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Osees is an American rock music band formed in San Francisco, California in 1997, now based in Los Angeles, California. Originally the solo recording project of John Dwyer, the band has evolved through numerous line-up and name changes since its founding, with Dwyer serving as the band leader and primary songwriter throughout. Alongside Dwyer, the band's current line-up includes longtime members, Tim Hellman (bass), Butch Sunset (bongos), Paul Quattrone (drums) and Tomas Dolas (keyboards).
The group's sound draws from a wide variety of influences, including garage rock, krautrock, psychedelia, and folk music. Osees are noted for their prolific recording output, energetic live shows, and off-kilter visual aesthetic. The group has released twenty-eight studio albums, to date, alongside various EPs, singles and compilations.
Initially a solo freak folk recording project, Dwyer evolved the project into a full garage rock band, featuring Brigid Dawson (keyboards, backing vocals), Petey Dammit (bass, guitar), Mike Shoun (drums), and Lars Finberg (drums, guitar), while releasing the acclaimed albums, The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In (2008), Carrion Crawler/The Dream (2011) and Floating Coffin (2013).
After relocating to Los Angeles in late 2013, Dwyer changed the line-up of the band, with Sic Alps bass guitarist Tim Hellman and White Fence drummer Nick Murray replacing Dawson, Dammit!, Shoun and Finberg. Following the release of the band's sixteenth studio album, Mutilator Defeated At Last (2015), Dwyer and Hellman began touring with a bongo player and drummer, Butch Sunset and Ryan Moutinho, replacing Murray. Touring extensively, this line-up recorded the band's seventeenth and eighteenth studio albums, A Weird Exits and An Odd Entrances, with Moutinho departing in late 2016 to focus on his own projects.
With the arrival of new drummer Paul Quattrone, the band recorded its nineteenth album, Orc, with co-producers Ty Segall, Eric Bauer and Enrique Tena. In late 2017, Dwyer reunited with Dawson for a primarily acoustic album, Memory of a Cut Off Head, which returned to the band's lo-fi roots, and featured several former and current Oh Sees members. After two studio albums featuring a heavy, progressive rock sound— Smote Reverser (2018) and Face Stabber (2019)—the band changed its name to Osees in July 2020, with the announcement of their twenty-third album, Protean Threat. The group continued to release prolifically under the new name, putting out Metamorphosed, alongside a remix album and an EP before the end of 2020. The band's twenty-eighth album, Abomination Revealed at Last, was released on August 8, 2025.
The first two Osees albums featured Dwyer as a solo performer, featuring instrumental acoustic songs. The project expanded into a group with the addition of percussionist Patrick Mullins on Songs About Death & Dying Vol. 3. The pair were soon joined by keyboardist and vocalist Brigid Dawson ahead of the project's fifth album, The Cool Death of Island Raiders. Regarding her addition to the band, Dwyer noted: "I met Brigid at the coffee shop Patrick Mullins and I used to go to when we were hungover every morning. She mentioned that she had a band too, and I was like, ‘I wanna come and see you’. She said, ‘You’re not gonna like it…’ Whenever someone says that to me it’s a challenge – so we went and it was actually really great. I realised she had a beautiful voice – and almost immediately I realised I wanted to poach her! She’s also a genuinely lovely person, so it was an easy decision."
The group's first six studio albums (and other contemporary output) were recorded in a freak folk style, with lo-fi recording techniques, quiet percussion, and acoustic guitar as the lead instrument.
During this period, Dwyer founded Castle Face Records to facilitate the release of Osees records.
Osees released some of their most critically acclaimed studio albums under this lineup, including Carrion Crawler/The Dream (2011) — which features live show staple "The Dream", and Floating Coffin (2013).
The current line-up began to solidify during the recording of 2017's Orc, and was finalized by the addition of keyboardist (and occasional guitarist) Tomas Dolas during the recording of 2018's Smote Reverser. Since 2017, the group's output has prominently featured the influence of krautrock, with releases and performances typically containing long, improvised, progressive jams. Extended jams are featured with particular prominence on Face Stabber (2019), and Metamorphosed (2020). Some recent releases explore a particular style outside the group's usual repertoire. For example, Panther Rotate (2020) explores remix, and A Foul Form (2022) is recorded in a hardcore punk style. Since 2016, Osees recordings and performances have incorporated Double drumming, which is unusual in rock music.
Dwyer continues to occasionally collaborate with ex-bandmember Dawson on Osees releases, most notably on the 2017 release Memory of a Cut Off Head, a one-off return to the band's original freak folk style.
Regarding the group's tendency towards experimentation in recent years, John Dwyer explains in a 2019 interview:
Former
Former studio contributors
Released as The Ohsees
Released as Thee Oh Sees
Released as Osees
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