Thee Oh Sees

Carrion Crawler/The Dream EP (In the Red)

This John Dwyer-led, San Francisco collective’s jagged psych-punk has always been ear catching, but this ups the ante. Initially conceived as two separate EPs, Thee Oh Sees’ second album in less than a year maintains a squall of fuzzed-out freak rock in the service of hook-laden songs. The opening title track siphons Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd through a flammable sieve of Memphis, Tenn., garage primitivism, while the second song is a mind-bending guitar/organ swirl propelled by double drummers locked in a breakneck pace for nearly seven minutes. Play this while driving and you’ll exceed posted speed limits. “Opposition (With Maracas)” and “Wrong Idea” dilate the pupils of two-minute garage punk, and “Contraption/Soul Desert” crosses an insistent Krautrock pulse with Spacemen 3 guitar immolation. Yet another highlight hits with “Crack in Your Eye,” which tempers an unsettling drone with airworthy Roger McGuinn-style splinters. (Wed., 9pm, Red 7 Patio, 1:10am, Beauty Bar Backyard)

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This article appears in March 16 • 2012.

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Greg Beets was born in Lubbock on the day Richard Nixon was elected president. He has covered music for the Chronicle since 1992, writing about everyone from Roky Erickson to Yanni. Beets has also written for Billboard,Uncut, Blurt, Elmore, and Pop Culture Press. Before his digestive tract cried uncle, he co-published Hey! Hey! Buffet!, an award-winning fanzine about all-you-can-eat buffets.