Thee Oh Sees write, record, and release albums at a blistering pace, and I couldn’t be happier about it since I can’t seem to get enough of their weirdo garage/pysch rock. We just saw the release of their singles collection and now they’re ready to follow that release and 2010’s Warm Slime up with a new one by the name of Castlemania. This one will be a 2xLP affair with three sides of music and an etching on the 4th side by William Keihn who is also responsible for the sick cover art. Awesome.
John Dwyer’s describing this one as “summer-y and poppy.” I think of all of their stuff as being rather summery and poppy, but this is even more so. Musically, this album falls somewhere between Dog Poison and Help or Warm Slime, but there’s a much heavier San Fran Summer of Love feel and way more experimentation with other instruments outside of the usual guitar, drums and bass (or rather, bassline played on a six-string). It’s pretty busy. Castlemania‘s currently scheduled for a May 17th, 2011 release date on In the Red. Also, expect yet another album later in the year, which should return to their more amped-out rockin’ sound.
Have a listen to some samples from Castlemania here.
Peanut Butter Oven 
What’s the deal with this album? It’s almost 100% performed by John Dwyer. Was everyone else busy or something? Mike and Petey don’t seem to be listed, and Brigid’s only on two songs! I know that John is probably pretty difficult to keep up with, but still…weirdness. It’s not that this album isn’t good, like most things JD does, but I hope to see the rest of the band on the album scheduled for later in 2011.
Yeah. This is mostly all Dwyer released under Thee Oh Sees name. My impression is that the album to follow it this year will be the full-band affair we’re more familiar with these days.