THEE OH SEES
''FLOATING COFFIN''
APRIL 16 2013
39:50
1 - I Come From The Mountain/4:27
2 - Toe CutterThumb Buster/3:30
3 - The Floating Coffin/2:20
4 - No Spell/4:23
5 - Strawberries One & Two/5:42
6 - Maze Fancier/3:14
7 - Night Crawler/4:09
8 - Sweets Helicopter/2:42
9 - Tunnel Time/4:07
10 - Minotaur/4:50
John Dwyer/vocals, guitar
Brigid Dawson/vocals, keyboards
Petey Dammit!/bass, guitar
Mike Shoun/drums
Lars Finberg/drums, guitar
REVIEW
by Tim Sendra
The ever prolific John Dwyer isn't the kind of guy to let the grass grow between his toes and his band Thee Oh Sees release albums the way they used to -- one a year with singles in between. The 2013 entry in their extensive catalog, Floating Coffin, is a weird one. Not because it is experimental, psychedelic, or full of lo-fi wildness; any one of those things would be par for the course. What makes this record weird is that there isn't really anything weird about it. From beginning to end it's a hard-rocking, heavy album with heavy drums, heavy guitars, and a knockout punch that not many of their songs have had before. It's still based in basic garage punk mania and Dwyer's voice is still a yelpy, electric thing (though a much calmer here), but there's a solid, no-nonsense approach to the album that is as successful as it is shocking. Once you get past how simple the sound is, and how clean and clear everything is, you can let the songs sink in. Dwyer has written a batch of songs that aren't immediately hooky in the way past efforts have been, but the power and control of writing fits that of the music perfectly. Whether rocking out hard as nails on tracks like "Tunnel Time" and "I Come from the Mountain," slowing it down to a metallic creep on "Strawberries 1+2," or letting the song unspool slowly like on the Wipers-y "No Spell," there's a clarity to the music that is impressively immediate. A couple songs might even sound good on a movie soundtrack, like the Brigid Dawson-sung rave-up "Maze Fancier," and that's not something one could have said about much of their previous work, as good as it was. Only the closing outer space doo wop of "Minotaur" breaks the spell a bit, but by then the heaviness has sunk in fully and a little break is just right. It may just be another one-shot experiment for Thee Oh Sees, and their next album might be a dubpunk concept album, but Floating Coffin will stand as a successful foray into the world of straight-ahead, heavy-rocking, non-weird alternative indie rock.
BACKGROUND
By Wikipedia
Frontman John Dwyer described the album as being "heavier" and "darker" than their previous efforts, and that "[The] songs occur in the mindset of a world that's perpetually war-ridden".
All members of the band were part of the recording process that took place in December 2012. The album was created as more of a group effort, John Dwyer stated, "Usually I bring in the [songs] and everybody sort of forms around [them], but this time a lot of this record was written together, as a band, which we haven't done in awhile,"Lars Finberg recorded secondary drums and guitar for the album, but due to engagements with The Intelligence in late 2012 and early 2013, he did not tour with the Thee Oh Sees during the period of the album's recording and release. Because of this, the band's live lineup has currently returned to its previous four-piece incarnation. Guest musician K. Dylan Edrich had previously recorded viola for 2012's Putrifiers II, and did so again for Floating Coffin. The only other guest musician on the album was Kelley Stoltz who played harpsichord.
The album was recorded at The Hangar in Sacramento, CA, with Chris Woodhouse. Woodhouse also played percussion on the album, which he had done on previous releases with the band. This is the first Thee Oh Sees album to also be mastered by Woodhouse. Up until Floating Coffin, he had only recorded and mixed their albums, with the mastering process being handled by a third party.
DoWnLoAd
''FLOATING COFFIN''
APRIL 16 2013
39:50
1 - I Come From The Mountain/4:27
2 - Toe CutterThumb Buster/3:30
3 - The Floating Coffin/2:20
4 - No Spell/4:23
5 - Strawberries One & Two/5:42
6 - Maze Fancier/3:14
7 - Night Crawler/4:09
8 - Sweets Helicopter/2:42
9 - Tunnel Time/4:07
10 - Minotaur/4:50
John Dwyer/vocals, guitar
Brigid Dawson/vocals, keyboards
Petey Dammit!/bass, guitar
Mike Shoun/drums
Lars Finberg/drums, guitar
REVIEW
by Tim Sendra
The ever prolific John Dwyer isn't the kind of guy to let the grass grow between his toes and his band Thee Oh Sees release albums the way they used to -- one a year with singles in between. The 2013 entry in their extensive catalog, Floating Coffin, is a weird one. Not because it is experimental, psychedelic, or full of lo-fi wildness; any one of those things would be par for the course. What makes this record weird is that there isn't really anything weird about it. From beginning to end it's a hard-rocking, heavy album with heavy drums, heavy guitars, and a knockout punch that not many of their songs have had before. It's still based in basic garage punk mania and Dwyer's voice is still a yelpy, electric thing (though a much calmer here), but there's a solid, no-nonsense approach to the album that is as successful as it is shocking. Once you get past how simple the sound is, and how clean and clear everything is, you can let the songs sink in. Dwyer has written a batch of songs that aren't immediately hooky in the way past efforts have been, but the power and control of writing fits that of the music perfectly. Whether rocking out hard as nails on tracks like "Tunnel Time" and "I Come from the Mountain," slowing it down to a metallic creep on "Strawberries 1+2," or letting the song unspool slowly like on the Wipers-y "No Spell," there's a clarity to the music that is impressively immediate. A couple songs might even sound good on a movie soundtrack, like the Brigid Dawson-sung rave-up "Maze Fancier," and that's not something one could have said about much of their previous work, as good as it was. Only the closing outer space doo wop of "Minotaur" breaks the spell a bit, but by then the heaviness has sunk in fully and a little break is just right. It may just be another one-shot experiment for Thee Oh Sees, and their next album might be a dubpunk concept album, but Floating Coffin will stand as a successful foray into the world of straight-ahead, heavy-rocking, non-weird alternative indie rock.
BACKGROUND
By Wikipedia
Frontman John Dwyer described the album as being "heavier" and "darker" than their previous efforts, and that "[The] songs occur in the mindset of a world that's perpetually war-ridden".
All members of the band were part of the recording process that took place in December 2012. The album was created as more of a group effort, John Dwyer stated, "Usually I bring in the [songs] and everybody sort of forms around [them], but this time a lot of this record was written together, as a band, which we haven't done in awhile,"Lars Finberg recorded secondary drums and guitar for the album, but due to engagements with The Intelligence in late 2012 and early 2013, he did not tour with the Thee Oh Sees during the period of the album's recording and release. Because of this, the band's live lineup has currently returned to its previous four-piece incarnation. Guest musician K. Dylan Edrich had previously recorded viola for 2012's Putrifiers II, and did so again for Floating Coffin. The only other guest musician on the album was Kelley Stoltz who played harpsichord.
The album was recorded at The Hangar in Sacramento, CA, with Chris Woodhouse. Woodhouse also played percussion on the album, which he had done on previous releases with the band. This is the first Thee Oh Sees album to also be mastered by Woodhouse. Up until Floating Coffin, he had only recorded and mixed their albums, with the mastering process being handled by a third party.
DoWnLoAd