“Part-fuzz, part-adrenaline, all garage-rock fury, “I Come From The Mountain” sounds like a swirling, rapid-fire rocker that emerged suddenly from Dwyer’s Bay Area dungeon…”
“Thee Oh Sees’ music video for “Minotaur” featured some bloodshed, but it was otherwise a pretty lighthearted video…”
“If there’s any band that can get away with a video that grotesquely depicts — and arguably celebrates — murder, it’s San Francisco’s Thee Oh Sees, whose lacerating fuzz-rock evokes all sorts of primal urges…”
“Coffin is an easy, spring-appropriate listen. Something about Thee Oh Sees always sighs warm air. This album does that, too, but with hurriedly-spiked punch heavy on its breath. Drink up, Johnny.”
“…It also illustrates that there’s no pre-established blueprint for an Oh Sees album, which means there’s no telling what’s next. As usual, that’s an exciting prospect…”
“The band played a forceful bunch of songs — at least judging by the four final ones that I saw — that drove the tightly focused, crowd-surfing fans to adrenaline levels unimaginable the morning earlier…”
“But one aspect that’s often overlooked is that Thee Oh Sees mastermind John Dwyer plays a mean flute…”
“…all gorgeous harmonies and palette-cleansing strings, demonstrates a band in charge of its own weird, fuzzy destiny…”
“Frontman John Dwyer licked the mic and wielded his guitar like a bazooka, then he spotted fellow Bay Area groovie Ty Segall in the front row of the VIP section and demanded he join the band onstage…”
“The dominant mode is galloping, double-drummered, overdriven but super-tight ramalam…”
“Thee Oh Sees are set to release Floating Coffin, the follow-up to 2012′s Putrifiers II, next week…”
New album from Thee Oh Sees, Floating Coffin, streaming on Pitchfork Advance.
“Relentless, powerful, tight: This San Francisco psychedelic guitar band Thee showcases its wild, spastic rock on “Floating Coffin,” its seventh record…”
“Thee Oh Sees have given us a video for their song “Minotaur,” a track off of this year’s Floating Coffin. The video, directed by band members John Dwyer and John Harlow, follows a day in the life of a mythical minotaur. This beast is as ordinary as the rest of us: he watches TV, punches in for work and tries to impress a lady. But, it’s not all fun and games for the poor beast, as two knights plot his demise. See the battle ensue below…”
“Thee Oh Sees are set to release new LP Floating Coffins later this month and have given visuals to its first single “Minotaur.”…”
“”I don’t want to answer to anybody at all.” That philosophy has seen Thee Oh Sees’ John Dwyer through nearly two decades in San Francisco’s garage rock scene, a stint that has included 13 bands, countless records (35 Oh Sees releases alone) and a career trajectory that’s brought the 38-year-old to his best-known band’s 12th and most unconfined full-length, Floating Coffin.”
“They had more energy than should be allowed on the last day of SX, and the audience guzzled down every last drop. Bass player Petey Dammit slung his instrument (what looked to be a Fender Bass VI for you gear nerds out there) high, and laid down fat, pounding lines that were as meaty as they were hypnotic…”
“And while his band riffed for passers-by on Red River Street, actually seeing Dwyer through the mini-mob was tricky. For a better view, a dozen faithful climbed up onto the roof of his band’s Ford E-350 tour van, parked in an adjacent alleyway. On the patio, two peroxide blondes perched atop an ATM like punk gargoyles.”
“That happy medium is best exemplified by “Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster”, a hit of swirling psych-pop aimed at the pleasure centers of that faction of Flaming Lips fans who wish Wayne Coyne and crew would ditch the concept albums and confetti-covered theatrics and get back to the feel-good fuzz-rock of Transmissions From the Satellite Heart…”
“Soul singers like Bobby Womack have spent careers confessing weaknesses, and let’s not get started on singer-songwriters. Indie rock can show up the phoniness of the whole major-label hustle by setting out modest goals and nailing the shit out of them. That’s what Thee Oh Sees do on “Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster,”…”
“Today they’ve released the closing track from the forthcoming LP, “Minotaur,” which updates the band’s usual out-there fuzz-punk frenzy into a clearer mid-tempo garage-psych ballad. John Dwyer’s vocals sit front-and-center amidst a pervasive sense of darkness…”
“Opening with mournful but warm strings, the track soon graduates to an off-kilter upbeat swoon as John Dwyer sings of fading dreams backed by the gushing ahhs of Brigid Dawson…”
“Plucking prolific musicians from both sides of the U.S./Canada border, the festival has announced it’s bringing Thee Oh Sees leader John Dwyer and homegrown electronic experimentalist Tim Hecker in as curators…”
“On the heels of Putrifiers II, prolific Bay Area garage weirdos Thee Oh Sees have announced their next LP. Floating Coffin is out April 16 via John Dwyer’s Castle Face Records, and yes, that terrifying kaleidoscopic strawberry face up there is the album cover…”
“Looking to keep one of music’s best winning streaks going, John Dywer’s outfit will release their next LP Floating Coffin on April 16. That kaleidoscope image of eyes, fangs, and strawberries above is the album cover — always the Oh Sees’ strong suit — and the set appropriately features a track called “Strawberries 1 + 2…”
“The studio output and relentless touring schedule of Thee Oh Sees is nothing short of superhuman. Despite releasing the album Putrifiers II this September, the band are already gearing up to hit the studio to record a follow-up before the year is through…”
“Psych noise careening off of a scuzz-splattered garage floor, what’s not to like?”
“…it whirrs and shakes like a horse ready to burst through a starting gate, and once Thee Oh Sees launch into a motorik, Can-on-speed groove, “Lupine Dominus” certainly feels like some kind of race…”
CMJ’s Best of 2012 Mixtape features Thee Oh Sees single, “Floods New Light”, from their 2012 LP, Putrifiers II.
“Ex-Coachwhips singer-guitarist John Dwyer keeps his band running like a ’57 Chevy hooked up to a morphine drip…”
