Osees frontman John Dwyer continues his lifelong experiment in sonic chaos and visual art with two new releases that capture both the ferocity and imagination of one of rock’s most inventive bands. The live double LP Live at the Broad Museum and Dwyer’s stop-motion short film PILOT (with its accompanying soundtrack) are both out now via Deathgod.
While many bands slow down after nearly three decades, Dwyer and Osees seem to thrive on acceleration. Live at the Broad Museum bottles the volatile energy of the group’s 2024 Los Angeles performance – a barrage of fuzz, groove, and distortion that feels as urgent as the band’s earliest garage recordings. The performance has been released not only as a double LP but also as a full-length live concert film now available online.
Pilot, meanwhile, is Dwyer’s latest creative detour, a stop-motion short film scored and produced entirely by him. The project builds on his reputation as one of rock’s most prolific experimenters, bridging his love of film, visual art, and noise into a vivid, dystopian fable. The Pilot Original Soundtrack (OST) is also out today on Deathgod.
Speaking about Pilot, Dwyer offered his typically raw and political edge, “It feels like it’s all lighting off. Too easily humans forget their humanity… Fear and greed have dug their bloody hands into everything. Recognise this abomination. Oppose the oppressor. F*** the fascists and their enablers.”
Osees ‘ Live at the Broad Museum captures the band at their most unhinged and hypnotic. The album features the classic line-up of John Dwyer (vocals/guitar/synths), Tom Dolas (guitar/keys/samples), Tim Hellman (bass), and Dan Rincon (drums), tearing through an electrifying set that compresses two decades of evolution into one night of controlled mayhem.
Dwyer has long treated live performance as both ritual and experiment – an endurance test where punk fury meets psychedelic improvisation. “We work hard,” he once told New York Music News. “Most of the songs are worked out live, and when we record, it’s in two days. The rest is just having fun.” That sense of immediacy has carried across more than 28 studio albums and countless shows, with Live at the Broad Museum standing as their most vivid document yet.
Formed in San Francisco in 1997, Osees began as Dwyer’s freak-folk side project under the name Orinoka Crash Suite (OCS). Over the years, the project morphed through multiple identities, The Oh Sees, Thee Oh Sees, Oh Sees, and finally Osees, each reinvention bringing a new mutation of sound. Early records such as The Master’s Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In (2008) and Carrion Crawler/The Dream (2011) became underground classics, defining a wave of modern garage psych.
The group’s evolution has been relentless: from lo-fi folk experiments to high-voltage garage punk, and into their current mix of krautrock, noise, and progressive jams. Dwyer’s creative philosophy remains constant – no repetition, no nostalgia, no comfort zone. The result is a discography as sprawling and unpredictable as Frank Zappa’s or King Gizzard’s, but with its own brand of Californian menace.
To mark the new releases, Osees have announced a North American tour that will see them headline major rooms including Brooklyn’s Warsaw (25 & 26 October), Chicago’s Thalia Hall, and Los Angeles’ Teragram Ballroom.
Dwyer will reunite onstage with Brigid Dawson, a longtime collaborator and former band member, for select dates.
TOUR DATES
10/11 – Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom (w/ Brigid Dawson)
10/17 – Austin, TX – Hotel Vegas
10/18 – Austin, TX – Hotel Vegas
10/19 – Dallas, TX – Ferris Wheelers
10/20 – Hot Springs National Park, AR – Cedar Glades Park
10/22 – Indianapolis, IN – Deluxe at Old National Centre
10/24 – Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts
10/25 – Brooklyn, NY – Warsaw
10/26 – Brooklyn, NY – Warsaw
10/28 – Cleveland, OH – The Globe Iron
10/29 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
10/30 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
11/2 – Oklahoma City, OK – Tower Theatre
11/4 – Santa Fe, NM – Meow Wolf
11/5 – Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom
11/22 – Querétaro, MX – Cervecería Hércules
11/29 – Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom (w/ Brigid Dawson)
12/19 – Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom (w/ Brigid Dawson and The Mother’s Network)
