Osees: Abomination Revealed At Last (2025)

Another year, another batch of releases from John Dwyer under various names and organizations. But he’s most known for the garage/psych/kitchen rock juggernaut Osees, a killer band who changes styles almost as often as they do band names. But the latest name seems to have stuck, being in place for six years. The style, for better or worse, has also stayed largely the same: a mix of harsh bursts of punk that after a while all roll into each other, making Abomination Revealed At Last an album I gave one or two listens before shrugging it aside. Maybe it’s the times, but coming back to it I can still see my issues, but I also see many little things that bring the songs to life in a way I ignored, to my detriment.

ChrisDecember 11, 2025Leave a comment

Vinyl

Thee Oh Sees: Floating Coffin (2013)

Around the same time I discovered Ty Segall I discovered John Dwyer. Like Segall most of his output centers on explorations of psych and garage filtered through different lenses, and like Segall he’s prolific, with multiple projects releasing per year. But unlike Segall, there’s an abrasive, punk sensibility that permeates his best music, particularly with Thee Oh Sees (sometimes OCS, for a while Oh Sees, for now simply Osees) which – surprise no surprise – is my favorite sonic output of his vision. What is a surprise is how little of his output I’ve covered on the site, so let’s rectify that by going back to the earliest album I currently own, 2013’s Floating Coffin, which showcases a level of dynamics missing from the band most recent records.

ChrisJuly 3, 2025July 1, 2025Leave a comment

Vinyl

Bella and the Bizarre: Bella and the Bizarre (2024)

Sometimes you know nothing about an artist other than the label they’re on, and sometimes that label carries enough weight that you take a chance. In The Red Records is one of those labels, and when I was looking to pick up a specific album (the latest from Des Demonas) I spied the self titled debut full length from Bella and the Bizarre. Hailing from Germany and boasting some indie cred lineage (lead singer Bella Khan is the daughter of noted alternative artist King Khan) Bella and the Bizarre aims for and hits some seriously fun garage punk mixed with pure rock and roll swagger.

ChrisApril 30, 2025May 25, 2025Leave a comment

CD, Vinyl

Les Rallizes Dénudés: YaneUra Oct/Sep ’80 (2024, 2025)

Lovely as Les Rallizes Dénudés are, I have been sick as a dog since Monday night, and their particular sonic onslaught is now doing nothing for my aching an pounding head, so we’re going to wrap up Live Month today with a brief double-header. It’s one that makes sense, though: two blasting shows at the Yaneura live house in Shibuya, Tokyo. And because we established that linear time has little meaning to a band so unstuck in its tick-tock mechanisms, we’re going in order of release but in reverse chronological order, starting with YaneUra Oct. ’80 and then moving back to YaneUra Sep. ’80. Let’s do this so I can give my clogged and pressurized ears a break…

ChrisApril 24, 2025April 24, 2025Leave a comment

Les Rallizes Dénudés: Baus ’93 (2023)

As the concept of linear time has little meaning to Les Rallizes Dénudés, so shall it go with us. From 1977 to their speaker-blowing return in 1993 back a few days to a more tentative, but no less powerful reintroduction, Baus ’93 showcases Mizutani and company at that first post-hiatus show, four days before the explosive set covered on CITTA’ ’93. In all it’s a picture of a band finding their footing in real time, ironing out the kinks and wrinkles of five years away from the stage in a way that sounds cohesive and natural. If it’s not the singular experience the previous two releases are, it’s still filled all the feedback and cosmic soloing you’d expect from the band.

ChrisApril 23, 2025April 23, 2025Leave a comment

Vinyl

Les Rallizes Dénudés: CITTA’ ’93 (2023)

After sporadic live shows throughout the late 70s and early 80s, Les Rallizes Dénudés took a hiatus, not returning to the stage until 1993. Fast foreword another 30 years and the band’s former bassist Makoto Kubota, working with the blessing of the Mizutani estate and Temporal Drift, have done an astounding job cleaning up and releasing CITTA’ ’93, a near mythological performance taking place four days after their “comeback” gig. Sourced from a magnetic ADAT tape (supposedly Mizutani didn’t even know the show was being recording at the time) it’s an amazing document not only for its high fidelity – this might be the clearest the band have ever sounded – but for some truly inspired playing, morphing now decades old tunes into new forms.

ChrisApril 22, 2025April 22, 20252 Comments

Consuming the Tangible

We are what we consume

Tag: garage rock

Osees: Abomination Revealed At Last (2025)

Thee Oh Sees: Floating Coffin (2013)

Bella and the Bizarre: Bella and the Bizarre (2024)

Les Rallizes Dénudés: YaneUra Oct/Sep ’80 (2024, 2025)

Les Rallizes Dénudés: Baus ’93 (2023)

Les Rallizes Dénudés: CITTA’ ’93 (2023)