Carrion Crawler / The Dream

Repress! Thee Oh Sees chase the home-brewed symphonies of Castlemania with the scrappy, high-wire hooks of Carrion Crawler / The Dream. Originally envisioned as two eps, it was cut live to tape in less than a week at Chris Woodhouse's Sacramento studio, reflecting the battering-ram bent of the band's live show better than any bootleg ever could. that it does, whether one blasts the slow, speaker-bruising build of 'The Dream,' the sunburnt organs and dovetailing guitars of 'Crack in your Eye' or the interstellar instrumental 'Chem-Farmer,' a perfect example of what happens when one takes a well-oiled machine - a gang of rabid road warriors, really - and adds a second, groove-locked drum set to the mix. to listen is to realize that dwyer's music is as manic as the underground comic inclinations of his artwork; colourful and confusing in a way that's more than welcome. it's downright refreshing, like a slap in the face at 5:00 in the morning.