With Dawson moving to Santa Cruz and Dwyer decamping to L.A. Their next foray, 2013's Floating Coffin, saw the group stripping away all the weirdness and hitting hard with a heavy set of straight-ahead garage/punk rock tunes. Thee Oh Sees returned in September 2012 with Putrifiers II, an album combining Castlemania's fractured pop sensibilities and Carrion Crawler/the Dream's ferocious rock experimentation. Thee Oh Sees pulled double duty the following year, offering the pop-leaning Castlemania in June, followed in November by the heavier, wilder Carrion Crawler/The Dream, also the band's first recording with second drummer Lars Finberg (the Intelligence). Thee Oh Sees' second full-length effort, Help, appeared in 2009 and featured a bit of a garage rock vibe mixed with the band's psych-pop sound. Sounding a bit like the Mamas & the Papas run through a seriously bent garage blender, the band signed with the German Tomlab label and released Sucks Blood in 2007 and The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In in 2008. In time, OCS morphed into an actual band, and worked under the usual flurry of names, most notably as the Oh Sees or the Ohsees, and eventually as Thee Oh Sees, featuring Dwyer on guitar and vocals, Brigid Dawson on vocals and tambourine, Petey Dammit (sometimes listed as Petey Dammit!) on bass, and Mike Shoun on drums. Dwyer formed OCS (which is an acronym for Orinoka Crash Suite, Orange County Sound, or whatever Dwyer decided it was on any given day) initially as a vehicle for the experimental instrumentals he was producing in his home studio. Thee Oh Sees were founded by guitarist John Dwyer originally from Providence, Rhode Island, after relocating to California in the late '90s, Dwyer became active on the San Francisco indie scene, working with several bands, including the Coachwhips, Pink & Brown, Yikes, Up Its Alive, and Swords & Sandals, among others. One of the cornerstone bands of the post-millennium garage/psych resurgence, Thee Oh Sees represent a purposefully chaotic fusion of guitar and synth noise, strong and elemental melodies, and addled but focused attacks. One of the best bands on the planet, come watch, tickets on sale Friday!

Petey dammit