THEE OH SEES - FLOATING COFFIN

We all know the type: prolific bands that commit every loose thought, stray idea and 90-second song fragment to tape. Bands that pay no attention to little inconveniences like “release cycles” or “self-editing,” and instead decide that quantity equals quality, creating a discography more labyrinthine, imposing and—ultimately—exhausting than the cast of creatures in a sci-fi novel. Here is why none of that applies to Thee Oh Sees. Because each of the dozen-plus albums they’ve released since 2004 possesses a distinct personality and represents a different point along the path of John Dwyer’s slow transformation from auteur of woozy, bare-bones four-track psychedelia to goggle-eyed garage rock marauder backed at long last by a band that both shares and stokes his singular vision. Because drop a needle on any record and—to their great credit—it takes several songs before you’re convinced it’s Thee Oh Sees. The seasick hundred-bottles-of-rum shanty What the Driven Drink, from 2007’s delirious Sucks Blood exists in a different galaxy than the rollercoastering Chem-Farmer from last year’s Carrion Crawler / The Dream; the doomy doo-wop of Blood on the Deck hardly seems like the product of the same band that delivered the yelping Ruby Go Home in 2009.

Tracklist:

1. I Come From The Mt. 
2. Toe Cutter / Thumb Buster
3. Floating Coffin
4. No Spell
5. Strawberries 1+2 
6. Maze Fancier
7. Night Crawler
8. Sweets Helicopter
9. Tunnel Time
10. Minotaur