Help

Perhaps as homage to the great Billy Childish (Thee Headcoats, Thee Mighty Caesars, Thee Milkshakes, etc.), John Dwyer of San Francisco’s Coachwhips and Pink & Brown birthed Thee Oh Sees in 2008 after noodling around as a solo project called OCS. Thee Oh Sees are a four-piece band that fans of garage punk and psychedelia will swoon for, once the grinding and stomping ceases and they’ve wiped the sweat from their brow. This is raw, brutal and deliriously sexy garage punk of the first order; check the sublime roar of “Enemy Destruct,” the thudding backbeat of “Meat Step Lively,” or the psychedelic, Sufi-swirl of “Can You See” and try to sit still. (You might as well stamp FAIL on that idea now.) It’s more than a sequence of guitar chords in “A Flag In the Court” that evokes the garage classic, “Gloria” — it’s a whole state of mind. Kudos to Dwyer and bandmate Brigid Dawson for balancing the scuzz ’n’ drang so beautifully with her vocals; Dawson’s presence makes the sum of *Help*’s parts fall together in a perfect whole. 

San Fran fixture John Dwyer continues to successfully use Thee Oh Sees to explore his deep love of 1960s psychedelic and garage rock.

"Tight" isn't a word that fits comfortably when describing Thee Oh Sees, but on Help, the second full-length effort from John Dwyer's garage psych marauders, the band has certainly learned to find order amidst chaos in a manner that eluded them on their 2008 debut The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In.