Listen: Thee Oh Sees ‘Mutilator Defeated At Last’ LP

Thee Oh Sees add another stellar LP to their fantastic plastic expanding catalog, Mutilator Defeated At Last, out now on Castle Face Records. John Dwyer continues to draw far-flung and disparate elements of psych music into his powerful orbit, but the uniting element is, as always, his prolific guitar work. At this point in his career, having traveled all the way from the noise scuzz of Pink and Brown to the multifaceted psychedelia of Thee Oh Sees, with a stop-off as king of the garage punks in Coachwhips, to name just a few of the myriad projects the musician has been involved with, Dwyer has become quite the polyglot with his instrument–able now to match his verbose sonic imagination with effortless playing. In addition, his experience exploring the noisier side of punk usually guarantees that, even when indulging his Summer of Love leanings, some truly pyrotechnic guitar work and muscular rhythms are soon to follow. Mutilator Defeated At Last rides both sides of this equation, with the front half of the record leaning towards the heavier side of things on acid rock cuts like “Web” and “Lupine Ossuary“, not to mention the weighty freakout of “Withered Hand“; while the album’s latter half allows for more head tripping drift on “Sticky Hulks“, the shimmering acoustic number, “Holy Smoke“, or the astral comedown of “Palace Doctor“.
The line-up for Mutilator Defeated At Last finds Dwyer joined by longtime Thee Oh Sees’ cohort Brigid Dawson, as well as Chris Woodhouse, who also recorded the album; and the band’s rounded out by a rhythm section that finds Tim Hellman on bass and Nick Murray on drums. You can catch Thee Oh Sees live this spring and summer, as they will play a bunch of European dates, as well as a few west coast shows. Check ’em out…
05/22/15 – FR – Paris – Villette Sonique Festival
05/23/15 – NL – Utrecht – Guess Who
05/24/15 – GE – Mannheim – Mayfield Derby
05/25/15 – GE – Leipzig – UT CONNEWITZ
05/26/15 – BE – Liège – Reflektor
05/27/15 – FR – Besançon – La Rodia
05/28/15 – SZ – Bad Bonn – Kilbi Festival
05/29/15 – FR – Nimes – This is Not A Love Song Festival
05/30/15 – ES – Barcelona – Primavera Festival
05/31/15 – ES – Barcelona – Primavera Festival – Sala Apolo – Closing Party
06/01/15 – OFF
06/02/15 – FR – Bordeaux – BT59
06/03/15 – OFF
06/04/15 – IT – Verona – Interzona
06/05/15 – IT – Ravenna – Beaches Brew
06/06/15 – GR – Athens – Plizken Festival
07/14/15 – CA – San Francisco – The Chapel
07/15/15 – CA – San Francisco – The Chapel
07/16/15 – CA – San Francisco – The Chapel
07/18/15 – OR – Portland – Project Pabst Festival
08/14/15 – CA – Los Angeles – venue TBA
08/23/15 – CA – Los Angeles – FYF (www.fyffest.com)