Thee Oh Sees
Carrion Crawler / The Dream

“The Strange Garage”

I wonder what the now 60/70-year-old Americans, who in the mid-60s, excited and inspired by the first arrival of the Kinks and Beatles in the USA, and the revival of the black roots of rock 'n' roll, locked themselves in their garages, picked up instruments in a makeshift fashion, and created a musical “genre,” would think if they knew that their youthful creative urgency would span more than 40 years of musical history and would not only survive but remain as alive, vigorous, and sprightly as in recent years?
Not much, I think, since the sesquipedalian length of my question would probably have tested their already reduced concentration capacity.

The most astonishing thing about garage is its innate ability to renew itself, especially when you consider that in itself it is a musical genre formally stuck at the origins of its conception. So, no substantial upheavals in its evolution, however, over time, the more perceptive among the cultivators of the garage garden have always tried to look at the neighbor's garden, gradually mixing it with different elements: in the '80s with wave, in the '90s with low fidelity and the revival of the blues origins of garage, for example. And in the 2000s? Who knows, maybe it's too early to say, but a band like Thee Oh Sees, and an album like this latest “Carrion Crawler/The Dream”, could be, if not the answer to such a question, at least a hint of the direction to look in if one seeks an answer.

Released by In The Red, the cradle of garage between the '90s and '00s, the third album in a year and a half from the group of Californian eccentrics led by John Dwyer (formerly of Coachwhips and other unruly bands), a prolific musician and mentor even to young figures of the Frisco underground, such as Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin. Those with desire and time should retrieve the previous production of the Oh Sees, the average quality is always high, and there's something for everyone. But everyone, and I repeat everyone, garage lovers should give at least one listen to this album here. Because here there's a broad and “new” idea of garage that cannot fail to delight both old and new fans of such sounds.
A rhythm section with two drums (yes I know Mick Collins and his Dirtbombs have been doing it for 15 years, but here it's different), songs averaging over 4/5 minutes long, caveman rhythms as required, but rocketed on a mental autobahn together with Neu, Kraftwerk, starting from Frisco to reach Nuremberg. This is the effect of a kraut'n'roll bomb like “The Dream”. And how to define “Contraption/Soul Desert”? A kind of “Baby Please Don't Go” played in the foundries of Dresden, that's what it sounds like. In between, tracks more in line with garage norms, both in duration and conception (the shorts “Opposition”, “Crushed Grass” and “Wrong Idea”), but also half-primitive dirges like “Crack In Your Eye”, or the chanting and raucous “Robber Barons”. Also worth mentioning is the initial track “Carrion Crawler”, which starts from the riff of “Interstellar Overdrive” by early Floyd, then loses itself in fabulous robotic-psychedelic guitar deliriums.
Album of the year (along with that of Mikal Cronin)