OSEES. Photo by Titouan Massé.
The FADER’s “Songs You Need” are the tracks we can’t stop playing. Check back every day for new music and follow along on our Spotify playlist.
Osees, one of the most consistently great live bands around, are equally energized in the studio. As Orinoka Crash Suite, OCS, Orange County Sound, The Ohsees, The Oh Sees, Thee Oh Sees, Oh Sees, and now Osees, the John Dwyer-led, rotating collective have released more than two dozen studio LPs in the last two decades (not to mention a slew of live albums, compilations, and EPs), running the gamut from garage rock to psych rock to punk rock and beyond.
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Today, Osees announce Intercepted Message, a new record scheduled to arrive August 18 via In the Red. Its title track, out today, exhibits the band’s poppier side without sanding off their edges. “It won’t add up / They won’t come around / Your king’s a c**t / It keeps you dumb,” Dwyer incants on the hook, over Halloween-candy synth keys full of razorblades, a neurotic drum line, and guitars that get more and more pissed off as the song unfolds. As a non-British, non-Australian English speaker, Dwyer’s use of the c-word here is questionable, but so is his reference to the monarchy, so we’ll call it cosplay until proven otherwise. Regardless, the song’s caustic political message rings clear: “The system wants you to feel free / But you’ll not succeed.”
In a statement accompanying the track, Dwyer expounds:
A pop record for tired times.
Sugared with bits of shatterproof glass to put more crack in your strap.
At long last, Verse / chorus
A weathered thesaurus
This is Osees bookend sound
Early grade garage pop meets proto-synth punk suicide-repellant
Have a whack at the grass or listen while flat on your ass
Heaps of electronic whirling accelerants to gum up your cheapskate broadband
Social media toilet scrapers unite!
Allow your 24 hour news cycle eyes to squint at this smiling abattoir doorman
You can find your place here at long last
All are welcome
From the get go to the finale …. A distant crackling transmission of 80s synth last-dance-of-the-night tune for your lost loves
Suffering from Politic amnesia?
Bored of AI-generated pop slop?
Then this one is for you, our friends
Wasteland wanderer, stick around.
Love y’all
For fans of Teutonic synth punk and Thee Oh Sees (who the fuck are they?)
- John Dwyer
“Intercepted Message” comes with a demented visual treatment courtesy of Joel Kyack. Watch the clip, check out Intercepted Message’s cover art and tracklist, and view Osees’ upcoming international tour dates below.
Intercepted Message album art
Intercepted Message tracklist
1. Stunner
2. Blank Chems
3. Intercepted Message
4. Die Laughing
5. Unusual & Cruel
6. The Fish Needs A Bike
7. Goon
8. Chaos Heart
9. Submerged Building
10. Sleazoid Psycho
11. Always At Night
12. Ladwp Hold
OSEES 2023 tour dates
May 18 - Manchester, UK - Albert Hall
May 19 - Glasgow, SCT-UK - Old Fruit Market
May 22 - Dublin, IE - Button Factory
May 23 - Dublin, IE - Button Factory
May 25 - Liverpool, UK - The Invisible Wind Factory
May 26 - Birmingham, UK - The Crossing
May 27 - London, UK - Wide Awake Festival
May 28 - Brighton, UK - Chalk
May 30 - Bristol, UK - Marble Factory
May 31 - Leeds, UK - Brudnell Social Club
June 1 - Leeds, UK - Brudnell Social Club
June 22 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom
June 23 - Calgary, AB - Sled Island Music & Arts Festival
June 25 - Montreal, QC - Club Soda w/ Hot Garbage and Tha Retail Simp$
August 11 - Düdingen, CH - Bad Bonn
August 12 - Val de Bagnes, CH - Palp Festival
August 14 - Vienna, AT - Arena *NEW DATE*
August 16 - Rotterdam, NL - Maassilo *NEW DATE*
August 18 - Saint-Malo, FR - La Route Du Rock *NEW DATE*
August 19 - Hasselt, BE - Pukkelpop
August 20 - Gueret, FR - Check In Party *NEW DATE*
August 22 - Bordeaux, FR - Square Dom Bedos *NEW DATE*
August 23 - Biarritz, FR - Atabal *NEW DATE*
August 25 - Málaga, ES - Canela Party
September 3 - San Francisco, CA - The Chapel
September 4- San Francisco, CA - The Chapel
September 5 - San Francisco, CA - The Chapel
September 6 - San Francisco, CA - The Chapel
September 8 - Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
September 9 - Seattle, WA - Neumos
September 10 - Seattle, WA - Neumos
September 14 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
September 15 - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall
September 16 - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall
September 17 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
September 18 - Detroit, MI - El Club
September 20 - Boston, MA - Royale
September 22 - Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw
September 23 - Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw
September 25 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
September 26 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle
September 30 - Austin, TX - Hotel Vegas
October 1 - Austin, TX - Hotel Vegas
October 3 - Albuquerque, NM - Sister Bar
