(In the Red)

www.intheredrecords.com

John Dwyer, of the million past projects (Pink and Brown, Coachwhips, Hospitals are probably the best known), has been plying his semi-solo OCS-Ohsees-Thee Ohsees trade for most of the aughts now, taking the project from the tape-hissed, folk-blues bedroom intimacy of the early numbered releases on Narnack into a full-blooded, full-banded psych-garage iteration on In the Red. My first inkling of how far things had come happened at SXSW this year, when I caught Thee Ohsees at the Woodsist Party on the last night of the festival. Slipped in amongst lo-fi garagistes a decade or so younger, Dwyer's outfit was the manic highpoint of the evening, and Dwyer himself, reverbed to the nines, bouncing and grinning and slashing at an old guitar labeled "J.P.D.", was the unacknowledged king of melodic distortion.  No record can capture Dwyer's frantic charm and energy, a stage presence that is both surreally over-the-top and regular-guy approachable. Still, Help comes pretty damned close. If this is not the best garage rock record of the year, it'll only be because Jay Reatard pulls a career high later on in 2009. I hope it happens, but I'm not counting on it.

Early OCS records had a fragile underwater bleariness that masked melodies in layers of distortion. Help though far more rock in its riffs and rhythms, shares that indefinite aura of dreaminess.  "Can You See?" is all soft-focus harmonies on top, a drift of clouds that breaks, once in a while for the hot sting of blues guitars. Even rocker "Ruby Come Home", where shouted "heys" elicit  tangled guitars, where rumbling bass is punctuated with staccato six-string shrieks, is sung mostly in tight girl-boy harmonies - Dwyer matching up with Bridget Dawson with an insouciance that is almost pop. One song later, on "Meat Step Lively", a grinding blues vamp supports spiraling 1960s guitars, a hippie flute solo and super melodic choruses.  It's this combination of fire and coolness, of rhythmic intensity and psychedelic expansiveness, that make Help so compelling.  

The sound on Help is tantalizingly close to familiar, yet references are hard to nail down. Dwyer seems to have figured out how to re-imagine Nuggets-era psychedelic pop without copying it, without turning himself into an anachronism and without letting things get too comfortable.   This is a great, fresh take on a genre that has been raked over thoroughly - and almost as good as Dwyer's live show.

Standout Tracks: "Ruby Come Home" "Meat Step Lively" JENNIFER KELLY