Album: Warm Slime
In the Red, 2010
Rating: ******* (7/10)
Two adjectives come to mind for Thee Oh Sees - prolific and consistent. And those two adjectives are a rare combination. Thee Oh Sees (and their other incarnations) release a record of some sort every few months, it seems like, and although I haven't listened to them all, all the ones I've listened to have been solid.
Warm Slime is basically a long EP, or maybe a mini LP (seven songs, thirty minutes), and it features the same sort of lo-fi, psychedelic pop-punk that we've come to expect. The melodies are irresistable, the scuzzy guitars delightful, the distorted and reverbed vocals rockin'. The entire record is just plain fun.
The album opens with the classically bluesy title track which rocks as hard as any Oh Sees tune to date. The rolling bass line has attained perfection. The song is thirteen minutes long, ten of which are spent slowly breaking down and noising up and breaking down and noising up the song established in the first three. It's too long, but then again, this isn't a proper LP and Thee Oh Sees have earned a little self-indulgence by this time.
The rest of the album continues is a similar vein - lo-fi renditions of what would otherwise totally be classic rock songs or garage rock songs or something from the 60's. The wild "Castiatic Tackle" balances the steady march of "Everything Went Black," while "Mega-Feast" and "MT Work" start the album as lively as it began.
In many ways, it sounds as if Warm Slime were sequenced according to rock convention and then reversed. Starting on the long jam and ending on two catchy and short tunes is a subtle way to keep this record from feeling like we've heard it before.
Warm Slime doesn't break the mold or pave new ground. It's not headline news. But it's full from start to finish with solid tunes and great sound. Thee Oh Sees are a band to count on. [myspace]
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