Imagine what might happen if you created a mashup of
the Cramps'
Songs the Lord Taught Us and
the Dream Syndicate's
The Days of Wine and Roses. OK, now imagine that the vocal tracks have been stripped off the results and instead you have
thee Headcoatees,
Southern Culture on the Skids and
the Mamas & the Papas fighting for aural dominance over the top. Got the picture? Well, it's hard to say if what you'd get would sound much like
The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In, the debut album from
John Dwyer's latest project
Thee Oh Sees, but at the very least, the two records would sound compatible when played back to back. Packed with dense layers of echoing guitars and crashing drums,
The Master's Bedroom certainly sounds like the product of some glorious period in consciousness expansion. However, in this case
Dwyer and his partners Brigid Dawson, Petey Dammit, and Mike Shoun have at least offered up a trip that you can dance to, full of bountiful hooks and insistent rhythms to go along with the corridors of guitar, and while this is a "sound" band rather than a "song" band, the melodies are pretty pleasing when they manage to bob to the surface, even as they're paired with lyrical conceits like "Graveyard Drug Party," "Adult Acid," and "You Will See This Dog Before You Die."
Thee Oh Sees make the psychedelic experience sound both menacing and like good fun on
The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In, and if you need something appropriately decadent and dance-friendly for your next haunted house party, put this one at the top of your play list. ~ Mark Deming