Cold Hot Plumbs

Far removed from late era Osees, Damaged Bug has John Dwyer fiddlin' and doodlin' with synths, while writing his best melodies since they were all spotted at the same one location with Thee Hounds of Foggy Concept. It's fresh stuff, you can feel his artistic charge reigniting, with a genuine sense of newness, not some feigned attempt at a sound change that a lot of people fall under the spell of.

These goofy and light beats, most of the album does, with some vintage and psychedelic synth work, and Dwyer singing his usual "thing in itself" stuff. It's simple but it works really well.

This album, but everything is overloaded, accelerated 3 times, and the sound of synths is similar to the soundtrack from blade runner!

I.D.M. LP

What if it was only synth?

The 12" synth

Damaged bug

Hubba Bubba

"Damaged Bug is Oh Sees mastermind John Dwyer’s latest bit of cracked pop alchemy. Recorded at home in the fall of 2013 with a variety of synthesizers, drum machines and assorted handmade electronics.

The project is the cure to the ailment of too much guitar for too long. Fizzing and sputtering like a glowing, temperamental cockpit control panel, Dwyer bunkered deep in a blinking laboratory, penning songs about the long arc of our travels across space and time. Propulsive beats and synthetic veneers coat laser-guided melodies reflecting off shiny metal surfaces while instrumental interludes pop in and out like breaks in the asteroid belt."

Tarot of Personal Experience

"For his part, Dwyer’s "Smoggy Terminus" is massive and entrancing, mantra-like, double drums spinning like a mandala spacewards, and it’s backed by wistfully funked "Horse Egg 2" and a blinking chamber-pop slice of pie "Stellar Dust”. A little taste of what our man’s been brewing in his castle’s basement, and there is more yet to come..."

Bunker Funk

Bunker Funk probably just as good as Cold Hot Plumbs which is also great. This one is maybe a bit rockier. With each album the Bug becomes less an experiment and more an alternate outlet for Dwyer's great rock songs, which is totally cool since they're all excellent.

"Oh my, what is this? The alien globule of Damaged Bug’s errant planet has circled the sun and is re-entering our orbit where last year’s Cold Hot Plumbs left off. Urgent falsetto morbidities detail this most rhythmically adventurous offering yet: Bunker Funk — syncopating lush landscapes with moon-shot death rays.

Oh my, what is this? The alien globule of Damaged Bug’s errant planet has circled the sun and is re-entering our orbit where last year’s Cold Hot Plumbs left off. Urgent falsetto morbidities detail this most rhythmically adventurous offering yet: Bunker Funk — syncopating lush landscapes with moon-shot death rays."

Bug On Yonkers

The minor but interesting John Dwyer releases can be found in his Damaged Bug output these days. Even hardcore fans of Oh Sees could probably miss this, as it's a set of pretty ordinary psychedelic rock, similar to what he's done many times and much better before.

This record contains covers of Michael Yonkers, an OG psych rocker who I don't know, but who I immediately feel connected to because of how much of Dwyer's work I've listened to and how much he's been impacted by Yonkers' work.

"So, this record was recorded as a way to reboot and reconnect with some songs that have heavily inspired me over the years.

It was hard to pick from his vast catalog, so I just sort of jumped in, with Tom Dolas, Nick Murray, and Brigid Dawson as my band (along with a bevy of others along the way) and these are the tunes that stuck to the wall.