ALBUM REVIEW: “Castlemania” by Thee Oh Sees

June 13. 2011 | By Valerie Veteto

Thee Oh Sees
Castlemania
[In The Red]

San Francisco darlings, Thee Oh Sees, have dropped a whopping 16-track album, Castlemania, off of label, In The Red. They’re still kooky, with a sound like LSD-laced campfire songs for the kiddies. Many songs are Syd Barret musical cryptograms, but if you’re able to decipher the hidden messages within multi-layered walls of sound then you could be in for a serious treat.

Psychedelic? Oh yeah. Experimental punk? You betchya. Eclectic as fuck? Well, that too. There are howls, laser guns firing, car horns, and a good amount of disjointed ambience. In “The Horse Was Lost” there is also a full minute of silence… in the middle of the album. “Corprophagist (A Bath Perhaps)” is a bell-tolling, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah chorused tune while “AA Warm Breeze” breaks out the tambourine, harmonica and nearly monotone lyrics.

Yet despite all of this strangeness Thee Oh Sees have put forth a truly tasty biscuit of a new release, as long as you’re into biscuits covered in something crazy like pixie sticks and Cap’n Crunch.

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