Thee Oh Sees

Few bands have been as prolific in 2009 as San Francisco's psych folk garage punks Thee Oh Sees. In the last 12 months, John Dwyer's ragamuffin group of rock'n'roll weirdoes have released two LPs, some reissues and over a half-dozen seven-inches, making you think they'd be falling into familiar patterns by now. Surprisingly, Thee Oh Sees haven't, with their latest LP, Dog Poison, marking yet another curveball in their increasingly frantic output. For this Captured Tracks full-length, Dwyer and company have set aside the guitar-fuzz bombast of releases like Help, instead taking a more acoustic approach, all the while upping the psych factor and throwing down more of a freaked-out '60s vibe, not to mention some seriously bad-ass flute. Of course, there's more reverb and tape hiss than ever, and Dwyer has in no way lost his knack for penning some downright killer rock'n'roll hooks, letting an inner love for the McCartney/Lennon songbook shine through on more than one occasion. The only downside to Dog Poison is it clocks in at around 20 minutes. Still, there's some definite bang for you buck here.