Song of the Day: Thee Oh Sees - Plastic Plant

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, selected by Midday Show host Cheryl Waters, is "Plastic Plant" by Thee Oh Sees from their forthcoming album, A Weird Exits, due August 12 on Castle Face Records.

Thee Oh Sees - Plastic Plant (MP3)

Isn't it great when your favorite artists also turn out to be insanely prolific? "Prolific" barely even describes someone like John Dwyer, who, even when his band, Thee Oh Sees, publicly announces a hiatus, hardly takes even a few months off. Like another of our favorite artists, Ty Segall, the now-LA based John Dwyer constantly has his hands in some project, and if he isn't recording music, he's playing it. With his followup to last year's terrific Mutilator Defeated At Last, Dwyer did both - this past Friday, he released Live in San Francisco, a double LP recorded over three days in 2015 at The Chapel in San Francisco, compiled so that you can, as the label says, "Put it on at home and pretend to wait in line for the bathroom and it’s like you’re really there." Live in San Francisco is a full audio and visual package (the vinyl comes with a DVD), not what you'd call a placeholder, yet fans are already anticipating the next TOS release. What can they expect from A Weird Exits, due August 12 on Dwyer's co-owned label, Castle Face? Probably more of the same high-energy, garage-fueled psych-rock, but the lineup has changed a bit - dual drummers Ryan Moutinho and Dan Rincon and bassist Tim Hellman now complete the band. No keys, other than what Dwyer plays between riffs. And they're riffs aplenty, as you can hear on today's featured song, the first non-live preview from A Weird Exits. (Live in San Francisco features a new track called "Gelatinous Cube".) "Plastic Plant" is no wallflower, starting as it does with a sonic squall. The five-and-a-half-minute jam packs in all the highlights of a great Thee Oh Sees song: the pummeling, crash-heavy percussion, the deft finger-picking, the dynamic melodies that range between laid-back grooves and dizzying freakouts, and Dwyer's cosmic falsetto.

You won't have to wait for long to see Thee Oh Sees live. (If they took another hiatus, you were probably sleeping.) They'll be in the Northwest for Pickathon early next month, and then again as part of an extensive North American tour for an all-ages show on Friday, November 25th, at Neumos. Check out their website for more dates and music. For now, enjoy this live version of "Web" from the Live in San Francisco LP: