2011! PART ONE

some Oh Sees stuff in my flat L>R Total Control split, Castlemania, Singles 2LP, Carrion Crawler/The Dream EP

Hi! The Best Band of 2011 award in my flat must go to Thee Oh Sees, for releasing a whopping ten sides of vinyl that were all excellent. John Dwyer has much past excellence form with Pink & Brown & Yikes & Coachwhips & MANY MANY MORE but I think he outdid himself this year, especially with probably the best three sides of vinyl that he pretty much produced on his own! Those three sides are called 'Castlemania'.

Castlemania has this mad exciting multicoloured dayglo art with a strange demon hand answering a toy phone and it fits with the music nicely! John Dwyer is playing all kinds of instruments from the guitar to all of the drum kit to a flute and then sometimes a trumpet. Pretty much any instrument that's been thrown at him. And it makes the thing so technicoloured! You can maybe hear the influence of people like Skip Spence and the 60s in general on the album but the wildness of the flute and noise of his guitar playing brings it right up to 'timeless'. As do the lyrics which contrast a lot with the jaunty music and melodies. It's all about blood and tedium and death but if you weren't listening to the words you'd have no idea.

The other thing that could sort of be called an LP that they released was the Carrion Crawler/The Dream EP which is two EPs smooshed together into an LP. This shows the full band of five people playing together which is a different thing entirely. On this LP the Can side of the band shines (a semi-cover of a Can song is half-included even!). They go very groovy and repetitive and there are a few songs that stretch out nice and long without getting samey or boring. Some of them are reworks of very old songs that have been improved immeasurably. If you listen to the old version of 'Crushed Grass' from the past and then put on the high octane exciting version from this LP your head will probably fall off. I saw them live this year on my birthday and I was dancing like an idiot to that song. I know this because people were making weird faces at me while I was doing the dancing.

There were two other major Oh Sees releases this year also, the singles collection including nice Ty Segall covers and the Oh Sees Massive Hit 'Tidal Wave'. The cover is excellent too if you're a fan, two eejits with old Oh Sees album covers felt-tipped onto their chests. If you're a fan of the band they are more rewarding in that way. See on the split with Total Control there are two full band versions of Castlemania songs so anyone a bit disturbed by the one man Oh Sees can hear what the same songs sound like played by the entire band. Again the songs sound very good indeed. Total Control are a fine band too, moodier punk stuff feat. a member of Eddy Current Suppression Ring. I love ECSR too much to be totally wowed by a related band sadly but their side of the split is very much worth a listen.

David Shrigley who is a fine artist and a big fan of the band also created some artwork for a 7" which is stupidly expensive. The music is available on the MUSIC SITE OF 2011 Soundcloud and the song 'Girls Who Smile' is particularly great. So here it is

Thee Oh Sees – "Girls Who Smile"

If you would like to buy four different excellent 2011 releases from a single band there's nowhere else to look. OR IS THERE PLEASE COMMENT BELOW IF THERE IS