████████████████████▒ █ ▓█████████████████████████████████ ▒ ████████████████████████████████ ▒▒ ▒██████████████████████████████ ▒█ █████████████████████████████ ▒█▓▒ ████████████████████████████ ░██░ ░█░ ███████████████████████████ ████ ██████████████████████████▒ ▓████ █████████████████████████▓ █████░ █████████████████████████▓ ██████░ ████████████████████████▓ ███████ ███████████████████████▓ ████████▒ ▓█████████████████████▒ ▓█████████ ████████████████████░ ░███████████▒ █████████░██████▓░ ▒█████████████▒ ██████▓ ██ ▒▒█████████████████▒ ░█████ ███ ░ ░▒████████████████████▒▒ ██████▒░█▒██░█ █▒ ████████████████████████▒ ████████▒ ▓███ ████▓█ ██████████████████████░ ███████ ▒ ░██░ █ ███ ▒███████████████████████ ███████░ ▒ ███ █ ░██████████████████████████ ████████▓ ▓█░ ▒██████████████████████████████▒ ████████░▒██▒██████████████████████████████████ ████████████ █████████████████████████████████▒ ████████████ ████████████████████████████████ ████████████▓░██████████████████████████████▒ ████ ██ ██ █████████████ █████████████████████████████▒ ██ ██ ██████████████████████████████████████████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ████ █████████████████████████████████████████ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ███████████████████████████████████████▓ ██████ ██ ██ ██ ██████ ██████████████████████████████████████ ██ ██ ██ ██ █ ██ ████████████████████████████████████▒ █████ ██████ ██████ ███ █████ ███████████████████████████████████▒ ▒ █████████████████████████████████ ▒▒░ ELITE RECORD PLAYERS ███████████████████████████████ ▒▒ █████████████████████████████ ▒ ▒▒ ██████████████████████████▓ ▒▒▒ ████████████████████████ ░▒ ████████████████████ ░▒▓▒ ░ ███████████████▒▒░░▒░█░ ░ ┌────────┐ ────┤ Info ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └────────┘ Artist | Thee Oh Sees Title | A Weird Exits Genre | Psychedelic Rock Format | Album Source | CDDA Time | 39:30 Label | Castle Face Store | 2016 Catalog | CF-080 Rip | 2016 Bitrate | 268 kbps Size | 78.90 MB Freq | 44.1 kHz Encoder | Lame 3.98.4 ┌────────┐ ────┤ Tracks ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └────────┘ 01. Dead Man's Gun 3:28 02. Ticklish Warrior 3:06 03. Jammed Entrance 5:21 04. Plastic Plant 5:40 05. Gelatinous Cube 3:27 06. Unwrap The Fiend Pt. 2 4:27 07. Crawl Out Into The Fall Out 7:50 08. The Axis 6:11 ┌────────┐ ────┤ Notes ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └────────┘ One of the cornerstone bands of the post-millennium garage/psych resurgence, Thee Oh Sees represent a purposefully chaotic fusion of guitar and synth noise, strong and elemental melodies, and addled but focused attacks. Thee Oh Sees were founded by guitarist John Dwyer; originally from Providence, Rhode Island, after relocating to California in the late 90s, Dwyer became active on the San Francisco indie scene, working with several bands, including the Coachwhips, Pink & Brown, Yikes, Up Its Alive, and Swords & Sandals, among others. Dwyer formed OCS (which is an acronym for Orinoka Crash Suite, Orange County Sound, or whatever Dwyer decided it was on any given day) initially as a vehicle for the experimental instrumentals he was producing in his home studio. In time, OCS morphed into an actual band, and worked under the usual flurry of names, most notably as the Oh Sees or the Ohsees, and eventually as Thee Oh Sees, featuring Dwyer on guitar and vocals, Brigid Dawson on vocals and tambourine, Petey Dammit (sometimes listed as Petey Dammit!) on bass, and Mike Shoun on drums. Hot on the heels of a live album that captured them in all their sweaty glory, thee ever-prolific Oh Sees returned in mid-2016 with their 16th album, "Weird Exits". As on 2015's "Mutilator Defeated" at Last, the band's leader/guitarist John Dwyer's incredibly powerful and blown-out guitar sound and ragged howl of a voice lead the way, with bassist Tim Hellman and dual drummers Ryan Moutinho and Dan Rincon from the group's live incarnation chasing valiantly behind in his wake. Dwyer's guitar sound throughout the album is massive, sure to thrill lovers of tones that melt faces and peel paint. Whether paired with galloping rhythms, like on the opening "Dead Man's Gun", tied to battering midtempo sludge fests, like on the merciless "Ticklish Warrior" or holding on for dear life as the band shoots out of gravity on their way to a collision course with the sun on "Gelatinous Cube", his sound and playing are inspirational. He truly holds nothing back on the guitar-heavy tracks that make up most of the album and show the band playing with the same amount of laser-sharp focus and dynamic tension that they did on Mutilator. That's about half the album, the rest is something a little different. Using the dual drummers to their fullest, Dwyer takes the opportunity to stretch out and jam. The synth-twiddling, elongated, Krautrock-leaning "Jammed Entrance" and the slow rolling "Unwrap the Fiend, Pt. 2" have some nice subtle playing, complementary drum fills, and almost restrained guitar playing. The two tracks that end the album go even further away from the noise blasts that kick things off. "Crawl Out From The Fall Out" features droning cellos, spooky synths, shards of outer space guitar, and a tempo best suited for staring dazedly into the middle distance as candles burn down to a pool of hot wax. Add in Dwyer's menacing near-whispered vocals and it's a slow burn psych jam worthy of lasting the almost-eight-minutes it takes for it to fully unwind. "The Axis" charts a similar course, but relies more on churchy organs, adds in vocals by former Oh Sees member Brigid Dawson, and ends in a tape-shredding display of guitar insanity that sounds like Dwyer's using the amp Neil Young broke on "Like A Hurricane", then breaking it even more definitively. It's an impressive feat of guitar destruction and caps off another brilliant Oh Sees album in fine style. With "Mutilator", and now this album, the band is firing on all cylinders and then some, making psych-prog-metal-punk jams for the ages. ┌────────┐ ────┤ Group ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └────────┘