THEE OH SEES - Warm Slime

2010 (In the red)
psych-garage

I californiani Thee Oh Sees non conoscono soste e mezze misure. Da circa quattro anni sguazzano nei circuiti indipendenti californiani versando pattume garage, riverberi dal ph non pervenuto misti a melodie talmente cazzute da far impallidire i Black Lips più ispirati dall’altra parte degli States. Tutto ruota intorno a John Dwyer, leader incontrastato del gruppo, coinvolto anche in altri progetti paralleli, tra i quali spiccano The Hospitals, Burmese, Yikes, The Netmen (con Brian Gibson of the Lightning Bolt), Coachwhips e Pink and Brown.

Ma è con la suadente (?) Brigid Dawson che il talentino di San Francisco trova l’incastro ideale per le sue alterazioni. E così, dopo cinque album di pregevole fattura, una serie impressionante di esibizioni dal vivo e produzioni domestiche, con il qui presente “Warm Slime” i Thee Oh Sees liberano a sorpresa tutto il calore psichedelico racchiuso nei loro plettri, generando in un sol colpo un vero e proprio flusso acid-rock magnetico, ossessivo, esagitato da esclamazioni freak dadaiste e stop&go catartici. Perchè i tredici minuti di ordinaria follia dell’open/title-track racchiudono questo e ben altro. Con essi, Dwyer frantuma il suo passato, composto perlopiù da guizzi garage-punk spensierati, essenziali, diretti. 

Tutto il resto è la leggiadria surf di “I Was Denied”, il tam-tam bizzarro da parata sudista (!) di “Everything Went Black“, l’irrequietezza sonica di “Castiatic Tackle“, l’implosione blues di “Flash Bats” (registrata a debita distanza da qualsiasi diffusore), l’ironia tediosa à-la Nikki Sudden di “Mega-Feast”, e la banalità ostentata con la consapevolezza del provocatore alienato della conclusiva “Mt Work”. Sei schiaffi posti sul piatto nel tentativo di risvegliarci gradualmente dall’estenuante stupore iniziale.

In sostanza, con “Warm Slime” i Thee Oh Sees sono riusciti ad imbrigliare follia e seduzione con la sfacciataggine of the vecchi devastatori della Bay Area.

Un piccolo miracolo da custodire morbosamente.

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01/09/2010

This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Giuliano Delli Paoli, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition

Tracklist

  1. 1. Warm Slime
  2. 2. I Was Denied
  3. 3. Everything Went Black
  4. 4. Castiatic Tackle
  5. 5. Flash Bats
  6. 6. Mega-Feast
  7. 7. MT Work

THEE OH SEES on the web

All Reviews on Ondarock
THEE OH SEES
Carrion Crawler/ The Dream

The happiest achievement of John Dwyer's outfit, from a noble psych revival to a new imaginative universe

THEE OH SEES
Putrifiers II

The garage-psych band slow down their output, with fine results

THEE OH SEES
Floating Coffin

John Dwyer and his crew's new Potëmkin villages

THEE OH SEES
The Hounds Of Foggy Notion

A heartrending swan song for the band, soon to be reborn as a psych-rock phoenix

THEE OH SEES
The Master’s Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In

A small name change, a major shift in direction for John Dwyer's creature

THEE OH SEES
Help

A consolidation record for the San Francisco band

THEE OH SEES
Castlemania

The dazzling "Sunshine Pop Album" by Oh Sees, an underrated little gem

THEE OH SEES
Dog Poison

The unsettling, sickly funfair of a John Dwyer on leave from his bandmates

THEE OH SEES
Drop

A holiday record for John Dwyer, on leave from his bandmates

THEE OH SEES
Mutilator Defeated At Last

A new beginning for John Dwyer's band

THEE OH SEES
A Weird Exits

The Californian band continues its journey, landing in motorik territory

THEE OH SEES
An Odd Entrances

The heterozygous twin of "A Weird Exit", a marginal exercise in consolidation

THEE OH SEES
Orc

The Californian band drops the article but not the habit

THEE OH SEES
Memory Of A Cut Off Head

An arcadian folk digression for John Dwyer's beast

THEE OH SEES
Smote Reverser

Ever freer and more nimble, John Dwyer's band delivers a worthy successor to "Orc"

THEE OH SEES
Face Stabber

The Californian band's torrential psych-rock across eighty minutes that confirm an enviable consistency

THEE OH SEES
Protean Threat

John Dwyer's project broadens its horizons while staying true to itself

THEE OH SEES
Metamorphosed

A second album of the year for the Californians, who unleash heavy fury and long psychedelic jams

THEE OH SEES
Panther Rotate

A remix album of "Protean Threat" closes out John Dwyer & co.'s 2020

THEE OH SEES
Endless Garbage

The Californian musician throws himself into eight instrumentals stripped of any semblance of logical sense

THEE OH SEES
Gong Splat

The Californian musician closes out a year devoted to pure improvisation

THEE OH SEES
A Foul Form

John Dwyer's Osees return with their twenty-sixth album, paying tribute to 80s hardcore and anarcho-punk

THEE OH SEES
Off Course

The American band prefers to explore rather than reach a destination