”Don’t watch the whole thing in one sitting or you’ll go crazy,” warns John Dwyer as camera zooming in on eyelids pen-marked to resemble a puppet’s face.
Nearly 11 years after its release, this brief introduction to Thee Hounds of Foggy Notion / Live Performances Sans Stages And Whatnots With Thee Oh Sees still rings true today. The combined DVD and compilation is far removed from the brain-immolating fuzz-punk the San Franciscan act has churned out in recent years, but this throwback material is just as unearthly thanks to gelatinous reverb and songcraft that’s more suggested than concrete. Each track was recorded and filmed outside of the studio, floating lazily into the bay, forest, or whatever ecosystem the band happened to inhabit. It’s earthy stuff.
Snagging a copy of the LP would normally run you upward of a hundred bucks on Discogs, but budget-conscious Oh Sees devotees will be pleased to find out that Thee Hounds is receiving the reissue-slash-remaster treatment on May 24 via Castle Face Records (pre-order it here).
“Golden Phones” is our first peek at the revamped record — here, a singing saw threads a meandering melody into rippling sheets of guitar. It’s a cloud comforter, a light canopy of residual sound.
”They cover their eyes…” Dwyer trails off, dreamily. An unintentional allusion to the warning in the intro? Maybe. We can confirm that consuming the entire record sans visuals won’t cause insanity, so feel free to dig in once it drops.
Thee Hounds of Foggy Notion / Live Performances Sans Stages And Whatnots With Thee Oh Sees tracklisting:
01. The Gilded Cunt
02. Island Raiders
03. Ship
04. Block of Ice
05. Curtains
06. Dumb Drums
07. We Are Free
08. Thee Hounds of Foggy Notion
09. Make Them Kiss
10. Golden Phones
11. If I Had A Reason
12. Highland Wife’s Lament
13. Dreadful Heart
14. Ghost In The Trees
15. Iceberg
16. Second Date