Refreshingly, garagey punks Thee Oh Sees release albums when they feel like it, name them after some monster from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and keep things scrappy and loose. They're clearly not trying to be anybody's “best new music” on Carrion Crawler/Dream, which scales back the scope of Castlemania from earlier this year, which found the band toying with more experimental and orchestrated sounds. Carrion Crawler/Dream puts them back in pure garage-pop territory, aside from the acid-trip tinkering of “Chem-Farmer,” and frankly, they sound liberated. Thee Oh Sees can find excitement and power out of riffs you've heard a hundred times, as in the full-on garage of “Contraception.” Or they'll take a weird, carnivalesque riff and expand upon it until it snags in your head, as in “Carrion Crawler.” Or they'll reimagine Sonic Youth as organ-laden Nuggets-worshippers, as in the gnarly “The Dream.” It's a beguiling listen throughout due to Thee Oh Sees' pure energy, the enthusiasm they clearly have for their source material without any sort of cheeky reverence, and an utter lack of complacency. It's garage heaven without the salty aftertaste.

“Give this a listen and you’ll agree — San Francisco truly has L.A.’s a$$ kicked when it comes to great new rock & roll. These scuzz-garage warlords have made, for my money, their best record yet and one of the hottest-rockin’ slices of garage/trash/boogie since the Time Flys. John Dwyer & co. light a molotov cocktail of screamin’ freakout that ignites an endless mustache boogie that grabs your old lady, puts her on the back of its hog, and vrooms off into the acid sunset.” – Daniel Tures, Hollywood

“Imagine you’re watching one of those old Quincy or Dragnet episodes about the dangers of rock & roll, and they go into a club, some band like THE SEEDS is wailing away on stage, bowl-cuts slappin’ around their nodding heads as they punch the audience in the face with their dangerous garage beats and all the kids are freakin’ the f out!” – J. Mark Beaver, Hollywood

Also available on LP.