The Oh Sees - The Masters Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/2757/bgrugbysv4.jpg

I'm not a big fan myself, but a friend who is took me to a southby showcase with them. Turned out to be a backyard kegger a few blocks from where I live, and aside from the crowd providing the best hipster t-shirt contest I've ever seen, one of the bands playing all wore matching powder blue cowboy shirts with Col. Sanders bowties. They were called something like "The Supercool Incredible Dudes" and sucked.

I'm really, really liking this record. Wasn't too into earlier Ohsees stuff, but this is a really good mix of the last record's dreaminess and Coachwhips' bite. Might be my favorite John Dwyer record ever/yet. It certainly shows off his songwriting better than his earlier work, where all the texture overwhelmed it. It's interesting to compare "Block of Ice" to the Intelligence version. What a fantastic piece of dada.

i always thought he had a normal haircut, just turned 90° clockwise

http://flickr.com/photos/85247635@N00/2303274280/

haha

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unaesthetic Pro User says:

john your wig is on backwards

guh, that flickr belongs to the hipsterest of sf hipsters. i think they both work at american apparel

I just found out all of twin peaks is on the cbs website

along with other classic series' such as the love boat(?) and hawaii 5-0(?) and the twilight zone

oh sees!!!

lol @ the weezy track on flying lotus' myspace

Ohsees are John's best band by far since Ziegenbock Kopf.

He's one of the most hilarious people I've ever met. We go way back.

"The master's bedroom is worth spending a night in" is a line that appears in the Mekons' song "Hostile Mascot." But I wonder if both Dwyer and the Mekons got it from somewhere else?

this is the only oh sees thread?

had big hopes for castlemania but it is a major letdown imo

I don't like it, either.

o rly? I've only heard one mpfree they sent around (I Need Seed) but I liked it

what's like thee one best oh sees album to get. I think I asked Pete this on another thread. and still didn't get one. I just have a bunch of scattered tracks. they were great live. I saw em at Siren Fest on Coney Island.

I almost picked the new one up over the weekend, I love the cover, disappointed to hear its a letdown.

i like HELP a lot but am not an expert on their whole catalogue xpost

this is by no means a letdown!

i'm not gonna call it their best record yet (yet), but it easily holds its own with help, sucks blood and the master's bedroom. certainly dwyer's most successful attempt to broaden & play with the core OCsound. don't see how anyone can be less than excited by an album that allows tracks like "stinking cloud" and "corrupted coffin" to exist side by side. beatles! punk! noise! jazz! dying to hear how this stuff stuff translates live.

for the curious, along with above three classics, also check out the live thee hounds of foggy notion, best document of the band's early whisper-psych era.

loving carrion crawler/the dream so far. i could eat this stuff up with a spoon.

The Dream is fantastic!!!!!

his next one, putrifiers 2, is his best yet

I saw them live on Sunday, they played a lot of new stuff and it sounded rad. need to get the record before their show in Brooklyn next month.

Is the show as blistering as I'm imagining it was?

non stop high energy choogling every time.

yeah I thought they were pretty ferocious. then I read a review of the show I was at that said "they've mellowed out a little on this new material" and I thought "how much crazier do they usually play??"

seen em twice and they were great both times.

there are a couple of mellow songs on the new LP, and they are great, but there is also plenty of their trademark manic freakbeat

i don't know ... i feel guilty saying this because m1ke sh0un is a super-bro (not like my bro but a super awesome guy) but after seeing them for the nth time last time in a super packed venue i think they're getting a bit overrated

also come on, 30+ y.o. people do not need to be starting mosh pits

last time = monday night iirc

lol @ my first post

they are just a band imo nothing special masters bedroom is really good tho

after seeing them for the nth time last time in a super packed venue i think they're getting a bit overrated

you mean you'd prefer a smaller crowd?

going to see these guys this week (with ty segall). sorry to hear they are overrated now.

The Dream is fantastic!!!!!

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, August 9, 2012 4:55 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ this

i'm just not sure why the show was so packed - there was a line of like 100 people trying to get in - and the live show itself made me question my excitement about the whole affair

last time i saw them (last year) there wasn't even a line to get in and it wasn't sold out and there was no presale and the cover was like $5 instead of $10. in fact i walked into the bar randomly w/o even realizing they were playing that night.

i was talking to a much older dude (probably 50s) at the show and he was like "well, it's kinda like somebody chewed up the nuggets box and vomited it out all over the b52s"

i don't know, i'm not trying to shit on a band i like, i'm just puzzled by their sudden and inexplicable popularity, there's a lot of great psych garage stuff out there (like ty segall, who is 10x more exciting to me right now)

they're playing sept 22 at the club i'm working in NYC and we are likely going to be sold out by this weekend. the place holds 1500 or so btw.

playing with ty segall to speak to your previous post. k-holes as well.

don't get me wrong, i like thee oh sees (maybe not as much as i enjoy OCS 1 & 2) but ... well, i guess it never sounds useful to call something overrated, right?

i think they're popular because they put on a great fucking party of show. they've been running up and down the west coast doing just that for a several years straight now, and word of mouth has built up in their favor. i've seen them at least 10 times in the last six years, and tbh, i'm starting to get a little jaded myself. that's not because their live act has run out of steam, though. and if anything, their recorded work is only getting better.

still, dwyer isn't in segall's league as a songwriter.

new album is their best yet imho.

their wildest jams, their songiest songs.

i was talking to a much older dude (probably 50s) at the show and he was like "well, it's kinda like somebody chewed up the nuggets box and vomited it out all over the b52s"

sounds like a really insightful character!

interesting that u notice them blowing up now, seems like whatever media-driven hype they have had has been steady but low for years (peaking around master's bedroom)

i notice them blowing up now because like contendo i've seen them live a bunch of times over the past several years, and like i said, the last time it was like no hype, just walked in and there they were (surprise!) and this time it was like a fucking *event* .... i was joking with drummer sh0un about them being "big time" now and he was kind of like "whatever" but other people at the show were saying the pitchfork.tv thing put them on the radar? i dunno.

i thought the live show was good but not quite as good as the last one and i thought the terry malts show a few nights back was even better

i'm not really a live music kind of guy though, you know i like DJ and dance stuff, so maybe i'm just not getting something here

sh0un plays with mason jones of subarachnoid space in a project numinous eye, it is super-killer earthless type endless stoner space jams, highly recommended

don't get me wrong, it was good, but i walked out a few times during the set because the "great fucking party of show" seemed like an overreaction on the crowd's part, like "oh man it's an oh sees show we gotta mosh and do the twist and watusi and jump up and down!!! wheeee!!!"

it was this show : http:// www. youtube.com/watch?v=ayIpmcJBg4E

sorry i sound like a dumbass on this thread, i know

k holes rule 4ever

The Oh Sees are great too.

i dunno, if a bunch of other people are having a great time & you aren't, i figure it's less likely to be an "overreaction on the crowd's part" than, uh, something else

it's because i was thinking about you and it ruined my night

anyway i didn't say i didn't have a good time, just that i didn't understand why they've suddenly blown up in popularity just now after their fourteenth album.

I saw them a month or so ago for the first time. Lots of fun but I think I kinda feel what TLG is getting at... half the crowd seemed to be losing their shit as though they'd never *heard* anything like them before? I thought it might have just been because it was a festival show and it was a chance for the shoegazers to get amongst it for an hour, lol...I didn't reallize that level of craziness is a regular thing for them

It's great to see, but there was a small part of me that felt like the crowd were overselling it just a *touch*. Idk

Which makes me feel like a cynical jerk - I mean, that's what that kind of music's for right? To let lose and let the music do your feeling for you, who am I to say the crowd's overdoing it, lol.

I really hope the pendulum isn't swinging back to where we're all supposed to stand, arms crossed, disinterested at gigs again. I hated that part.

There's room for that too!

Room at the edges of the crowd, sure. ;)

No but it's not a black and white thing. I don't mean ppl shouldn't dig their music. And I don't think I'm really saying that. Or anyone is.

It's just I've seen all kinds of energetic stage bands before that don't get half that crowd reaction, who totally should, you know? It's more a wondering out loud thing - is it the band, is it the crowd, is it me, or is it just a timing thing, or is it just a whole alchemy that can't really be parsed?

I don't think there's anything wrong with wondering out loud about these things. Jeez, y'all are so defensive :)

*shouldn't *openly* dig their music

not that this is the same thing at all, but I felt the same way the last time I saw the Avett Brothers live. I've seen them a bunch of times, but the last time was on the wave of huge popularity and the crowd were almost cultish about screaming and pointing and just going completely bonkers for them. And I was kinda perplexed by it because it hadn't really been quite THAT pronounced with their crowds at prior shows. It was like they were singing at a rally or something

honestly I'm a bit embarrassed that it turned me off seeign the Avetts again - I probably haven't seen them perform live in 3 or 4 years.

When people write about a band playing crazy live shows where the crowd goes nuts, it sort of colors the crowd's perception of how the show is supposed to go. Also yeah the huge popularity is a factor. Whenever they play a song now there are people that have read about them, listened to the album a bunch, people who think "This is MY song!" and start jumping around and going crazy.

there are always people who want to make the show more about them than the band but that's not the band's fault

i remember people going nutso to john's previous group the coachwhips the few times i saw them almost a decade ago...

It's more a wondering out loud thing - is it the band, is it the crowd, is it me, or is it just a timing thing, or is it just a whole alchemy that can't really be parsed?

yeah, it's totally fair to wonder out loud about that kind of stuff. i mean, it's not just that thee oh sees put on a kick-ass dance party show. that's the biggest part of it, but the idea that their show is a "crazy dance party" factors in, too, especially as hype builds. people go because they expect that, and being there, they manufacture it. i could see being a bit alienated by the vibe, especially if you weren't quite feeling it. for me, i'm happy to see the enthusiasm, cuz i've been a fan of dwyer and the band for a long time, and i figure they deserve all the love/hype they can get.

i've been a fan of dwyer (and especially mike s) for a long time too!

the lameness i was talking about where these fratboy punk types who kept wanting to start a mosh pit, in a bar venue, where half the people in the front were old fashioned or collins glasses (dangerous!) and who were pushing girls in the front almost into the drum kit (which they set up in front)

afterward they were like

"hey man, let's get out of here, i think the bouncer recognizes us now!!"

"no WAY maaaan, we made the show AWESOME!!!"

fratboy punk types
yeah there was this kinda thing at the show last night for sure. kinda felt like dudes who would say that black keys are their fave band? [that is my snobby comment for this thread]

i don't know anything about these guys i'm describing ... but acting like you're at a black flag concert? at an oh sees show?

yeah those guys suck, that sounds like a recent black lips show

those guys sound like douches but I don't see how that makes thee oh sees overrated

I guess you're saying they've gotten popular to the point that it attracts a less cool demographic which maybe I could grant. the Webster Hall show some of us talked about on the Ty Segall thread was awesome though, had a lot of energy but I will admit I watched Ty from upstairs, there was probably some of this going on there too

yeah, i mean kurt had to kill himself cuz those guys kept showing up at nirvana gigs, but that's not really the band's fault. i blame society.

lol hmm.
i mean, i thought it was kind of cool, too -- this weirdo high energy psychedelic rock attracting the youngsters when they could've been off seeing girl talk or some such?

that said, i kind of imagine that the venue i saw the show at last night is probably about as big as thee oh sees will ever get? ty segall, i dunno.

no no no, i'm not complaining about a less cool demographic! those dudes were like 5% of the audience, everyone else was just yr average normal go-to-a-midnite-show-on-monday-nite dirtbag hipsters

i'm not really complaining at all, i'm just trying to locate the point at which a popular garage rock band developed a rabid and berserk fanbase

I'm not really sure either, I was shocked Ty Segall could pack Webster Hall. (Thee Oh Sees weren't on that show but they're touring now and I assume riding the same wave of bigger popularity ... don't really know what sparked it though.)

Oh Sees were actually headlining this show last night.

I was curious about that. I'm going a week from Saturday (the show Forks mentioned upthread)

they are def worth seeing, don't get me wrong

but go see THE TERRY MALTS if you have half a chance

though whether i see the oh sees again will depend on choice of venue, their usual SD spot is waaaaay too sweatboxy for me now that i'm an old man

i remember people going nutso to john's previous group the coachwhips the few times i saw them almost a decade ago...

― Trad., Arrrgh (stevie), Friday, September 14, 2012 9:48 AM (2 hours ago)

same with pink & brown, his shtick is decades old.

timeless!

part of the reason i'm gratified even by gross drunk fratboy and/or hipstr dbag attention is that i evangelized so hard for this band in the gap between cool death and master's bedroom, dragged tons of folks to a series of increasingly fantastic (dirt cheap and criminally underattended shows). i guess that's just braggin, but it feels really good to see a band you love finally take off.

zeigenbock kopf

i used to stan for them in the early 00s

lol, saw ZK once (comet in seattle, same place i saw P&B). good times. records are awful hard to take though.

pure schtick

the photos in this video are 100x better than the sounds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6ooQdr-98I

kinda dodgy but i guess if he can get away with it in SF it's cool

so provocative!

Putrifiers II is p fuckin good

so i saw six organs of admittance last night and they rocked pretty hard and keeerazy, crowd was roughly 1/20th the size of oh sees crowd, idgi

"Lupine Dominus" not quite as good as "The Dream" but still killer. Garage-kraut.

xpost - Good band fails to catch buzz, has smaller audience than other good band

right. so question is how and why do bands catch buzz? i don't think that's such a weird question to be asking on ILX.

obviously not an easy question to answer but also maybe not best answered by hand-waving and "these things happen"

to destroy the hype cycle, we must understand the hype cycle

idt the ohsees are even that buzzed, probably has more to do with the fact that you live in california

yeah sorry I can't answer, I can't really point to any one thing and say "here's where they took off." somewhere in the last year these guys and Ty Segall got pretty big (not huge but like, indie big). my feeling is that the nu-garage "scene" took off more than any one act but Ty Segall does seem to be the "leader" of it. I don't really have anything to back that up.

xp six organs are from here too!

, I can't really point to any one thing and say "here's where they took off."

i feel like this happened in the last 12 months and i'm dying to know what it is, not because i want to diminish their success, but hell, just curious

well six organs aren't at all known for being a rockin' party band -- they're usually a hushed psych folk thang. this tour is kind of out of character. and god, i wish they would come play near me!

yeah that's true, i was expecting hush folk ragas and i got earthless-style meltdown, i think if they had billed it as "comets on fire - 1" it would have been closer to the truth

School's back in. All the HS kids that have been reading about The Oh Sees on pitchfork this summer are now in college, with their own places, and want to go out and be at the hip rock n roll show.
I dunno....sort of makes sense.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 14 September 2012 14:25 (2 weeks ago) Permalink

^^ this exactly describes the Ty Segall show I caught in May fwiw

have no idea what thread to post this in but I've been listening to this halasan bazar how to be ever happy release from this year and its really good and listenable and i like it but its nothing really new in terms of sound or whatever I mean it actually sounds extremely dated in a mid 2000s way (a sad thing to type on internet), oh sees fans would like it a lot I think

kind of sounds like if all those those mid 2000s reverb psych garage dopplegangers tried to make every one of their tracks sound like it was recorded for that friendsound album

mentioning friendsound got me hooked. that sounds cool.

I liked the first couple of releases these dudes did but after that haven't been able to hang