Friday! Quick-hit thoughts of the week! QUICK-HIT THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK! 1. Whatever Brains - Gross Urge (mp3) ( buy ) BAM! Whatever Brains ( myspace ) is a Raleigh, North Carolina band called WHATEVER BRAINS. That automatically qualifies them to be AWESOME, but this song - along with a lot of the rest of their Trim-Jeans and/or Gross Urge Plus Ten CD-R - qualifies them to be DOUBLE AWESOME. I'm more comfortable thinking of them as traditional lo-fi punk than as [...]

Photo: Sarah Cass Grab a drink, some friends and spin Thee Oh Sees over your next party and you're pretty much set for a rad time. Their garage tunes are hazy, jangly and melodic partly due to the dual-vocals present - drowned in reverb this is the sort that is rough and ready. Help is their fourth full-length and is another addition to their already extensive catalogue, continuing their true ruckus fashion. From Help : [MP3] Thee Oh Sees - Ruby Go Home [...]

La route semblera si courte maintenant... Thanks Andrea ! This time next week, Len & I will be en route in a 10' U-Haul from San Diego to San Francisco to embark on our next great adventure. I put together this mix to help ease the long drive up the coast of California. Hopefully these songs move you along and get you through a daunting task, as well. (Via Andrea Inspired ) Tracklist: 01 The Dovers \ What Am [...]
Insound is offering 50 free downloads from their top selling albums of 2009. Some of the artists include Deerhunter, Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear, M. Ward, Thee Oh Sees, Phoenix, to name a few. Insound downloads (click here) . **The downloads are moving at a snail's pace. It could be my connection. Woods - Rain On Bookmark It [...]
Following the long awaited announcement last week regarding the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' sideshows, it seemed as good as time as ever to do a quick little summary of the billion or so gigs that are happening over this year's summer festival season. I am sure this is incomplete, so feel free drop any I have missed into the comments. Akron/Family Thursday, December 10: Corner Hotel, Melbourne Saturday, December 12: Annandale Hotel, Sydney Tuesday, December 15: Kings Arms, Auckland Wednesday, December 16: TBA, Wellington Al Green Saturday, [...]

Animal Collective - My Girls Clean - In The Dream life You Need A Rubber Soul Wild Beasts - All the Kings Men Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks Faunts - Hurts Me All The Time Field Music – Measure [...]

In un mondo parallelo John Dwyer , frontman di Thee Oh Sees , sarebbe figlio di Courtney Love e Richard 'Handsome Dick' Manitoba , in seguito sicuramente verrebbe adottato dai Beach Boys a subirsi enormi dosi di "Good Vibrations per poi trovare fissa dimora nel tempio dei Sonics . Iniziò a suonare la chitarra in gruppi prevalentemente noise-rock, fin quando ,illuminato in un raro momento di razionalità, formò Thee Oh Sees , e questa è realtà. La band negli ultimi sei anni ha pubblicato la bellezza di sette album, [...]

Sometimes just blurting out what you think is more fun than actually thinking things through and formulating an opinion. I was down in the basement tonight listening to records and what follows are my stream of conscious reviews of what I listened to. (Slumberland/Dulc-i-Tone) Mantles - Bad Design - Cave-like rock, reverb vocals (looking forward to this trend winding down). Nice guitar solo. This as poppy as Don't Lie, the best song on their album that came out on Siltbreeze. Mantles [...]
As soon as Thee Oh Sees powered up their equipment we were taken for a frenzied run through a springy forest teaming with reverb booby traps and tambourine tripwires until we reached the mansion where the head of state resides. Luckily, everyone figured out pretty quickly that the best way not to get destroyed is to just keep moving.
Sonny and the Sunsets - "Too Young To Burn" With their first full length Tomorrow is Alright , Sonny and the Sunsets have created a simply wonderful West Coast pop album, led by the whimsical songwriting of Sonny Smith. Smith's been a cult hero around the Bay for a while: Chuck Prophet formed a record label in order to release his 2006 solo album Fruitvale and John Dwyer (Thee Oh Sees), Tim Cohen and Shayde Sartin (The Fresh and Onlys) were among the contributors to the [...]
The Dodos ' Meric Long and Logan Kroeber combined their loves of country picking, West African Ewe drumming and heavy metal to create one of the more unique indie rock outfits today. No longer just the pride of San Francisco, their percussive and eclectic sound have made fans in all corners - from the headquarters of the hipster elite to the hallowed pages of the New York Times and all the way to Milwaukee . Our very own Katie Bain caught up with drummer Logan Kroeber before a homecoming gig at Bimbo's [...]

A quick heads-up on the next free Uncut CD today, which Allan has compiled (with a few suggestions from me) to go with the new issue's Velvet Underground cover story. Continued... "The Velvets Revolution" is a pretty neat survey featuring a mere 15 out of the tens of thousands of bands that the VU have influenced in the 45 years since they formed. Some nice rare-ish things here, like the Eno/Manzanera project 801 and a Suicide track I've never personally come across before; plus some classic [...]

Viva stream | Archive stream | Download Deadheat No. 54 [10/24/09] Washed Out - Feel It All Around 9dw - Stingray Portishead - We Carry On Interference - "Excerpt #1" Version 2 Blurt - The Fish Needs a Bike Swell Maps - Vertical Slum The Fresh & Onlys - Dude's Got a Tender Heart Thee Oh Sees - Carol Ann Times New Viking - Move to California Tonetta777 - UP UP Spacemen 3 - Ode to Street Hassle Far East Family Band - Timeless Bwana - La Patuda Willie [...]

Amateur Chemist does it again covering and shooting photos of Grizzly Bear/Beach House and Thee Oh Sees in Los Angeles. The forthcoming Ashley Fenton -directed video for Sea Wolf's " Wicked Blood " features the stunning Shannyn Sossamon , who also used to drum for Warpaint . [...]

This well-matched pair of Bay Area lo-fi acts tore up a packed Mercury Lounge in NYC earlier this month and wraps things up with this weekend's hometown Budget Rock 8 . Nuggets -inspired garage-pop is not in short supply this year, but Thee Oh Sees' Dog Poison (Captured Tracks) and Help (In the Red), along with Fresh & Onlys' Grey-Eyed Girls (Woodsist), are where to look for the most buoyant hooks, deserved buzz. Check out Andrew Youssef 's spread from last night's Echo show (Dan Melchoir opened, kids crowd-surfed during headliners [...]

Thursday : Neil Morgan , Helene Renaut , Chloe Makes Music @ Bluesix (9pm) Chloe Makes Music - "Live at the Red Vic" Friday : These Are Powers , Mi Ami , Gowns @ The Knockout (9:30pm) Mi Ami - "New Guitar" Saturday : Stirling Says , Finest Dearest , System and Station @ Hemlock (9:30pm, $7) Finest Dearest - "Pendulum" [...]

Tonight is the first of two nights to catch Those Darlins [ download ] in town when they play the Silverlake Lounge with The Grates and Leslie and the Badgers . ... You know Brakesbrakesbrakes has got it goin' on when their singer quits British Sea Power (Eamon Hamilton moonlighted as keyboardist in the fellow Brighton band) to keep the touring going. They bring their high energy, Pixies-inspired Britishness to Spaceland with Chicago's Ezra Furman & the Harpoons and Rachel Goodrich . ... Thee Oh Sees (pictured), who [...]
![The Beets - Spit in the Face of People Who Don't Want to Be Cool - Captured Tracks [Album Review]](http://cache.elbo.ws/posts/2072575_lg.jpg)
[ Editor's note: This is NOT the fake band "The Beets" from the Nickelodeon series Doug , whose "albums" included Let it Beet (though that might be cool too because their guitarist was named Flounder) in the '80s. For shits, I included a song of theirs, called "Killer Tofu." Enjoy if you dare ... ] Just when it seemed like the musty, piano-parlor smell of the garage-rock revival couldn't get any more crowded, I get The Beets ' Spit in the Face of People Who Don't Want [...]
[ Editor's note: This is NOT the fake band "The Beets" from the Nickelodeon series Doug , whose "albums" included Let it Beet (though that might be cool too because their [...]