If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past several years, you’ve probably been made familiar with John Dwyer, the co-founder of renowned indie rock label, Castle Face Records and the creative mastermind behind the equally renowned, JOVM mainstay act Thee Oh Sees — and throughout that time, Dwyer has maintained a reputation for being insanely prolific. Last year saw the release of two Thee Oh Sees albums — their contribution to Castle Face’s continuing live series, Live in San Francisco and a studio album, Weird Exit, both of which were supported with an intense and busy touring schedule. Somehow, Dwyer had managed to find time to write and record new material for his synth-based, solo, noise rock project Damaged Bug, a project that Thee Oh Sees frontman has publicly described as a welcome respite from the scuzzy, power chord-based garage rock and psych rock he’s long been known for.
Bunker Funk, Dwyer’s soon-to-be released Damaged Bug album will reportedly continue where the preceding effort Cold Hot Plumbs left off, while expanding upon the project’s sound. Earlier this year, I wrote about “Bog Dash,” a single featuring sputtering and noisy squalls of squiggling synths, propulsive, tribal-lke drumming and explosive blasts of guitar paired with Dwyer’s imitable falsetto singing lyrics about traveling across spacetime paired with a funky bass line. The album’s latest single “Unmanned Scanner” pairs menacingly buzzing synths with a T. Rex-inspired boogie shuffle and Dwyer sing-speaking the song’s lyrics with a somewhat ironic detachment while continuing the project’s reputation of sounding like it came from a completely different dimension.