Here's what Thee Oh Sees have given the world in 2009 to date: six singles (three of their own, three split with pals), one demo collection, and, oh yeah, two LPs. (There are six weeks left on the calendar, which might give them time to cut a few more tracks and maybe record and release a couple dozen live sets.) This flurry of activity comes on the heels of a comparatively sedate 2008, which saw the group push out one measly studio full-length, one LP of the live persuasion, one and a half EPs, and just the one single. Suffice it to say that whatever caffeine-laced tall boys and/or illicit recreational substances John Dwyer has been (ab)using since adding an extra E to his band's name, they are most definitely working. Thee Oh Sees' Nuggets-friendly aesthetic could very easily wear itself thin, but Dwyer and friends have found plenty of ways to keep that formula from falling flat.
The group's first full-length offering this year, Help, is the apotheosis of what Thee Oh Sees can do as a rock group-- namely, kick out jams that pack a thick and brutal punch while offering a softer, poppier, and not-so-mildly psychedelic side at the same time. If the group rolled their joints on the sleeve of a first-edition copy of Black Monk Time, and took slugs of moonshine from the 13th Floor Elevators' electric jug (unplugged, of course), it wouldn't come as a surprise. And while they couldn't be blamed if they simply opted to offer more Help on their second 2009 LP, it's to their credit that they upset that particular apple cart, among many others, on Dog Poison.
If it were approached from a different angle, a song like album opener "The River Rushes (To Screw MD Over)" might not have sounded out of place on Dog Poison's predecessor. But by switching to an acoustic guitar and letting the flute player channel Ian Anderson, Thee Oh Sees give their sound a new wrinkle. Indeed, with Dwyer copping a few vocal moves from Mark E. Smith, "River" ends up sounding a little like the Fall covering the Kinks. There's another, purer, Kinks-like turn on Dog Poison, with the loping high-pitched tra-la-las of "The Sun Goes All Around" sounding like something left on the cutting room floor from Village Green Preservation Society. Elsewhere on the album, the group emulates the cavernous, smoky gait of Deerhunter ("Head of State"), shambles in a folkier fashion ("Fake Song"), spaces out a bit ("Dead Energy"), and mostly just lets it all hang out over the course of this LP's 24 minutes.
Even when they decide to rock out, like on the appropriately titled "The Fizz", Thee Oh Sees sound footloose and fancy-free. Or "sloppy," if you prefer-- in terms of sound and vibe, this record has more in common with Zork's Tape Bruise (the aforementioned demo collection) than either of the last two "real" Thee Oh Sees LPs, with a not-unwelcome what-the-fuck yeah-more-flute attitude taken to how the songs get put together. But instead of damning this as an uninspired odds-and-sods mishmash, I'd rather think of Dog Poison as the band officially unwinding from the (relatively) exacting precision of Help, and cleansing their own palette in preparation for what's next. After all, given how John Dwyer seems to operate, it wouldn't surprise me if he'd take a relaxing break from making music by simply making more music.
