Thee Oh Sees - Floating Coffin

John Dwyer appears to be a restless bundle of creative energy, moving from one music project to the next over the years, he’s also an artist and creates a lot of posters for his band’s shows. Previous bands like Yikes, Coachwhips and The Hospitals adopted a full-on noise-rock approach.  Then there was the plain peculiar homoerotic-sounding speed-freaks Zeigenbock Kopf - a band with whom he made an eventful trip to London that almost led to loss of limb.  Mid-set the band decided to raid the bar and smash every bottle they could get their hands on, Dwyer ended up with an infected wound after a piece of glass got lodged in his leg.  Frontman thoroughly introduced, the current band, now on their seventh studio album (bar second guitarist and second drummer Finn Larson from The Intelligence)is further comprised of Brigid Dawson, Pete Dammit! and Mike Shoun.

On this their seventh studio album as an established four-piece,  the album to a certain extent reverts back to Dwyer's heavier sounding era of Coachwhips and The Hospitals.  The twee psychedelic-folk of 2011’s Castlemania is replaced by excess, resulting in a noisy, more abrupt affair.  And it’s just as well we’re well-acquainted with Thee Oh Sees at this stage, as there is no time for civilised introductions when Floating Coffin gets under way.  I Come from the Mountain comes at you like a freight train so you best be on board or get the f**k out of the way.  High pitched riffs at the fore as Dwyer yelps "Boys are trouble all the time/Sitting in their pocket just a dime," and guitars and drums thrash it out.  Keyboards and a backing of ‘WOOO-OOOO,’ softening what is an otherwise jagged thrashing delight of a song.

It sets the tone for the album, Toe-Cutter and album title-track Floating Coffin are another pair of rabble-rousers, guitar riffs as chunky as your fat uncle, with Dwyer’s trademark echoed vocal underneath.  When the riffs give way the harmonies take over, something this band has always combined well.  No Spell starts off with the type of heavy overwhelming foggy onslaught his previous band Coachwhips employed, except on this occasion he is accompanied by Brigid Dawson’s breathy vocal, lightening the mood without detracting from the unadulterated exhilaration.  It showcases the light and heavy side of the band, where nice harmonies meet insolent thrashing.

Elsewhere, Night-Crawler glides along menacingly; all stuttering drum beats and whirling guitars.  On Strawberries 1 + 2, they let rip with a few guitar solos, we aren’t talking self-indulgent Guns ‘n’ Roses style cock-rock riffs, just high-pitched, rip-roaring blood curdling bursts of noise and feedback. On most of these songs, Dwyer’s falsetto singing is incomprehensible but it doesn’t matter when it is this intoxicating. 

Album closer and first single Minotaur allows the listener pause for thought; it is the slowest song on the album and a great come down following the potent highs of preceding tracks.  Dawson is at her best, cooing luscious 'ahhs' in the background, whilst Dwyer sings of lost dreams and ditching work in favour of the beach.  As a band they have the ability to capture both hostility and innocence at once which is a feat in itself.  They are an outfit that thrive on paradox, with songs about violence offset by playful vocals, squalling guitars softened by sweet melodies.  Here they have produced an album that is decidedly different from the last, but still very much the embodiment of Thee Oh Sees, and as such appear to be a band at the peak of their powers right now.
 
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By Garrett Hargan