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Believe it or not, I'm a fan of bands other than King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Currently my second favourite band is Osees (previously known as Thee Oh Sees/Oh Sees), another garage/psych rock band that was a huge influence on King Gizzard. The band's frontman, John Dwyer, is especially a huge influence on Gizz's frontman Stu Mackenzie. Here are my top twenty songs from them:

Top 20

20. I Come From the Mountain (Floating Coffin, 2013)
19. Rogue Planet (Mutilator Defeated at Last, 2015)
18. Crawl out from the Fall Out (A Weird Exits, 2016)
17. Flies Bump Against the Glass (Smote Reverser, 2018)
16. Drowned Beast (Orc, 2017)
15. At the End, On the Stairs (An Odd Entrances, 2016)
14. Snickersnee (Face Stabber, 2019)
13. C (Smote Reverser, 2018)
12. Cadaver Dog (Orc, 2017)
11. Plastic Plant (A Weird Exits, 2016)


(Sidenote: do these guys have some of the sickest song/album names or what?)

Top 10

10. Poor Queen (Mutilator Defeated at Last, 2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqpsM6HEpWI
I really love the bass on this song, as well as the bright inflection in Dwyer's voice.

9. The Dream (Carrion Crawler / The Dream, 2011)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93dIua0qg5A
Their most iconic song for a reason, that guitar line is just so addicting.

8. The Static God (Orc, 2017)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzgioDI5Pio
An electrifying opener to my favourite of the band's many albums, Orc. Just after the mid point the guitar distortion nearly reaches shoegaze levels and I love it.

7. Withered Hand (Mutilator Defeated at Last, 2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUB7aM5lDUA
The drop into insanity after the song's slow intro gets me pumped every single time. Pretty sure this whole song is a D&D reference too which only makes it more cool.

6. Scutum & Scorpius (Face Stabber, 2019)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvwfnaTs3y0
This song as whole is a nearly fifteen minute jam which I like but I'm not totally in love with, but the song's first three minutes alone elevate it to this spot. Music to descend into the depths of Hell to.

5. The Axis (A Weird Exits, 2016)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIXkpzKSXwo
Combine a beautiful, brain-soothing organ with the most insanely distorted guitar outro that literally sounds like its exploding and you get the perfect album closer, simple as that.

4. Minotaur (Floating Coffin, 2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeD3-sdGf1c
One of the coolest combinations of strings and guitar in any song ever, and it's also about my favourite thing: hating your job! Seriously though this is such a unique sounding song which sets it apart from a lot of the other material from the pre-'Mutilator Defeated' days (when I think the band's sound generally gets a lot more interesting).

3. Nite Expo (Orc, 2017)

Nite Expo was the first Osees song I ever heard and it remains one of my favourites. The song lurches back and forth between nerdy-sounding sections dominated by synths and explosive sections where Dwyer lets loose on guitar. The song's simplicity, brevity, and energy are its strengths and make it an addicting song to listen to over and over again. Also check out my man's guitar in this video, is that not the sickest thing you've ever seen? Transparent and with D20 knobs? I need it.

2. Keys to the Castle (Orc, 2017)

I see Keys to the Castle as the centrepiece of the band's best album, Orc. Everything is at it's best here from the rock solid drums and bass and the typical guitar freak-outs, to the unorthodox dual vocals from Dwyer and Brigid Dawson. John's voice takes centre stage while Dawson's occupies a space of its own off to the side, leading to a unique effect which I love.

Lyrically the song tells the story of a peasant uprising, described with John Dwyer's trademark mix of grim humour and violence. The latter six minutes of the track's eight is a much slower and more subdued instrumental section with more focus on keys and eventually strings which acts as a much needed break at this point in the album.

1. Sticky Hulks (Mutilator Defeated at Last, 2015)

I've talked about Sticky Hulks in at least one previous post on here before, but since then it has grown to become one of my favourite songs of all time. The song follows a similar structure to Nite Expo as it fluctuates between hauntingly beautiful organ passages and noisy guitar lines. It takes it time much more than said song however, building a grim yet fantastical atmosphere befitting of both forested Elven cities and the deepest, darkest corners of space. The calmer, droning guitar section that ends the song is my personal highlight; between it, the drums, and the bass it threatens to put me in a trance.

This KEXP performance of it is particularly good, slowing the song down further which in my opinion enhances the atmosphere even more. Dwyer's vocal performance is also notable for his use of rolled R's that add a bit of additonal flavour. Everything is on point here (and in the studio version). The band's rhythm section has always been so good that it's hard to even mention them, and the guitar tone is also particularly epic. Sticky Hulks is simply a perfect song.

As always, thank you for reading! xoxo, tommy

i havent listened to a single song in this post, but i saw an Osees CD in the sale rack of the record store I went into today, so i picked it up out of curiosity. i just came back to this to see if any of the songs on the album were in ur favs but apparently not a single one made the cut LOL

the album is "panther rotate." i havent listened yet but ill lyk my thoughts when i do B-) have u heard that one?

cyndaquirl wrote: ↑Wed Aug 23, 2023 11:50 pm i havent listened to a single song in this post, but i saw an Osees CD in the sale rack of the record store I went into today, so i picked it up out of curiosity. i just came back to this to see if any of the songs on the album were in ur favs but apparently not a single one made the cut LOL

the album is "panther rotate." i havent listened yet but ill lyk my thoughts when i do B-) have u heard that one?

i have not heard panther rotate but as far as i know it's full of remixes of songs from another album, protean threat (which i also have not heard, but is actually next on my list. they have a lot of albums lol, more than even king gizzard)

i've heard its pretty out there and experimental so i'm curious what you'll make of it haha

ps. their new album, intercepted message, slaps so hard it's like 80s sorta new wave synth punk stuff. if i redid this list now it would definitely feature heavily it's quickly become one of my favourites from osees. i know you like some punk (not that it's all that similar to a band like pup but ya know) so i'd definitely recommend it

OK update i just listened to both protean threat and panther rotate

protean threat was pretty great, not immediately a favourite but definitely a solid batch of songs. terminal jape goes crazy and i really like some of the more chill jams like said the shovel and gong of catastrophe

panther rotate was uh. interesting.. it's definitely experimental and i could totally see how some people could really like this but for me it just sucks most of the fun out of protean threat. not bad by any means but not something i'll likely revisit any time soon, maybe apart from "dont blow your experiment" because it's probably the best song on the album, and its original version is a cover (of "don't blow your mind" by spiders) and not from protean threat. "if i had an experiment" and "gong experiment" were also good but i still prefer the original songs by a pretty large margin.

now very interested to see your take on panther rotate having not heard protean threat (or any osees for that matter)!!