Castle Face
OSEES - SORCS 80 LP (colour vinyl)
Limited edition kelly green with magenta blob colour vinyl. Black wax and CD also available.
Highly recommended.
Yes, we can declare this as "Highly recommended" cos we're now about a dozen listens in and reckon it's a beaut addition to an admittedly overwhelming yet impressive discography. Totally agreeing with John's description of SORCS 80 being "sort of a Dexy’s Midnight Runners meets Von LMO meets The Flesh Eaters meets the Screamers kinda punk junk" we also hear similarities to Jay Reatard's vocal delivery (and some sounds) during his Lost Sounds era. Anyway, thanks to the Osees for another crackin' album!
"The last 2 LPs were so guitar and keyboard centric, I wanted a weird and fun set of parameters for us to work with. I demo’d everything at home on cassette four track (harkening back to simpler times) using drum loops, and just had at it ’til I had a pile of ‘songs.’
“As we were recording I kept thinking how the sounds, when paired up, sounded a bit like brass. So, we added a saxophone horn section to round out the horniness of the sound with a bit of reedy bell tones. Thanks to Cansfis Foote and Brad Caulkins on tenor and baritone saxophones.
Poppy and hooky, heavy at times. Sort of vacuous and maybe a bit sci-fi in sound. Boneheaded in riff and heady in lyrics. Recorded at Stu-Stu-Studio on 8 track 1/4-inch tape. A lot of these lyrics were taken from things people said in passing about taking on life right now that stuck with me. Things that made me reflect. Things that made me laugh. Things that made me WTF. Some folks are kind, genuine and give you love and energy. Some are greedy manipulative ghouls who hang off your veins. You must be strong, composed and take care of yourself. Be self aware and check your mind for cracks. Learn to relax and be well. There are moments of beauty and redemption. It’s not all bad news and there’s always hope. People continue to surprise me one way or another.” - JPD