Castle Face – 004
Thursday, December 26, 2019
Thee Oh Sees & Ty Segall - (2009) Split 7''
Thee Oh Sees - Singles Collection Volume 3
Castle Face – 030
One-offs, covers, and rarities from 2011-2013 by Thee Oh Sees collected
in one place for your fancies. The brightest most metallic chrome
printing available to man, with three color original artwork by Shalo P.
1. Ugly Man
2. Girls Who Smile
3. Crushed Grass (Demo)
4. Burning Spear (Sonic Youth Cover)
5. What You Need
6. FBI2 (Mr. Quintron Cover)
7. Wait, Let's Go
8. Always Flying
9. Devil Again
10. Block of Ice Live (At SF Eagle)
11. Destroyed Fortress/No Spell Live (At Death By Audio)
2. Girls Who Smile
3. Crushed Grass (Demo)
4. Burning Spear (Sonic Youth Cover)
5. What You Need
6. FBI2 (Mr. Quintron Cover)
7. Wait, Let's Go
8. Always Flying
9. Devil Again
10. Block of Ice Live (At SF Eagle)
11. Destroyed Fortress/No Spell Live (At Death By Audio)
Thee Oh Sees - (2012) Putrifiers II Demos
Castle Face – none
This is a collection of twenty Putrifiers II demos released as a standalone album for digital music retailers.
Thee Oh Sees - (2012) Putrifiers II
In The Red Recordings – 235
Not sure what else to say really at this point about John Dwyer and Thee
Oh Sees crew. We've loved pretty much everything they've put out, we've
made at least one an aQ Record Of The Week, heck, Andee even put out
the very first Thee Oh Sees record (back when it was just Dwyer and was a
whole 'nother beast simply called OCS), but as with every record,
Putrifiers II has much to recommend it, and has a lot of cool stuff
going on, that definitely makes it super distinctive, and as seems to be
the case, with every new record, we find ourselves proclaiming it our
favorite, and looks like that trend is going to continue, cuz Putrifiers
II is so great. All it should take is a minute or two of opener "Wax
Face", with its spidery snake charmer melody that leads directly into
some seriously fuzzed out garage rock pound, super melodic, with
swoonsome falsetto vox, woozy basslines, and of course hooks galore. The
song gets all droney, and psychedelic, with some killer leads, and a
killer stretch midsong where the vocals harmonize with the guitar, we're
tempted to say it's the raddest jam yet, but that would be foolish with
nine more songs to go! (That's right, this is a ten song "ep", more
like a full-length really.)
The one thing that Putrefiers does display, is a definite sixties pop vibe, from the fuzzy almost Elephant Six sound of "Hang A Picture", to some of the other tracks that take the Beach Boys and run them through an old beat up distortion pedal and douse them liberally with sweat and blood, taking the hooky dreaminess and harnessing it to some serious psych fuzz bliss. The whole record is brimming with amazing songs and sounds, "So Nice" is a gorgeous bit of buzz drenched balladry, with some swirling strings and weird processed vox, "Cloud #1" is some super abstract minimal drone music, that reminds us of Amps For Christ, "Flood's New Light" is total girl group worship, while the title track is a gorgeously catchy reverb heavy garage pop dirge that is WAY catchier than it has any right to be.
The final four songs definitely make up a sort of orchestral garage pop suite, the woozy shimmery ballroom vibe of "Will We Be Scared", the fuzzed out chug and churn of "Lupine Dominus", which has verses that would be right at home in a much dreamier, less tripped out and psychedelic pop song, "Goodnight Baby" is another string driven bit of jangly power pop, and finally, "Wicked Park" is lush and lovely baroque popsmithery, that sounds like it could be a cover of The Zombies, or even some old Bee Gees B side.
The one thing that Putrefiers does display, is a definite sixties pop vibe, from the fuzzy almost Elephant Six sound of "Hang A Picture", to some of the other tracks that take the Beach Boys and run them through an old beat up distortion pedal and douse them liberally with sweat and blood, taking the hooky dreaminess and harnessing it to some serious psych fuzz bliss. The whole record is brimming with amazing songs and sounds, "So Nice" is a gorgeous bit of buzz drenched balladry, with some swirling strings and weird processed vox, "Cloud #1" is some super abstract minimal drone music, that reminds us of Amps For Christ, "Flood's New Light" is total girl group worship, while the title track is a gorgeously catchy reverb heavy garage pop dirge that is WAY catchier than it has any right to be.
The final four songs definitely make up a sort of orchestral garage pop suite, the woozy shimmery ballroom vibe of "Will We Be Scared", the fuzzed out chug and churn of "Lupine Dominus", which has verses that would be right at home in a much dreamier, less tripped out and psychedelic pop song, "Goodnight Baby" is another string driven bit of jangly power pop, and finally, "Wicked Park" is lush and lovely baroque popsmithery, that sounds like it could be a cover of The Zombies, or even some old Bee Gees B side.
Thee Oh Sees - (2013) Moon Sick
Castle Face – 022
Culled from the same sessions as the Floating Coffin LP and featuring guest spots from Lars of the Intelligence, K Dylan Edrich of The Mallard and Kelley Stoltz, as well as the full and finely honed weight of the touring band, Moon Sick is a similarly synth-drenched, psychotic-then-sweet companion piece to 'Floating Coffin'.
Thee Oh Sees - (2012) Live at Death By Audio
Famous Class – none
This is the bonus live album that came with the "Live at Death by Audio 2012" flexi disk pack
We’re is beyond excited to present “Live at Death By Audio 2012” a playable flexi record book featuring kick ass tracks from Jeff The Brotherhood, Tim Harrington as OBFS, Black Pus, Ruins Alone, Future Islands, Eric Copeland, Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, Metz, Grooms, and A Place To Bury Strangers, all recorded LIVE in 2012 at the Brooklyn venue Death By Audio. This puppy comes packed with artwork by Brian Chippendale, Dave Singley, Perry Lubin, Matt Leins, Ron Rege Jr, Jon Vermilyea, and Brendan Nakahara!
To top it all off we’re including a full download of the whole comp PLUS the entire live set from Thee Oh Sees and Ty Segall!!
These might not last long, so don’t wait!
Thee Oh Sees - (2016) Fortress 7''
Castle Face – 068
Culled from the same sessions as the mighty Mutilator Defeated At Last,
here we have a heavy little bit of wax for you to bite into. Fortress is
backed by Man In A Suitcase, an old live favorite. 8 armed, kinetic,
and racing ahead into distinctly dreamy and proggy territory, these two
tracks are cut from nightmare cloth as only JPD and co. can weave, with
an emphasis on the tossing and turning. A must have addendum to
Mutilator, and a lovely appetizer to whet your appetite for another full
length later this year.
Thee Oh Sees - (2013) Floating Coffin
Castle Face – 018
A brandy-new full length from the tour sharpened Oh Sees, featuring the louder, grungier, synth-meltier sound they've been bludgeoning audiences with lately. Featuring terrifying artwork from Matt Brinkman and John Dwyer.
Thee Oh Sees - (2014) Drop
Castle Face – 033
Our lad John P. Dwyer has been lancing eardrums with Thee Oh Sees in an
ever-escalating flurry of records for the past six years. Since the
release of The Master’s Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In announced a
new loud era (and excepting a few momentary detours into home-baked
territory—Dog Poison and Castlemania, for example), Dwyer and company
have pummeled a bit harder each time out, cementing their reputation as a
live force to be reckoned with and leaving legions sweaty and bruised
in the process. Late last year, after years of relentlessly touring the
world, the word got out… Dwyer’s moving to Los Angeles (fear not, still
California!) and Thee Oh Sees are taking a much-needed hiatus with a
shifting of gears ahead and a new album on the way. This is that album.
Drop was recorded in a banana-ripening warehouse (no joke) with hair-farming studio warlock Chris Woodhouse playing drums; it’s also graced with the presence of talented gurus Mikal Cronin, Greer McGettrick and Casafis adding horns and vocals. The result pushes the familiar polarities of the group farther outward than ever before. Opener “Penetrating Eye” might be the heaviest Oh Sees song yet, “Transparent World” and “Put Some Reverb On My Brother” foam with seasick fuzz, and yet the ballads, like the harpsichorded “King’s Nose” and the lush and stately closer “The Lens,” extend their oeuvre into mellotronic, far-out pop with delicacy and grace.
Drop was recorded in a banana-ripening warehouse (no joke) with hair-farming studio warlock Chris Woodhouse playing drums; it’s also graced with the presence of talented gurus Mikal Cronin, Greer McGettrick and Casafis adding horns and vocals. The result pushes the familiar polarities of the group farther outward than ever before. Opener “Penetrating Eye” might be the heaviest Oh Sees song yet, “Transparent World” and “Put Some Reverb On My Brother” foam with seasick fuzz, and yet the ballads, like the harpsichorded “King’s Nose” and the lush and stately closer “The Lens,” extend their oeuvre into mellotronic, far-out pop with delicacy and grace.
Thee Oh Sees - Daytrotter Studio 12-08-2009
Daytrotter – none
Johnny Dwyer, the lead singer of the Bay Area psych/garage rock outfit Thee Oh Sees, has a naturally gifted voice for sputtering and spattering, reverb-clogged and fuzzed rock and roll music. It's so suited for the style, in fact, that we will from here on out, just refer to it as The Voice, with two instances of capitalization and insisting that it is a proper name. He has a sharp and high-pitched whine at times that just sounds like a young misfit trying to find his place in the world, thrashing around in its own skin and outsider world until something finally touches down. It sounds as if its echoing back to us from the 1960s, out of those cheap microphones, the voice of a man whose time is spent slicking back his pompadour, who's into all of that British Invasion stuff, who's trolling around the Haight-Ashbury corridor looking for heroes, who's reading subversive novels by all of the brilliant, druggie fiction writers at the time and who's still been hanging out at the hamburger stands at night, prowling the loop for pretty girls to try and romance. Thee Oh Sees are a band that incorporates all of the subtle references to rebellious, youthful rock and roll from generations back, boy-girl harmonies a la the Mamas and the Papas, as well as a knack for the ringing tunefulness of Buddy Holly - all of it touched with golden tones and then mussed up enough to not be too damned clear and straight-arrow. It's an angular and frazzled stab at meeting all of the different corners of early days rock and roll music - when it was called by adults and kids, sort of with a sneer and sort of with an undeniable pride, "rock 'n roll music" - together into some wildly uninhibited spin-out. Dwyer inspires paranoia with his skuzzy vocals and at times makes you want to spit and others makes you want to grab a partner around the waist and just twirl around and around, in your socks, on a wooden dance floor. "Go Meet The Seed" is one of those dance on the wooden floor numbers and "Destroyed Fortress Reappears" is one of those spitting numbers that just makes you lower the tops of your eyelids and begin to get suspicious of everything, even that which you think you're familiar and friendly with. It doesn't really matter which mood Thee Oh Sees twist you into, as it all moves and it all gets the pores working overtime, soaking our clothing with dread and joy.
Thee Oh Sees - (2011) Carrion Crawler / The Dream EP
In The Red Recordings – 222
Thee Oh Sees chase the home-brewed symphonies of Castlemania with the
scrappy, high-wire hooks of Carrion Crawler / The Dream. Originally
envisioned as two EPs, it was cut live to tape in less than a week at
Chris Woodhouse’s Sacramento studio in June, reflecting the
battering-ram bent of the band’s live show better than any bootleg ever
could. “As I’m sure most would agree,” explains Dwyer, “Castlemania was
more of a vocal tirade. This one’s meant to pummel and throb.” That it
does, whether one blasts the slow, speaker-bruising build of “The
Dream,” the sunburnt organs and dovetailing guitars of “Crack in Your
Eye” or the interstellar instrumental “Chem-Farmer,” a perfect example
of what happens when one takes a well-oiled machine—a gang of rabid road
warriors, really—and adds a second, groove-locked drum set to the mix.
To listen is to realize that Dwyer’s music is as manic as the
underground comic inclinations of his artwork; colorful and confusing in
a way that’s more than welcome. It’s downright refreshing, like a slap
in the face at 5:00 in the morning. Or, as Dwyer puts it, “You have to
leave a mark somehow.
Thee Oh Sees - (2016) An Odd Entrances
Castle Face – 085
From the same misty mountain top tape spool as August’s “A Weird Exits”,
Thee Oh Sees bring us a companion LP titled “An Odd Entrances". Delving
more towards the contemplative side than the face-skinning aspects of
"A Weird Exits", "An Odd Entrances" is a cosmic exercise en plein aire
with Dwyer and co double drum shuffling, lounging with cellos, following
a flute around the groove, and spooling a few Grimm-dark lullabies
along the way. Lurking in the grass are a snake or two, like the
celestial facing instrumental buzz of Unwrap The Fiend Pt. 1…but for the
most part this is a relatively hushed affair, a morning rather than
evening listen perhaps.
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Thee Oh Sees - (2016) A Weird Exits
Castle Face – 080
Emerging from the distant light we have a new double LP from our own
John Dwyer's Thee Oh Sees. The first studio recordings to capture the
muscular rhythm section of double drummers Ryan Moutinho and Dan Rincon
with ringer bassist Tim Hellman cracking spines, the groove and bludgeon
we've come to expect from the live shows is captured seamlessly here -
they go from zero to head-splitter from the get-go and on the rare
occasions they do let up on the gas a bit, we're treated to some
locked-in hypnotizers, too. The guitar sounds more colossal and ethereal
at the same time, riding roughshod over the vacuum sealed rhythm
section, spiraling skywards, and diving into the emerald depths so quick
your guts tingle. Synths, strings and smoke soaked things crawl behind
the scenes to make an extra far-out party platter. Served on 45 rpm
plates for most excellent listening quality. With amazing visuals and a
side D etching by air-brush-van-art maestro Robert Beatty…and packed in
vape-proof goat skin. It’s a beast and it can be yours should you choose
come August 12th.....come on now.
Oh Sees - (2017) Orc
Castle Face – 093
John Dwyer has once again changed the name of his long-running band that
has been variously known as Thee Oh Sees, OCS, and more. They are now
Oh Sees. Along with the new name, Oh Sees have also announced a new
record called Orc; it’s out August 25 via Dwyer’s Castle Face Records.
The album follows Thee Oh Sees’ pair of 2016 releases, A Weird Exits and
An Odd Entrances, as well as Bunker Funk—Dwyer’s 2017 LP as Damaged
Bug. Below, listen to a new Oh Sees song, “The Static God,” and scroll
down for the Orc tracklist, artwork, and Oh Sees’ upcoming tour dates.
Oh Sees - (2017) Memory of a Cut Off Head 2x12''
Castle Face – 100
Just days after Thee Oh Sees released their first album under their new
moniker, Oh Sees, frontman John Dwyer announced his group’s second name
change of the summer. They’re back to being just OCS, as they were known
when hardly anybody was listening, and unlike their last rebrand, this
one marks a genuine change of course. Pivoting away from the numbing
garage rock pummel of their recent albums, which had a two-drummer
lineup, their upcoming record, Memory of a Cut Off Head, returns Dwyer
and company to the mellow, quilted folk of their earliest releases.
On the album’s opening, title track, Dwyer sounds every bit as at ease as he did over the wild Richter-scale energy of his recent records. It helps that his former accompanist Brigid Dawson has rejoined him as a duet partner. She’s a calming presence; her friendly voice accentuates the sweetness of this folk song. With its prim, string-cushioned arrangement and callbacks to the English folk of the 1960s, “Memory of a Cut Off Head” is lusher and lovelier than anything from the last incarnation of Oh Sees, almost uncannily graceful. Yet Dwyer can’t resist a little mischief: As if to keep his string section on its toes, he juices the chorus with a rapid tempo spike, and for a few moments, the orderly tune threatens to spin off its rails. It’s a prankster’s power play—a reminder that Dwyer created this gorgeous little tableau, and he can destroy it just as easily.
On the album’s opening, title track, Dwyer sounds every bit as at ease as he did over the wild Richter-scale energy of his recent records. It helps that his former accompanist Brigid Dawson has rejoined him as a duet partner. She’s a calming presence; her friendly voice accentuates the sweetness of this folk song. With its prim, string-cushioned arrangement and callbacks to the English folk of the 1960s, “Memory of a Cut Off Head” is lusher and lovelier than anything from the last incarnation of Oh Sees, almost uncannily graceful. Yet Dwyer can’t resist a little mischief: As if to keep his string section on its toes, he juices the chorus with a rapid tempo spike, and for a few moments, the orderly tune threatens to spin off its rails. It’s a prankster’s power play—a reminder that Dwyer created this gorgeous little tableau, and he can destroy it just as easily.
Oh Sees - (2019) Face Stabber CD
Castle Face – 116
Hey there, human kids,
Lift your face out of the feed trough and pluck that feculence from your ears. Hark! A sonar blip from beneath the pile of bodies. Boop, blip ughhh….
People churning like a boiling swamp. Man, this din is nauseating.
The screen flickers for the first time this year with a transmission from two months in the future:
“the internet has deemed guitar music dead and you are free to do whatever the fuck you like ….long live the new flesh!”
This album is Soundcloud hip-hop reversed, a far flung nemesis of contemporary country and flaccid algorithmic pop-barf.
No songs about money or love are floating in the ether.
Just memories, echoes, foggy blurs
Blip-blop goes the scope
Heavy funk
Dystopia-punk canons
Lonnnnng jams
Bloated solos dribbling down your caved-in chest.
Human cattle like a beef avalanche, right on your burned out face hole.
Spider legs fuzz crawling in your brain.
Lots of curse words for your mom.
You’ve gotten the over-population blues, so let’s have some art for art’s sake.
What else are you gonna do?
Stare at the sky? Please…
50 carbon copies of you look back at you as you walk the streets.
Take a breath, you’re going to need it.
Take drugs, you’re going to need those just to stand in line at the air and water reclamation center soon enough.
There’s no fruit, buddy.
You’re at the bleak-peak.
They will squeeze you till you’re all squeezed out.
For fans of fried prog burn out, squished old-school drool, double drums, lead weight bass, wizard keys (now with poison), old-ass guitar and horrible words with daft meanings.
If you don’t like it then don’t listen, bub.
Back to the comments section with you!
Easy
Over and out
Oh Sees - (2017) Dead Medic 12''
Castle Face – 099
THIS 12" SINGLE WAS CULLED FROM SOME LONGER JAMS DURING THE ORC SESSIONS
(ONE OF WHICH IS A COVER OF A MOST EXCELLENT OLD SCHOOL SWEDISH BAND
CALLED "TRÄD GRÄS OCH STENAR") AND WILL ONLY BE AVAILABLE THRU OUR
WEBSITE.
THIS ONE IS FOR OUR FANS, ITS A YEAR END HOLIDAY CELEBRATION SLAB OF WAX MEANT TO PUT AWAY OUR OLD 2017 EGO AND PUSH FORWARD INTO 2018, A YEAR WHERE WE ALL DO BETTER BY OURSELVES, BY OTHERS AND BY THE WORLD.
ITS BEEN A HEAVY ONE, NO DOUBT, BUT THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE AND STRENGTH. SO SIT BACK AND FEAR NOT, YOU WON'T HAVE TO GET UP AGAIN TO FLIP IT FOR LIKE...11 MINUTES.
TAKE A BREATH AND LOOK FORWARD.
THIS ONE IS FOR OUR FANS, ITS A YEAR END HOLIDAY CELEBRATION SLAB OF WAX MEANT TO PUT AWAY OUR OLD 2017 EGO AND PUSH FORWARD INTO 2018, A YEAR WHERE WE ALL DO BETTER BY OURSELVES, BY OTHERS AND BY THE WORLD.
ITS BEEN A HEAVY ONE, NO DOUBT, BUT THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE AND STRENGTH. SO SIT BACK AND FEAR NOT, YOU WON'T HAVE TO GET UP AGAIN TO FLIP IT FOR LIKE...11 MINUTES.
TAKE A BREATH AND LOOK FORWARD.
OCS - (2018) Live In San Francisco 2xLP
Rock Is Hell Records – 079
Recorded at The Chapel, San Francisco, CA in December 2017.
A1 Memory Of A Cut Off Head
A2 Cannibal Planet
A3 Remote Viewer
A4 The Baron Sleeps And Dreams
B1 On & On Corridor
B2 Neighbor To None
B3 The Fool
B4 The Chopping Block
C1 Time Tuner
C2 Lift A Finger
C3 Dreadful Heart
C4 Iceberg
D Block Of Ice
Nurse With Wound - (2018) Changez Les Blockeurs LP
United Dirter – 138
Nurse With Wound rework The New Blocakders rare AF 1982 début, ‘Changez
Les Blockeurs’ in a mechanically reclaimed reflux of the OG, as gruesome
as McNuggets, and just as tasty.
For the uninitiated (or sensible-minded) listeners who are unfamiliar with The New Blockaders: they’re one of the cheeriest acts to ever emerge from Newcastle-upon-Tyne; a pair of siblings responsible for some of post-industrial/noise and avant-garde music’s greatest oddities, ranging from a severe collab with an early iteration of Coil, to pioneering cut-up recordings with Mixed Band Philanthropist, and even later recording for Prurient’s Hospital Productions. They’re basically certified noise music heroes (anti-heroes?).
As ever, NWW’as Steven Stapelton was way ahead of the curve in 1982, and the first person to pick up TNB’s début LP, which he subsequently distributed via United Dairies. 36 years later, he’s returned to that slab, seemingly with a hatchet and some steam-powered Victorian loom, to extract its guts and weave them into a sound which physically lives up the record’s title; Changez Les Blockeurs.
Across two sides, he hacks, splices and hacks up the OG in a tirade of frayed rhythmic complexity and decimated racket, at times sounding like a Saturday afternoon’s worth of striped geordies fed into a massive sausage grinder.
As grim as your life.
For the uninitiated (or sensible-minded) listeners who are unfamiliar with The New Blockaders: they’re one of the cheeriest acts to ever emerge from Newcastle-upon-Tyne; a pair of siblings responsible for some of post-industrial/noise and avant-garde music’s greatest oddities, ranging from a severe collab with an early iteration of Coil, to pioneering cut-up recordings with Mixed Band Philanthropist, and even later recording for Prurient’s Hospital Productions. They’re basically certified noise music heroes (anti-heroes?).
As ever, NWW’as Steven Stapelton was way ahead of the curve in 1982, and the first person to pick up TNB’s début LP, which he subsequently distributed via United Dairies. 36 years later, he’s returned to that slab, seemingly with a hatchet and some steam-powered Victorian loom, to extract its guts and weave them into a sound which physically lives up the record’s title; Changez Les Blockeurs.
Across two sides, he hacks, splices and hacks up the OG in a tirade of frayed rhythmic complexity and decimated racket, at times sounding like a Saturday afternoon’s worth of striped geordies fed into a massive sausage grinder.
As grim as your life.
VA - (2019) The Silent Continuity Of All Existence With Which The Victim Is Now One CD
Prose Nagge – none FLAC
Tracklist:
1 –Hymenal Opening Huffy Stalker
2 –Unexamine Indiscriminate Attack On The General Public
3 –Wince Superficial Criminality
4 –Heat Signature Flashbang Tossed Inside Cockpit
5 –Gazourmah Guard Dog Of The Stash Spot
6 –Thot Gor Heretics Mouth
7 –Mania Experience And Management Of Chaos
8 –Body Carve Firepoker
9 –Kiran Arora Slaking A Thirst
10 –Presage Leather Beacon
11 –Shredded Nerve Twist Of Fate
12 –Heinz Hopf Råkurr I Brunns
13 –Kakerlak Intermittent Continuity
14 –Phocomelus Mean Drunk
1 –Hymenal Opening Huffy Stalker
2 –Unexamine Indiscriminate Attack On The General Public
3 –Wince Superficial Criminality
4 –Heat Signature Flashbang Tossed Inside Cockpit
5 –Gazourmah Guard Dog Of The Stash Spot
6 –Thot Gor Heretics Mouth
7 –Mania Experience And Management Of Chaos
8 –Body Carve Firepoker
9 –Kiran Arora Slaking A Thirst
10 –Presage Leather Beacon
11 –Shredded Nerve Twist Of Fate
12 –Heinz Hopf Råkurr I Brunns
13 –Kakerlak Intermittent Continuity
14 –Phocomelus Mean Drunk
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
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