If you’ve followed the San Francisco underground for the past 10 years, you might already be familiar with John Dwyer. Or—tastes depending—you might not know him at all. A friend and devotee of preeminent Providence noise rock act, Lightning Bolt, the majority of Dwyer’s repertoire falls on the indie spectrum’s more visceral wavelengths. He was Pink in Pink and Brown, fronted Coachwhips, and played guitar in the dysfunctional Hospitals. If you’re unfamiliar with or in search of a refresher, you can search YouTube for a crash course on any of these bands. Some popular tags are: “garage,” “punk,” and “sweat.”

If you like what you see, do yourself a favor and check out Dwyer’s “new” band, Thee Oh Sees. “New” because they’ve only been around for six albums—albeit in different incarnations, under several different names (OCS, the Oh Sees, et al.) with several different sounds. Formed in the wake of his more volatile commitments, it’s been written that Thee Oh Sees are an extension of Dwyer’s softer side. But Dwyer might consider Thee Oh Sees an attempt at self-preservation.

“When I was in the Hospitals with Adam Stonehouse, I’d literally have to put my guitar down and leave the club to take a fucking walk around the block afterwards, or else I thought I was going to kill him… [But] we all get along pretty good, except for me and Mike,” Dwyer jokes. As the newest member of the band, drummer Mike Shoun is often the target of good-natured hazing, especially by Dwyer. Shoun takes it in stride.

“It’s a grown up kind of thing for me now, for sure. I don’t have problems with anyone in the band, so emotionally, it’s pretty easy,” Dwyer says.

Ironically, this levity and peace of mind has inspired Thee Oh Sees’ wildest, weirdest, hardest-rocking record yet. The difference between last year’s Sucks Blood and Thee Oh Sees’ latest record, The Master’s Bedroom is Worth Spending a Night In (out on Castle-Face/Tomlab Records April 8th), is metamorphic. Sucks Blood espoused an eerie, breathy psychedelia, replete with folk influences and billowing, sculpted noise; The Master’s Bedroom takes the soft, creeping shadows of Sucks Blood and polishes them until they’re a bold, shiny black.

“It feels like since I’ve been in the band, it’s been about three different bands, musically. Which is lovely, because it always keeps your interest,” says singer Brigid Dawson, her accent British by way of Santa Cruz. “[But this one is] total rock ‘n’ roll.”

From the snarling onset of album opener “Block of Ice”, it’s clear that The Master’s Bedroom’s full-tilt energy shares a kindred soul with Dwyer’s past projects. But here, Dwyer’s old penchant for crumbling distortion is replaced by waves of atmospheric reverb and warped, warbling echoes. Dawson and Dwyer yelp and whoop in demonic harmony over the intensified rhythm section of Shoun and guitarist Petey Dammit.

Recorded in a separate session with David Sitek (TV on the Radio) and Chris Woodhouse (the A Frames), as an album, The Master’s Bedroom draws straight, dark lines to the British psychedelic rock of bands like the Creation, but that’s not all. A Cramps-like appreciation for rockabilly lies not far below the rippling reverb of songs like “Visit Colonel” and “Adult Acid.” And although Thee Oh Sees aren’t married to kitsch like the B-52s, there are shades of Pierson-Schneider in Dawson-Dwyer’s reverb-encrypted vocals. Is it a comment on the superfluity of lyrical content in the context of rock, or just a fun trick to get you listening closer?