Review by RICK SCHINDLER
Rooftop performances have a storied history in Rock ‘n’ Roll. The most famous is the Beatles’ concert atop the Apple Corps building in London in January 1969, documented in Let It Be (1970) and The Beatles: Get Back (2021).
Just a couple of months before that, Jefferson Airplane woke up many Manhattanites with a similarly unannounced performance on the roof of the nine-story Hotel Schuyler. This, too, was documented (by iconic filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, no less). In both cases, the cops eventually arrived and ordered the bands to turn it down. It doesn’t get more Rock ‘N’ Roll than that.
Presumably, Osees secured permits to play their new album, Sorcs 80, live on a rooftop helipad in downtown Los Angeles, because no police show up at the end of the 38-minute video (although a siren is faintly heard). Audio of that performance is captured on Sorcs 80 (Live), a bonus album that accompanies the band’s 29th studio album.
No guitars (other than bass) were harmed in the making of either album: The instruments mostly comprise Roland SPD-SX samplers and a hammering rhythm section. John Dwyer, the band’s founder and leading light, composed the songs by laying down drum loops, then building riffs and words on top of them.
The result is a lo-fi tour de force, a relentless onslaught of neo-punk and mutant metal that echoes such artists as the Weirdos, the Clash, Black Sabbath, X-Ray Spex and the Sex Pistols. On “Cochon d’argent,” for example, Dwyer rages Johnny Rotten-style against the privileged class who “exist in a spoiled vacuum / Sucking up all the fucking air.” On “Blimp,” he mocks himself with equal contempt: “I’m preachy but full of holes / I’m a plastic soul.”
But while the album throbs with anger, it’s never sloppy: Its songs are carefully crafted, with clever lyrics and compelling hooks. “Cassius, Brutus & Judas,” the album’s lead single, alludes to the three traitors Dante relegated to the very bottom of his Inferno as it decries “Greed so strong, it fucking glows.” On “Also the Gorilla…” the chorus of “What’s up?” and the percolating tempo are positively insidious.
Still, it’s the anarchic energy of punk that propels Sorcs 80 without letup from the frantic opening of “Look At the Sky” to the last electronic gurgle of “Neo-Clone.” On “Drug City,” Dwyer croaks and squawks over a grinding heavy metal riff before squealing saxophones subsume him. Somewhere, Poly Styrene is smiling.
Check out Osees ‘Sorcs 80 Live Helipad DTLA’ here:
OSEES:
John Dwyer sampler, elec drum & vocals
Tom Dolas sampler
Tim Hellman bass
Paul Quattrone drums
Dan Rincon drums
Director/Editor
Delaney Schenker
DP/Colorist
Nate Gold
Camera Operators
Andrew Schrader
Andy Melo
Sound Engineer
Enrique Tena Padilla
DIT/AE
Cecily Lo
PA
Matt Sonnack
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