ART OF SONG
Thee Oh Sees
“Ghost in the Trees”
The Master’s Bedroom is Worth Spending a Night In
2008 | Tomlab

Put on your imagination hats, kids, it’s time to get hypothetical. It’s a hot summer night, and the air is heavy and damp. It’s dark and the moon is mostly covered by thick clouds, leaving you with limited visibility and a sense of adventure. You’re standing in front of a giant old haunted house, on a grassy lawn with weeping willows and other foliage that looks creepy in the dark. Do you go inside?

I probably wouldn’t.

But it doesn’t matter, the ghosts are in the trees.

With a “one-two-three-four!” the chugging bassline starts, and suddenly you are surrounded by otherworldly visitors. These visitors? They’re called Thee Oh Sees.

Formerly known as Orinoka Crash Suite, the Orange County Sound, the Oh Sees, The Ohsees, and a bunch of other names/spellings I don’t have the space for, Thee Oh Sees are a lo-fi San Francisco based group. I managed to see them at the Woodsist & Captured Tracks Festival, (though I missed their set at Siren Fest), but they’ll be back in New York in October if you’re curious.

I would really love to tell you the lyrics to this song, and offer an in-depth analysis of their meanings. But this is not that kind of song. In fact, as I listened to it on repeat, struggling to glean words out of Thee Oh Sees’ melodic shrieks, this is about as far as I managed to get. “I can see, I can see you / You’re shaking the leaves.” And something about “hiding behind a waterfall,” I think (maybe).
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