OXBOW - s&d

Yeah the book is very cool. I am glad that in this era of ephemeral digital collections that Oxbow really went all out making a physical artifact.

this album is really something i hope ppl pay attention to it

next in line to say this album fucking rules.

I just missed them play in London cos I was away. They're playing Supersonic in Birmingham in June it seems, but I can't see anyone is gonna put them on again in London then. That can't be right, surely.

Philly show in July! Woo!

agreed, this record is fantastic - had a really good listen this afternoon. friend was saying that live suffered from a lack of the album horns and strings (which obv wasn't a problem for the previous albums).

Saw them live and finally bought the vinyl

This is so amazing sounding

Okay, this live album with Peter Brotzmann is phenomenal.

really looking forward to listening to this. i’ve been caning the narcotic story recently. amazing album.

As a big Oxbow & Brotz fan I am amazed that it is even better than I expected (now if only the physical copies would ship...)

(now if only the physical copies would ship...)

I've emailed the label twice and gotten no response. I'm getting cranky.

Huh, I ordered the CD along with a few other albums through the Trost bandcamp on October 31st and got it about a week or so ago.

Yeah, I didn't order it from Trost, unfortunately — they said Sleeping Giant Glossolalia was putting out a US CD version, so I ordered that one.

As a big Oxbow & Brotz fan I am amazed that it is even better than I expected (now if only the physical copies would ship...)

Long story short I finally got my lp copy last night and it sounds great, still kind of can't believe it exists

"Love's Holiday" out in July
https://oxbowofficial.bandcamp.com/album/loves-holiday-out-7-21-23

New single out today, "Icy White & Crystalline." Sounds like a forgotten DGC band from the 90s. Love it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxz6RrzuR9w

Nice, super excited for this.

As a side note, I went to go pre-order this from Ipecac's bandcamp page and thought I'd also grab that Dave Lombardo album. It's sold out on every format already, LP, CD, everything. It came out May 5th - that seems insanely fast. It appears I can get it from Amazon, so whatever, but I'd rather than money go to the label than Bezos. Anyway, I'm seeing that a lot more frequently lately that labels are selling out of things really quickly. The new Blood Ceremony being another example - just released on May 5th and every format (LP and CD) completely sold out on Rise Above's website. Are that many labels just doing miniscule runs these days? Just seems a bad look for a hyped new album to be completely sold out from the source less that two weeks post release.

I guess just a good reminder to make sure you snag something the instant you see a pre-order pop up.

This happens a lot! It’s frustrating.

you gotta preorder before the band even forms

It is super frustrating. I get things like the exclusive, limited vinyl colors getting snatched up right away, but I'm seeing it way too often for literally every physical format. Oh you wanted a copy of that album that came out last week? Too late, you missed it!

I can only imagine how frustrating it has to be for a band...

had a great first listen to Love’s Holiday just now, after prepping by going back through their albums this week (v rewarding). Dead Ahead is a great opener/single, and it’s an amusing approach how after the first two tracks they move p much exclusively into their slow, stygian power mode.

i like the continuing move into melodic ballad trappings, even if a couple of times i had a fleeting sense of more recent nick cave (not a fan). but choral and keyboard set off the muscular torment and pent-up force. it *sounds* great. the group are in v good form and looking forward to seeing them in september.

I love the new album, it is Numinous and Forbidding in all the best ways

yep agreed.

also the track titles are some of the best I've seen in a while. how has no band begun an album with 'Dead Ahead' before

thankfully the song does that title justice

as a means of saying sorry to Fizzles I am getting into their earlier stuff

King Of The Jews is fantastic. Angel is one of the great rock songs maybe

Eugene pls log back into ILX btw, that was fun

King of the Jews is I think my favourite.

you know when they describe a modern album as fire and brimstone because it's kind of noisy, yet kind of trad, and kind of fearsome? yeah well those albums aren't fire and brimstone, this is

https://eugenesrobinson.substack.com/p/the-last-tour-diary-youll-get-out

unclear to me what on the tour triggered this but it sounds like oxbow is over for the foreseeable - eugene has quit.

My reading is that it's more of an intra-band dispute than a "touring sucks when you're over 60" thing, but who knows, honestly?

i think that about sums it up, yes.

xpost I don't think the "I hope the people who need help get the help they need" part at the end could be any more clear

Losing both Oxbow and Shellac in the same yr, two of the bands I looked up to the most, is deflating

Also, def intra-band dispute

Buñuel, Eugene's other band, has an album coming out in the US (finally) this yr on Skin Graft and they are great

Good reminder to listen to the ones I've not heard yet.

My open DM to Eugene: find some mad zoomers and let them be your backing band for an album or two. It'll be wild

I have all the previous Buñuel records and am definitely looking forward to the new one.

I actually emailed Eugene after reading the newsletter; here was the advice I offered:

1) Don't ever tell any more of the story than you just did. No "music journalist" deserves to earn a byline off of your pain, especially not in the current devalued/degraded environment.

2) Don't start another band. Become an itinerant guest star. Show up on other people's records for fun and/or a quick buck. But the music industry's collapsing too (ask me how my micro-indie label's going), so why throw your own money down the sewer? For "Art"?

3) Write more. Fiction especially. It's my observation that "literary" fiction offers the world nothing at all; meanwhile, "genre" fiction is where you'll find serious analysis of the world as it actually exists, tucked in between murders and sex scenes. Read S.A. Cosby (Razorblade Tears, Blacktop Wasteland, All The Sinners Bleed) and Jordan Harper (She Rides Shotgun and The Last King Of California) and you'll see what I mean. There's a lane there that you could slot yourself into pretty easily, especially from overseas. Europeans have a voracious appetite for Americans shit-talking America, in my experience, so a series of crime novels would likely find a sizable audience, even in translation.

All good advice tbh. Hiring some mad zoomers to make some bonkers backing music won't cost much if anything anyway so it isn't even like starting a band in a way

I thought about 'write more' myself as he's clearly a brilliant writer. I'm also certain he's considering it anyway

(as for the merits of literary fiction, this isn't the thread, and what you said is probably in line with Eugene's thinking)

Eugene replied to my email, and while I won't be quoting his words here, I will say that very serious and credible allegations have apparently been made against another member of Oxbow. The story seems likely to come out at some point.

ugh, this is just sad. obviously glad allegations are being taken seriously, but I feel bad for Eugene. glad he's got Bunuel loaded up for another album.

"I hope the people who need help get the help they need" hinted at either drugs or some kind of assault (sexual or otherwise) allegations imo.

Gutted about Oxbow although the last time I saw them was the worst show I ever saw them play. It was still amazing, obviously, but not nearly up to their own high standards.

Buñuel were great when I saw them though, and a more than capable substitute going forward.

Oxbow’s FB shared a post from Niko who says it’s him. I feel Eugene is taking the allegations more seriously than the impression I got from that.

he’s put some much emotional, creative and intellectual work into the demarcations around violence and sex, it’s no surprise that he’s taking them seriously and expects others in oxbow to do the same. the first part of his post shows how painful it is to him, how important wenner has been to realising his vision of Oxbow out of the very lowest points of his life.

With Oxbow gone, Buñuel has gone from being Eugene's "other band" to his band, period. They've got a great new album coming out on Friday, which I wrote about in this week's BA newsletter.

Oh this is exciting yes

I was really disappointed in the new Buñuel LP, esp after enjoying the the other records, but I finally had a chance to see them live last night and they were just great

Buñuel live have always been rly good. Haven’t heard the new album yet tho. *Did* see someone wearing an Oxbow t-shirt walking past while I was scarfing some lunchtime oysters and wine in Sète recently tho. Almost ran after him.

Eugene is also a fan of Paul Fussell … his writing style is interesting

saw Buñuel last night at the New Cross Inn, a place apparently unchanged since my first ever gig nearly 35 years ago. really great set. an oddly genial Eugene (somewhat zonked on neurofen+ he said), v well constructed - full of excitement, dread, drones and metal riffs, and the pent up violent angers of the universe.

went in somewhat despondent and tired, came out enthusiastic and generally recalibrated. good strong stuff.

Yeah Eugene has had both(?) knees replaced and moved to Marbella.