Announce New Albums From OXBOW and BERGRAVEN!
OXBOW
"The Narcotic Story" (June 5th, 2007)
The malls whisper. The halls whisper. The phone rings. And you are mocked and shamed while walls shiver down like wet sand and it is noticed like you are noticed, which is to say: not at all. And through all of their glass, steel and formless cold you move like it moves, along and alone, and you sleep while standing and you stand while waiting for buses and cars and in clubs at bars.
And then there is change. Crystalline change.
And between spaces and for spaces of the full measure of IT ALL what was big becomes small and what's small becomes animal grand until it's you, and handfuls of you, running into the always firing sun: a love that spells its name along the frame of everything that's broken. For good. For ever. And so it goes that OXBOW'S THE NARCOTIC STORY, co-produced by Grammy-winning producer-mixer JOE CHICCARELLI [FRANK ZAPPA, AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB, THE SHINS, THE RACONTEURS] is the sixth chambered installment of a suicide that plays itself out on the hustings of a substanced and principled addiction to failure while the band plays on.
From their previous time and tutelage with the estimable STEVE ALBINI, seven records, multiple tours of Europe, Asia, and the United States, a documentary film [MUSIC FOR ADULTS], TV appearances [ViVA TV] and collaborations with a raft of luminaries of stage and screen - MARIANNE FAITHFULL, LYDIA LUNCH, JARBOE, KLAUS FLOURIDE, RICHARD KERN-OXBOW and their penchant for plumb lines of catastrophe direct THE NARCOTIC STORY, the first in a triptych [to later include both a film and a soundtrack] of successful [and beautiful] ruin.
PAST stage performances have included outings with CASPAR & PETER BROTZMANN, THE MELVINS, JESU, BIG BUSINESS, JESUS LIZARD, THE BOREDOMS, KING DIAMOND, ORANJ SYMPHONETTE, GENGHIS TRON, YAKUZA, NEUROSIS, ZENI GEVA, SHELLAC, BORIS, THE RUINS, THE UNSANE, CONVERGE, DEERHOOF, SAHARA HOTNIGHTS, ZU, ARAB ON RADAR, SIX FINGERED SATELLITE, PELICAN, and more.
OXBOW [and OXBOW's acoustic duo LOVE'S HOLIDAY] is touring Europe with ISIS from May 24th to June 22, 2007. With additional outings July 2nd in London and July 15th in Birmingham, England for the Supersonic Festival. U.S shows will be announced subsequent to their return.
OXBOW's vocalist EUGENE ROBINSON's book Fight: Or, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ass-Kicking but Were Afraid You'd Get Your Ass Kicked for Asking [Harper Collins] is scheduled for a fall release and will also be followed by a spoken word tour.
More facts:
There is nothing contrived in the Oxbow oeuvre. And after the blood, sweat, tears, brilliance, and panache of their previous records, Narcotic Story IS an absolute tour de force—the kind of music and narrative (it follows the drugridden tales of Eugene’s alter ego, Frank) that can only be crafted from REAL experience and passion. This record has rampant blues hooks, serpentine vocals, and deep rhythm all over. Strap on. Sink in.
This is the first proper new full length for Oxbow on Hydra Head, following 2006’s audio and visual retrospective Love That’s Last: A Wholly Hypnographic and Disturbing Work Regarding Oxbow. This is a record that solidifies what we’ve referred to in our office as “the most important band in the world”. It’s going to be impossible to look past what is surely one of the last bastions of true music and performance, i.e. fucking art.
The Oxbow performance, as a recent SXSW stand-off reminds us, continues to engage and challenge like no other. Prepare to see Oxbow tour a ton for this new platter. They’re already confirmed as main support for ISIS in Europe.
Words on Oxbow:
Oxbow is expression in its purest form; they bring it in and spew it out—they are the great leveler. Unrepentant fury tempered with unparalleled musicianship. There has never been a band with will to form like this and within that will; there can only be one. Anybody who's been in the midst of an Oxbow performance knows the fear. If you embrace it you will be rewarded, if you deny it you better get your ass out of the room. - Scott Kelly/Neurosis
I've been cheered by Oxbow's career trajectory. - King Coffee, Butthole Surfers
What is it about Oxbow that strikes fear into the hearts of men, women, and children of all ilk and denomination? The band’s awe-inspiring predatory squall? Their lengthy history of confrontational live shows? Is it the fact that frontman Eugene Robinsonhas electrical tape over his ears and will stomp the tar out of you (gladly) if only you’d ask (or get too close)? Only the members of a band with albums entitled Fuckfest, King of the Jews (featuring a picture of Sammy Davis, Jr. on the cover) and The Balls in the Great Meatgrinder Collection would know. – DECIBEL MAGAZINE
Oxbow's compelling, ugly vision of hardcore inhabits the slow burning afterglow of some unspecified catastrophe... the band's commitment to only the most tormented musical expression produces no end of astonishing twists. - THE WIRE MAGAZINE
Rarely have I been so thoroughly seduced after an adverse reaction, and rarely have I been so driven to get up and thrash around and feel the blood pulse through my veins. - PITCHFORKMEDIA.COM
Eugene Robinson should have a phobia named after him: fear of hulking bodybuilders trained in mixed martial arts fighting with a thing for exhibitionism who front bands that play savage, jet engine-loud pummel-core and also dabble in porn and journalism. – SF WEEKLY
If you haven't been infected with the band's innovative approach to exorcising rhythmic demons, check out the boys' eerie aesthetic on their latest CD – XLR8R MAGAZINE
Known for frontman Eugene Robinson’s penchant for disrobing onstage as much as the band’s bombastic caterwauls of post-grunge dissonance, this album (five years since their last album, An Evil Heat) will loose the dam of confused ill will that’s likely been brewing inside the band – CMJ
A lot of bands bill their records as therapy, but Oxbow bleeds authenticity in a way most hardcore bands can only dream of. The band called Oxbow is a raw nerve in today's bland landscape of supposedly alternative music; you owe it to yourself to descend into their world. – SCENE POINT BLANK
Tracklist for The Narcotic Story:
(intro) (0:42)
Geometry of Business (4:11)
Time Gentlemen Time (4:52)
Down A Stair Backward (5:00)
She's A Find (8:47)
Frankly Frank (4:46)
A Winner Every Time (4:52)
Frank's Frolic (6:24)
It's the Giving, Not the Taking (6:01)
"We all get exactly what we fucking deserve." - Eugene Robinson
For more information, visit:
www.theoxbow.com
www.myspace.com/theoxbow
www.hydrahead.com
www.hydraheadlines.blogspot.com
Also coming soon on Hydra Head:
"Dödsvisioner" (May 22nd, 2007)
Bergraven's main man, Pär, turns the traditional blast-and-flay aesthetic of “frostbitten grimness” on its ear and comes at us with sweeping riff dirges, winding cinematic passages, melodic guitar interludes, tortured-yet-vaguely-authoritarian & Germanic vocal overtones and—get this—ambient pedal steel excursions. All of which is enough to make your fucking head spin, especially if you (like us) are down with weirdness that transcends weirdness-merely-for-the-sake-of-beingweird and comes out on the other side looking like a total fucking destroyer. What we’re saying is this: Dödsvisioner is not your typical black metal experience, and Bergraven is not your standard Swedish killing machine.
Bergraven’s Dödsvisioner is Hydra Head's second collaborative work with Sweden's Total Holocaust Records. Rife with complex dirge riffage, bleak and haunting melodies, and traditiondefying rhythms, this black metal record is as torturous as it is wholly engaging. File in line with other black metal visionaries like Deathspell Omega, Ondskapt, and Leviathan. You may not yet have heard of Bergraven, but we guarantee you Dödsvisioner is already of the elite.
Tracklisting for Dödsvisioner
Döende (8:46)
Av saknad släcker jag ljuset (1:56)
Ondkall (8:03)
Känsla av livets nästa skede (7:08)
Den svarta angstens essens (6:54)
Det man med själen... (6:27)
Ekot av bikt (6:38)
Döende (en avslutning) (8:52)
For more information, visit:
www.myspace.com/bergraven
www.hydrahead.com
www.hydraheadlines.blogspot.com
