[still from this video]

Thee Oh Sees released their new album Mutilator Defeated At Last a couple of weeks ago in mid-May. The reviews have been unanimously positive for this record, and we personally feel that this is perhaps the most fully realized album that the band has released to date. The most insightful review of the album is by our friend Adam Schatz (from Landlady) who, by simply describing in minute detail the album’s first song “Web”, says more about this excellent release on one page than we could in a week. The article is in the Talkhouse and it was published yesterday.

One aspect of the album not discussed by Adam but something that we’ve experienced personally has been the development of the songs in a live setting over the last few cycles of NYC performances. All the way back at the Summer of 2014 at McCarren Park, the band played three new songs that were unknown to us until I asked John Dwyer directly at Death By Audio the following night for the song titles. The three songs, “Web”, “Withered Hand” and “Lupine Ossuary” (originally called “Lupine Dominus II”) were featured at each of those Summer shows in their earliest form. By the time the band came to Bowery Ballroom in November (perhaps our best sounding TOS recording to date), four new songs were added to the rotation, so that the setlist was comprised of half new songs that would ultimately see release on Mutilator.

At South By Southwest, Thee Oh Sees played a ton of shows, but the one we caught was the longest and maybe the wildest set they played all week. The showcase at Hotel Vegas featured all bands under the superb umbrella of Panache Booking, and TOS closed the night well after midnight with an hour-long set in the pouring rain that featured a crazy amount of stage jumpers, people hanging from the trees, and ultimately the finale with the legendary diminutive rapper Bushwick Bill. The set was again heavy on new material (five Mutilator tracks) which were all fully developed and flowed naturally with the older songs. Of the new songs, we’re partial to the early-Floyd flavor of “Sticky Hulks” and we are streaming that selection below.

Thee Oh Sees are currently finishing up the final dates of a long European tour, and there are some announced US shows for the Summer, but we are waiting patiently for the announcement of new NYC dates.

I recorded this show in the same manner at the Wand set from this night. I mounted the Sennheiser Cards underneath the soundboard tent to avoid the rain and mixed with a board feed. There was a lot of chatter under the tent and the board is a bit drum heavy but the mix of the two (70% board) creates a better balance and the result is an excellent recording. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream “Sticky Hulks”:

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

Thee Oh Sees
2015-03-20
Hotel Vegas – Panache SXSW
Austin, TX USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Sennheiser MKH-8040 Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 59:11]
01 I Come From the Mountain
02 Tunnel Time
03 Poor Queen
04 Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster
05 Withered Hand
06 Dead Energy
07 Sticky Hulks
08 The Dream
09 Turned Out Light
10 Tidal Wave
11 Encrypted Bounce
12 [thanks]
13 Lupine Ossuary
14 [Bushwick Bill intro]
15 Skitso (Medley)

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Thee Oh Sees, visit their website, and purchase Mutilator Defeated At Last from Castle Face Records [HERE].