Watch CBS News

Psychedelic garage-rock heroes Osees play annual SF shows at the Chapel

SAN FRANCISCO -- One of the most popular San Francisco bands to emerge from the garage-rock underground in recent decades, John Dwyer returns to his onetime hometown to play four sold-out shows at the Chapel with his sonic juggernaut Osees starting Sunday night.

The brainchild of former SF underground rock fixture John Dwyer (Pink and Brown, Coachwhips), the band was initially known as the OCS or Orinoka Crash Suite as the musician explored lo-fi home recordings with a decidedly more laid-back sound than his earlier garage-punk outfits. The project would gradually expand to feature percussionist Patrick Mullins and later singer/keyboardist Brigid Dawson. The first album as The Ohsees was the freak-folk effort produced by members of TV On the Radio -- The Cool Death of Island Raiders in 2006 -- and featured Dwyer's and Dawson's vocals steeped in reverb.

Island Raiders by Oh Sees - Topic on YouTube

In the years that followed, the line-up evolved as Dwyer decided to turn up the energy and appeal to the audience he built with the Coachwhips. After adding new members guitarist Petey Dammit and drummer Mike Shoun and changing the moniker to Thee Oh Sees, the band would release a steady stream of  singles and albums including such acclaimed efforts as 2008's The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night InWarm Slime and the more pop-minded Castlemania in 2012.

Thee Oh Sees performs "The Dream" at Pitchfork Music Festival 2012 by Pitchfork on YouTube

A reputation as an incendiary live act helped further spread the word of the band, as did such propulsive and chaotic releases as Carrion Crawler/The Dream,  Putrifiers II and Floating Coffin before the band underwent some major changes. The longtime live quartet line-up went on an indefinite hiatus after a final 2013 late show at the Great American Music Hall prior to the band leader relocating to Los Angeles.

Dwyer recorded Thee Oh Sees' 2014 album Drop largely on his own with contributions from longtime engineer and collaborator Chris Woodhouse and a few others. He would unveil a new version of Thee Oh Sees featuring bassist Timothy Hellman and drummer Nick Murray that still delivered the kind of chaotic and cathartic onstage mayhem that has become the band's trademark. Last year, Dwyer brought Dawson back to record Mutilator Defeated At Last for his own Castle Face Records imprint for a deeper exploration of the krautrock sounds the band has touched on with its last few efforts.

Dwyer later emerged with another line-up featuring Hellman with two drummers (Ryan Moutinho and Dan Rincon) to tour extensively and track the explosive in-concert document Live In San Francisco recorded during a sold-out three-night July residency at the Chapel that summer. That version of the band made it's studio debut on the equally acclaimed A Weird Exits (and the mellower instrumental companion piece An Odd Entrances).

Oh Sees (formerly Thee Oh Sees). "The Static God". Manchester. June 2017. by Chris Trew on YouTube

While the departure of Moutinho late in 2016 stripped the band back to a trio for a time, drummer Paul Quattrone (of the bands !!! and Modey Lemon) has since joined the crew. In 2017, Dwyer announced he was shortening the band's name to simply Oh Sees prior to releasing the outfit's scorching album Orcs. The group would managed two more releases before the end of the year, delivering the stripped-down acoustic with strings effort Memory of a Cut Off Head that brought Dawson back into the fold as vocalist (a special line-up of the group played a handful of stunning shows) and the Dead Medic EP that featured two extended tracks recorded during the Orc sessions.

Dwyer and company were uncharacteristically quiet for much of the following year, but in the summer of 2018 put out the band's 21st album Smote Reverser. While the collection's first song "Overthrown" stands as one of the heaviest and most unhinged songs the band has ever produced, the album would be praised as one of the more wide ranging and eclectic efforts the band has put out.

Dwyer continued down that path with the group's next effort, Face Stabber. Released in 2019, the album features the longtime quartet line-up being joined by keyboard player Tomas Dolas as a full-time member and includes two of Dwyer's longest extended compositions yet -- the keyboard-powered 14-minute prog cut "Scutum & Scorpius" and the 21-minute psychedelic Afrobeat/fusion jam "Henchlock."

Thee Oh Sees - Scutum & Scorpius by Emiliano on YouTube

While most bands used the coronavirus pandemic to focus on recording with the possibility of touring taken off the table, Dwyer and company manage to ramp up their activity in the wake of the band's latest name change to Osees. In addition to releasing three studio albums in 2020, the group participated in three widely viewed livestreamed performances -- two in affiliation with the Levitation Festival and a third filmed in Big Sur in partnership with local psych promoter folkYEAH.

Osees - Gelatinous Cube (single edit) [from Live at Big Sur] by CASTLEFACE RECORDS on YouTube

The scorching live shows were also released as downloads and limited vinyl and cassette edition, addition to the growing pile of new recordings to be snapped up by dedicated fans. In 2020, Dwyer and company released another pile of new studio recordings with a total of four albums coming out, including the bizarre (even for him) exploration of synthesizer sounds, Weirdo Hairdo. While 2021 saw the band issuing three more live recordings featuring the current line-up, last year they released another new studio effort with A Foul Form, an angry and aggressive collection that hearkens back to the blistering hardcore punk of the '80s. The band's latest Intercepted Message came out in August and features Dwyer's latest hectic exploration of Devo-esque synth punk.

For the band's annual run of fall shows at the Chapel, Osees will be joined by several SF bands, starting with revived local favorites Fantasy Sunday. A San Francisco club scene fixture during the '90s, the band anchored by the falsetto vocals of singer/guitarist Kirk Markopoulos developed a solid following during its early heyday. Known as much for their outlandish costumes as their hooky power-pop anthems, Markopoulos would reconfigured Fantasy into the group Little Fuzzy during the early 2000s, issuing one self-released album in 2007. Fantasy would resurface a few years ago with Markopoulous and original drummer Ragi Dindal (who has played with songwriter Kelley Stoltz and Americana band Macerator) and has been regularly playing many of its old haunts like the Make-Out Room to enthusiastic crowds. On Monday, DREAM_MEGA, the project of Los Angeles-based artist/musician Joel Kyack, delivers an experimental mix of ambient minimalist synth music and punk, while longtime Dwyer collaborator Brigid Dawson and her Mothers Network opens on Tuesday. LA weirdos Oog Bogo opening the final show Wednesday. Songwriter Kelley Stoltz will DJ all four nights.

Osees
Sunday-Wednesday, Sept. 3-6, 8 p.m. $35-$37 (sold out)
The Chapel

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.