Local experimental punk band Oxbow plays rare SF show at Great American
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- One of the longest running experimental-rock outfits in the Bay Area, Oxbow has gone from clearing rooms in the early '90s with its squalling, abrasive music and the sometimes confrontational onstage performance of singer Eugene Robinson to become an acclaimed mainstay on San Francisco's fringe music scene.
Robinson first collaborated with Oxbow guitarist and main musical arranger Niko Wenner when he joined the singer's artrock-meets-hardcore band Whipping Boy in time to contribute to the group's final full album The Third Secret of Fatima in 1985. The far more unconventional Oxbow began strictly as a recording project late in the decade. Former Whipping Boy drummer Dan Adams switched to bass for the band while drumming chores were split by Greg Davis and Tom Dobrov (Davis would take over full time in 1993 after Dobrov's departure).
Formed around the concept of musical freedom with no commercial aspirations, Oxbow mixed elements of noise rock that echoed Nick Cave's early band the Birthday Party and NYC sonic extremists Swans as well as such diverse inspirations as blues (in Wenner's screaming, dive-bombing bottleneck solos), dissonant modern classical, punk and metal. The cacophonous musical bed was matched by Robinson's wailing, unhinged delivery of multi-tracked vocals that sound like avant-garde singer Diamanda Galas channeling the right Reverend Al Green.
The band's dense and challenging early albums found a core of fans drawn to the extremism of the music, including noted recording engineer and Big Black/Shellac guitarist Steve Albini who would help track Oxbow's even more ambitious efforts, 1995's Let Me Be a Woman and 1997's cinematic Serenade in Red. The latter album featured a guest spot from UK chanteuse Marianne Faithful on a harrowing cover of Willie Dixon's "Insane Asylum."
In the first decade of the new millennium, Oxbow only issued two proper studio albums -- An Evil Heat in 2002 on Neurot Records and the conceptual opus The Narcotic Story on Hydra Head -- but the group also branched out into film with the release of the tour documentary Music For Adults. The film followed a 2002 Oxbow tour through Europe and some of Robinson's more physical confrontations with concertgoers who decided to test out his reputation for brawling. Tthe MMA-trained singer would publish an acclaimed first-hand account of his exploration of combat, Fight: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About A**-Kicking but Were Afraid You'd Get Your A** Kicked for Asking, in 2007.
The band would spend the better part of a decade working on their long-awaited recording The Thin Black Duke , but Oxbow has also delved into a variety of configurations, performing as an acoustic quartet as well as a stripped-down duo of just Wenner and Robinson. The pair has also toured Europe and played Birmingham, England's 2012 Supersonic Festival backed by a full chamber ensemble billed as the Oxbow Orchestra. Despite longtime record label Hydra Head having gone out of business, the imprint would come out of dormancy to release The Thin Black Duke in 2017.
Filling out their sound with meticulously arranged horns and strings that give Robinson's menacing vocal ruminations and the band's foreboding tunes a sweeping, cinematic scope, The Think Black Duke was hailed by many as the quartet's greatest achievement yet, The dense, dark-hearted journey of an album made numerous best of lists and affirmed Oxbow's place in the vanguard of modern experimental rock. The band would tour Europe extensively after its release, making numerous festival appearances including a celebrated live collaboration with German free-jazz saxophone legend Peter Brötzmann at the Moers Festival in 2018. A recording of that performance would be issued late last year, just months before Brötzmann sadly passed away in June.
The band would use the enforced downtime of the pandemic to continue working on new material for its next effort, though Robinson ended up in the spotlight due to his outspoken criticism of the now disgraced and under investigation Silicon Valley media company Ozy Media where he worked for years as an editor and regular contributor. He has also branched out with his own online subscription newsletter, Look What You Made Me Do featuring writing that details his contentious stint with the company as well as other essays on culture and his own brush with death due to nearly fatal gastrointestinal issues.
Released this past summer on Mike Patton's Ipecac Recordings, Love's Holiday kicks off with a blistering pair of propulsive noise-rock tracks -- "Dead Ahead" and "Icy White & Crystalline," two of the most ferocious tunes the band has produced on recent efforts that at times echo the careening chaos of the Jesus Lizard. The balance of the album settles into Oxbow's more familiar brooding menace with a few notable twists provided by guest artists: Kristin Hayter aka Lingua Ignota adds soaring operatic vocals to "Lovely Murk" and Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (Jellyfish/Beck) contributing multi-tracked vocal harmonies to the woozy, dreamlike "1,000 Hours." A 15-voice choir also expand the band's sonic palette on "All Gone" and "Gunwale."
The band's growing ambitions have extended to the videos for the album, with seven of the record's ten tracks receiving an elaborate visual treatment. Once again, Oxbow's latest finds the group pushing boundaries into astounding new territory. The band delivers songs from Love's Holiday when it plays its first San Francisco show in nearly two years at the Great American Music Hall Thursday night. Joining the band on this swing of West Coast dates are a pair of rising noise-rock outfits.
Founded in Atlanta by guitarist/singer Christian Lembach in 2010, Whores. announced itself to the world with the corrosive, sludgy assault of their Ruiner EP the following year that nodded heavily to the Amphetamine Reptile school of sonic fury. The band has released several EPs and singles in addition to their crushing full-length debut Gold. in 2016, showcasing Lembach's gift for pulverizing riffs and comical song titles ("I See You Are Also Wearing a Black T-shirt" and "I Have a Prepared Statement" are just two examples). Whores. have released a pair of of new recordings in the past couple of years -- a cover of the AC/DC song "Have a Drink on Me" and the new tune "Imposter Syndrome" -- and reportedly have their second album finished.
Opening act Psychic Trash features guitarist/singer Max Dameron and drummer/singer Sam Ford, a Portland-based duo that established itself as standout purveyors of heavy weirdness with relentless touring and several albums under the moniker Wizard Rifle for over a decade. The band has since changed their name and relocated to Detroit and is set to release its first EP as Psychic Trash through Riding Easy Records later this month.
Oxbow with Whores. and Psychic Trash
Thursday, Nov. 9, 7 p.m. $23-$28
Great American Music Hall