John Dwyer is a busy motherfucker; I’m proud to say I’ve stayed halfway on top of his OCS/Thee Oh Sees project since it was initiated in the wake of Coachwhips because that’s really all one can hope to do.
Yes, I missed out on the Peanut Butter Oven EP and the Intelligence split, but I did manage to snatch up pretty much the rest of their output, including the fantastic Cool Death of Island Raiders.
Now I am presented with another lovely conundrum, in the form of Zork’s Tape Bruise. This lil’ LP/CD shitkicker collects a groundswell of unreleased material for the clear-colored vinyl portion, then, for idiots like me who can’t keep their shit together, collects a few vinyl-only releases for the CD portion, including the infamous aforementioned Peanut Butter Oven EP and Intelligence split.
On the jacket for the LP itself it claims this release “doesn’t make any sense,” but in truth it couldn’t be more appropriate for the mini-hordes who have been rabid for more Ohsees material, especially those who jumped on the speeding bus way back when Dwyer was reaping souls with Pink & Brown, Hospitals, Sic Alps and Coachwhips.
This guy flat-out knows how to party. His early OCS work was shockingly quiet and folk-y and glorious, but Dwyer has slowly mixed up his influences in a giant kettle and ended up with something that resembles a more-cleaned-up Coachwhips with one big difference: background harmonies from a female singer who really adds another dimension to Dwyer’s megaphone’d-in yelps.
And the rock couldn’t be more rolling; the garage stompers offered are pummeling and horny, the fuzzed-out drone excursions scrubbed with more Siltbreeze Pumice than ever. Very few leaps are made that weren’t already tumbled down in past releases, but at this point I’m content to let the music be itself — no new innovations are needed, just keep doin’ what yer doin’. K?
K.
