Through a mix of great records, top notch live shows, and a community-supporting DIY spirit, Thee Oh Sees have become one of San Francisco’s most vital bands today. They’re also, it would seem, hellbent on staying one of the City’s most prolific, with this morning’s announcement that Castlemania (artwork above) is coming on June 14th on In The Red Records. Says the press release:

Which brings us to Castlemania, the closest Thee Oh Sees have come to creating a scuffed-up, home-brewed symphony. In other words, there’s more to its 16 tracks than maniacal pop music (“Spider Cider,” “If I Stay Too Long”) or the kind of fang-baring, riff-raking garage rock (“Corrupted Coffin,” “A Wall, A Century 2”) that have made the San Francisco vets one of the underground scene’s few standbys. Slip on a decent pair of headphones to hear what we mean, as junk shop synths float through the ether alongside flutes, horns, mellotrons, and enough scorched bells and whistles to reward many a repeated listen. And then there’s Dwyer’s actual lyrics, which explore familiar themes of love, friends, drugs, and death with a skewed delivery that’s uniquely his.

“I guess there is a theme going on in this record,” admits Dwyer. “It’s shit I didn’t realize while making it—songs about bad things, packaged in a summery record about getting numb to life and its little pleasures as you take it for granted with age.”

Sounds pretty great, right? Oh, and the band is planning another full length album for release this fall, which Dwyer is calling “maybe our best yet.”

By the way, TOS’s Singles Vol. 1 & 2 came out recently on Castle Face — according to Aquarius, it was originally intended to be a Record Store Day release — and I’d grab a copy before it’s gone completely. The double LP on beautiful red and green vinyl collects 24 songs from a whole lot of 7″s that the band has released over the past several years.

15 – Thee Oh Sees – Blood In Your Ear