Bent Arcana Offers “Misanthrope Gets Lunch” From Upcoming Live Zebulon LP

John Dwyer is a rare and fascinating artist who never seems to express any desire to slow down. For more than two decades, the multi-instrumentalist has been pushing out an insane amount of music, most notably with his project OSEES, which has been credited as forming in 1997 as a side/solo/home recording effort. That said, the first album released by the project states that Dwyer recorded the tracks from 1995 to 2001. That double-CD released under the band name, OCS (aka Orinoka.Crash.Suite) includes a small handful of tracks featuring and co-written by Jeffrey Rosenberg. At the time, Dwyer was one half of a duo known as Pink and Brown with drummer, Rosenberg (aka “Brown”) whom he relocated to the Bay Area with from Rhode Island. By the time those initial OCS recordings had finished, Dwyer had gone on to form/front both Coachwhips and Zeigenbock Kopf, later becoming involved in several other projects, including the Portland group, The Hospitals, and The Netmen (feat. Brian Gibson of Lightning Bolt). An elder statesman in the Bay Area garage-psych scene, Dwyer would later release albums for like-minded artists, Ty Segall and White Fence, along with Australian counterparts, King Gizzard And The Lizzard Wizard and ORB, through the Castle Face Records label, which he founded in 2003. Additionally, the label head has self-released four studio albums under the moniker Damaged Bug, which allows him to explore his more experimental electronic noise and synthwave inclinations, along with a pair of books: one of John‘s photographs and another collecting his various poster and music-related DIY advertising work from over the years. So, while Dwyer may be best known for his work as the frontman of a raucous live act that put him on the map — as of the writing of this article, the OSEES have released over 2 dozen LPs under nearly half as many variations of the band name (Orinoka.Crash.Suite, OCS, The Oh Sees, Thee Oh Sees, Oh Sees) often denoting a change in direction and/or a shift in the semi-regularly evolving lineup — it’s fairly evident that the 47-year-old will never be content with restricting himself to any one direction, project, or outlet. Recent forays into the freakout psych-jazz realm only highlights that further.

Over the last couple of years, John Dwyer has been producing some fairly remarkable, albeit somewhat niche, material, even for someone as eclectic as he has proven to be during his 2-and-a-half decades in the music industry. After relocating from San Francisco to Los Angeles, a good 7 or 8 years ago, Dwyer found himself surrounded by familiar cohorts like Segal, White Fence and Mikal Cronin. In fact, it was then that he scooped up bassist, Timothy Hellman (previously of, now-dissolved, Sic Alps) and White Fence drummer, Nick Murry to round out a new incarnation of Thee Oh Sees, at the time. But while his long-established connections to the psych and garage scenes were a benefit to the continuance of the prolific output that his label was, primarily, known for, new collaborations and experiments would kick open sonic pathways that might leave some of his most ardent, longtime fans bewildered. Back in August of 2020, John released Bent Arcana, a free-form improv jazz situation dipping its toes into early 70s electric Miles with a list of contributors 10 deep. To announce the project, Dwyer stated the following…

“This is the first interstellar transmission from five days of electrified & improvised sessions recorded at Stu-Stu-Studio, edited down to 40 minutes for your earballs.

Bent Arcana is the inceptive chapter in what I hope to be several releases showcasing these types of off-the-cuff musical compositions. So you can try your fry on and turn off. This one is very much on the ECM / 70s hard fusion / prog-kraut tip. It is a many pronged weapon, swung by the spontaneous sentinel.“

The full squad that he assembled for the recordings consisted of Ryan Sawyer (Mary Halvorson, Thurston Moore, Zeena Parkins, Boredoms, etc): percussion and bass; Peter Kerlin (Sunwatchers, Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band): electric and double bass; Kyp Malone (Rain Machine, Ice Balloons, TV On The Radio): modular synthesizer; Brad Caulkins (Earth Girl Helen Brown, Oh Sees): tenor saxophone, selmer electric saxophone; Joce Soubiran: tenor saxophone; Tom Dolas (Mr Elevator, Oh Sees): keys; Laena “Geronimo” Myers-Ionita (Feels, Shannon Lay, Michael Pisario): violin; Marcos Rodriguez (Prettiest Eyes, Henry Cole, Fernando Garcia, Matt Jenson, Hellman Escorcia): guitar; Andres Renteria (Adam Rudolph’s Go:Organic Orchestra, Jose Gonzalez, Flying Lotus, Mia Doi Todd, Anna Ternheim, Nick Waterhouse): congas, bongos, percussion; and, of course, John, who mixed the album and did the photography, along with supplying guitar, synthesizer, loops, cuica, voice, and percussion. More “off-the-cuff musical compositions” followed with Austria‘s Rock Is Hell Records release of the driving, groove-heavy,spaced-out and brooding, Witch Egg, which saw Dwyer, Caulkins, and Dolas working with a rhythm section of Nick Murray and upright bassist, Greg Coates. Appealing more to the avant-garde Albert Ayler set, Endless Garbage mirrors the Witch Egg lineup minus Murray; constructing each song, one musician/track at a time, independent of each other, while relying on a foundation of pre-recorded frenetic free-form drum tracks by Ted Byrne, whom Dwyer “met”/recruited, after overhearing him playing in his garage and leaving a note on his car. The physical release dates for the various output didn’t necessarily appear to align chronologically to when they were recorded and, when Moon-Drenched arrived in late May of 2021 — simply adding Ben Boye (Riley Walker, Ty Segall, Mark Kozelek, Bonnie “Prince” Billy) on keys to the original 10-person Bent Arcana lineup — it was credited as “the second installment from these sessions.” 2021 closed out with Gong Splat, a quintet consisting of Dwyer, Sawyer, Coates, and Renteria with Chin Chin member and frequent EL-P/Run The Jewels, Tara Jane Oneil, and Cass McCombs collaborator, Wilder Zoby, on synth. Another great release that remains surprisingly unique from the rest of these sessions, Gong Splat kicks off like a hybrid between On The Corner and CAN‘s Tago Mago, only spacier, and continues to be equally as engaging throughout. Recorded “in the peak of dope smoke lock down,” the product page describes it as, “one final transmission from the core of the planet!” This begged the question of whether or not that only referred to the last one of these offerings for the year, or if these experimental improv jam sessions were coming to an end, in general. We made it halfway through 2022 and no further additions had arrived… until now.

Today Castle Face announces Live At Zebulon with the whirling 7-minute chaos of “Misanthrope Gets Lunch.” Slated for a September 6th release date, the new live album features a stripped-down 6-member incarnation of the Bent Arcana lineup (Dwyer, Ryan Sawyer, Tom Dolas, Peter Kerlin, Andrew Renteria, and Jocelyn Soubiran).

Dwyer elaborates:

“Recorded at Zebulon in Los Angeles as a warm up show for a show I had booked in Holland.
What was meant to be a jumping point for the ‘first show’ ended up being a real burning set.
A slightly more stripped down version on the 10 piece band (for sake of ease) keeps it nice and concise.
Nerves sometimes bring out these little lost jewels of which this recording is full of…gotta love improvisation for fleeting moments.
Recorded super hot by none other than our sound person Liza Boldyreva.
Selections of songs from Bent Arcana & Moon Drenched
Cockpit stoned space jazz here you come.
Mixed by John Dwyer and mastered by JJ Golden.
This hunky double disk sports a zoetropic screen-print ed animation of the Death’s Head moth circling on its D side that works
with a strobe light off yer phone….
fucking cool
fucking hot
dig in and be well.“

There have been a number of references to the pandemic and/or lockdown in relation to these releases and the time period in which they’ve been created, so the ability to play live must be an incredibly freeing sensation for an artist like Dwyer who attacks every show with an overwhelming release of energy. I’d imagine that these sessions all provided a similar catharsis – the Gong Splat description even read, “There’s a show tonight! Welcome back humans.”

OSEES are currently touring Europe before returning to the US for a string of dates promoting A Foul Form, which comes out August 12th. Their first release since 2020 — a year in which they released 3 different records — this new album is a guttural reaction to the chaos and bullshit of the last few years, drawing inspiration from the rebellious hardcore aggression of bands like Black Flag, Crass, Bad Brains, and The Stooges that the members grew up on. The way these two releases overlap and the fact that OSEES will be touring through October, at minimum, leaves doubt that we will see much physical promotion for Live Zebulon beyond the occasional single and/or video post. That said, while all the free-form experiments filled a temporary void and may not be for everyone, I’d love to see them continue again in the future. The good news is that OSEES are notorious for their over-the-top live shows and, if we never wind up with any live Bent Arcana dates, in the future, at least we’re getting the recording of one such sonic freakout, in the meantime.

Check out “Misanthrope Gets Lunch” below.