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Newsletter No. 20: FINAL SCORE: GOD=EVERYTHING, YOU=NOTHING
"His parched lips were half-open in an imbecilic smile, his eyes were hazy and had a confused look of criminal desire, mute supplication, and repulsive sorrow." - Witkiewicz, The 622 Downfalls of Bungo Drink me us you bastards. Open wide and suck us down. We're the toast of this motherfucking town and we're back again. Go ahead, struggle with our love, our love, our love, struggle with it. Hug it. Touch it. Shit. Can you tell? That even as handsome as we are that we're hungering for the fucking grave? How does one go about doing this shit without secretly seeking the quiet and stillness of no life? I mean, well what I mean is that it's like jumping out of a moving car with everything going from great, great, great to a rush and a tumble and then, if you're lucky, companionable silence and great discomfort. I mean how do you stand on line at the DMV amidst all of the great unwashed, locked into their stultifying horrors, and not want to die? See this is a function of contrasts: a short tour, like a dream during a catnap, is easily forgotten. But a long tour, oh a long tour (long here translated as "long enough to get used to cheese as a breakfast food") though can fuck shit up regardless of whether it is, and this mportant, GOOD O A BAD tour calls into question the colossal egoism that drives so called artists out on the road to begin with. Perhaps, like the performance artist standing on stage slapping steaks against their face, we secretly guess that we ARE wasting our lives. Perhaps we've lost sight of the meaning and import of the word SHAME. Perhaps. But like the man says nothing exceeds like that which succeeds. So it goes that GOOD tours are even worse. Because they make almost all the rest of it impossible. Your boss, in regaling you with tales about his youthful swordsmanship (translation: cocksmanship), will not understand that YOU the International Fucking Rock Star could really not give a significant fuck. Your lovers do not give a shit. The old people in line in front of you at the supermarket don't care. And that's just it. No one cares and because no one cares it doesn't matter and because it doesn't matter it might as well not have happened. Right? Hahhahahahaha. Wrong! We ARE International Fucking Rock Stars (in the pantheon of artistic significance that's about as significant as International Fucking PORN Star, which is to say REALLY fucking significant) and fuck you all with a corncob. The tour was great. The tour diary is yours to read (though the breakdown is this: shorter newsletter with actual news THEN the actual tour diary). So read it and weep along with us at the dirty fucking trick that that bitch life has played on us now that we have to spend our time with you dusty fucking rabble again instead of, instead of, well instead of eating oysters in Zurich, sleeping on dirty floors in France, or punching drunken Italians in the face. We bemoan the passing of the lifestyle to which we've become accustomed! Goddamn it! Goddamn it all! |
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Careless Talk Costs Lives weekly radio show
http://www.totallyradio.com New radio show features EXCLUSIVE live tracks from Kills, Oxbow and Ill Ease. totallyradio.com - new show every Thursday, archived at the aforementioned site 10/10/02 - Everett True and Stevie Chick (features EXCLUSIVE LIVE RECORDINGS from OXBOW, KILLS, ILL EASE) |
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FOR THOSE ABOUT TO WHINE, WE SALUTE YOU
We have shows to which you should show up so that we can show you how much contempt we're capable of showing for shows as an artistic endeavor. SAN FRANCISCO OCTOBER 17, 2002: OXBOW & LOST GOAT: The Pound SF = It is a well-known fact that Eugene is deeply, secretly and longingly in love with Erica from LOST GOAT. Come watch him embarrass himself with protestations of undying love. NOVEMBER 6, 2002: OXBOW & THE RUM DIARY: The Bottom of the Hill NOVEMBER 14TH, 2002: OXBOW, TOUCHED BY A JANITOR, PORCH: THE EAGLE, San Francisco's PREMIER Leather Bar = The shows at The Eagle are not advertised in the newspaper. Not in the Bay Guardian. Not in the SF Weekly. Not in the San Jose Metro. Which means YOU HAVE GOT TO COME TO THIS FUCKING SHOW. I mean when else are you going to have as a functioning excuse OXBOW as a reason that you were found in the live action version of the Al Pacino movie CRUISING? |
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SAY HELLO TO THE PIGKILLERS!
The Annual OXBOW Vegetarian Wild Boar Hunt is on! We finally found some private owner who is insane enough to want us armed and wandering around on all of his farm land. Midway between Fresno and Yosemite. So if you want to come, write me, don't be insane, be prepared to kill and eat, and get ready to have a good old time. Don't worry. We'll bring the guns. Sometime in November/December. THE MALE BAG DAVE PEHLING IS A FUCKING MAN! Hello all, I just wanted to thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions for the Oxbow piece running in the Weekly today. The paper's liberal editorial policy has excised a number of things I really would've liked to have kept in (a quote from Greg on how the material develops, references to Penderecki and Xenakis, certain details about The Narcotic Story, a closing quote from Niko, and the link to the doc trailer) and added some things that I didn't include in the first place (labeling Whipping Boy "psychedelic hardcore" and the mention of the storyboarding for The Narcotic Story). I guess I'd been warned by other writers that what you submit to the Weekly isn't necessarily what gets published... So while I'm not entirely thrilled about how the piece turned out, I think it manages to capture at least some of what I was trying to communicate about the band. I really wish I had had more time to work on it, but even if it's not great writing, it's good press for the band. http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2002-09 11/music.html/1/index.html Thanks again for your help and enjoy your upcoming European jaunt... Cheers, Dave Pehling MARJAN IS A FUCKING WOMAN! Met eugene. I talked to him a little bit. but after his show everyone wanted to talk to him, especially oxbow fans. people really showed up to the London show. wow it was a spectacle. it wasn't ANYTHING I WOULD HAVE EVER IMAGINED. i walked in and i saw him on the stage...this almost god-like being belting in a loud voice like the sound god would make if he was satan. people staring up and just really taking in everything slowly and not knowing how to fold their hands, or fix their stance to look more comfortable in their black attire. his presence was very intense. intense is definitely what i would describe him as. he tore off his clothes and was hitting himself and took his dick out and it was a true show of a human. it is what i would expect to see if humans were caged up in a zoo and little monkeys were coming by to see their close relatives and show their children what a real "human" looks like in the wild. this one lady after the show went up to him and was crying and said he had a lot of bravery to just open himself up so completely and be vulnerable to his surroundings. one part of me really thought she was genuine the other just thought "god how pathetic"... SING, GODDAMNIT, SING!!! From: Erik Whitaker To: Robert Iwanik, Rope Subject: oxbow Alrightee. Thanks. Oh nice quote from Eugene. I love oxbow & booked them way back in the early nineties when I was doing some shows in SF. I have yet to hear their new album. Is it any good? - e From: Robert To: Eric Right on! i'm good friends with these guys and love their music sooo much. Their new album is very good, though nothing like any of the previous ones. It's more rock and a lot heavier, and jesus what fucked-up lyrics. It's called 'an evil heat'. you should check it out.- robert From: Eric To: Robert Cool. Thanks for the review, I will check it out! I love the 1st 2 lps the most but the mid period stuff is pretty awesome as well. I had heard they were playing around the bay area still. My favorite Oxbow memory is when they played on Eugene's b-day @ the Chameleon [August 28th]. He picked up someone from the audience while he was singing in his underwear & smoking a cigar & then forced this fellow to sing happy birthday to him. He can be a scary man indeed but I nearly peed myself I thought it was so funny. - e ASSHOLES ANONYMOUS: Leeds Chapter We're going to find you, you fucking fuck and when we do we're going to fuck you with a candle and make you eat lipstick. http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Venue/2479/funnystuff/ramblings2305021.html |
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WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY YELLING?
MORE WORD ON THE LARGE SAC'D AND EIGHTH WONDER OF THE FUCKING MODERN WORLD: OXBOW'S AN EVIL HEAT Alternative Press Magazine #169/August OXBOW Rating: 7 Who? San Francisco quartet who'll put the fear of God (or Satan) into you. Sounds like: A hellish brand of blues rock led by a singer who emotes like Robert Johnson reincarnated in the body of Nick Cave ca. 1981. How is it? As loud as a slaughterhouse and almost as messy, and probably more cathartic than any release you'll hear this year. Kindred spirits: Birthday Party, early Butthole Surfers, Killdozer Oxbow: An Evil Heat Balls-to-the-wall noise-rock, the heavy, dissonant chaos of Oxbow isn't over powering, in your face, or metal-esque in sound. However, in style, its metal references, brutal appeal, and anger come alive, all the while brewing a cornucopia primal, primitive sounds that will rip and cut right through you. This is An Evil Heat, the sound of passion and crime coming together with an unpredictable result. I'll give it a B+. http://www.inmusicwetrust.com/articles/50k12.html B-U-T-T-H-O-L-E!!! Friday's slumber party for the girls was most righteous. I saw one of the endings to Silent Hill, and I'm sure that I won't see any of the others. Listened to Oxbow's _An Evil Heat_ album, which I was less than thrilled with. YOU'D FIGURE A SIX FOOT BLACK BODYBUILDER WOULD HAVE A VOICE TO MATCH. There is some decent noise-rock to be found though. Juice got to hear the hilarious story of me being caught in sixth grade fucking a stuffed panda bear. I FUCKED A STUFFED PANDA BEAR. I WAS THIRTEEN YEARS OLD. I ADMIT TO THIS. Now I never want to hear it mentioned again. http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=casanovacaine&itemid=6524 MAELSTROM Sounding like an evil, sweaty, down on the Bayou mix of heavy rock, metal and jazz, Oxbow delivers an outstanding album. I am totally blown away by An Evil Heat. While the individual parts of the music themselves may not be overly complex or remarkable, the way they are interwoven makes for a quite enjoyable experience. While the playing is very far from busy, the use of odd times, breaks and refreshing rhythm changes abound to keep the listener interested. The band finishes off with a 20+ minute wall of sludge noise, drone track that just puts the icing on the cake. Saving the best for last are the vocals, which sound like Jimi Hendrix if he were a voodoo shaman. Vocalist Eugene Robinson stretches and contorts his voice into all manner of wails, howls, and grit to give yet another delicious layer. The depraved howls rattle and jar us as we are taken on a ride through a world of domestic violence and dark backwater secrets. Totally essential and already guaranteed to be one of my albums of the year. - Roberto Sit down and listen up, it's story time. That's what Oxbow's latest album seems like. Singer Eugene Robinson's stories set to background music (which ends up being problematic at some point as the music seems almost an afterthought and is not used to enhance the twisted visuals Robinson is creating.) The stories he tells are disturbing, concentrated on decay and despair, and the band's tendency to double and sometimes triple track the vocals with yells and grunts make the already disturbing imagery even more so. This is definitely an album to sit down, focus and listen to. Yet as great as some of the songs are, Robinson's yelps and screams become more of an annoyance than an enhancement of the story, something that one could do without and still enjoy the experience of this spoken poetry. - Laurent http://www.maelstrom.nu/issue9/albumreviews9c.htm#oxbow |
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Enterruption Magazine
ok ok. so it took me forever but i finally got off my ass and bought yr newest cd. WOW! great recording. this release really captures you guys perfectly and at yr best yet! how is it that after 13 years y'r more intense and fucked up than ever before?? most bands can't even keep it up, at half interesting, for more than 2 years let alone over the course of 5 albums and that many years. oh i could go on and on but i won't. i like it. i like it a lot. i'd recommend it to others, and will. get down! get funky! Wm. Rage/ www.enterruption.com OXBOW TOUR DIARY REVIEW thanks Eugene. i can always count on a good solid laugh of sick pleasure every new episode of Oxbow. fuck the Osbournes, Fuck Anna Nicole Smith, the networks should follow you guys on tour. oh the carnage, oh the laughs! what we were talking about? wm. Enterruption Rockpile September 2002 Folks who enjoy Neurosis' ambient metal stylings probably know what to expect from its label - similarly oddball, abrasive projects. Guitarist Niko Wenner says the basic source for all Oxbow's music and lyrics is love gone bad, noting the cathartic release of the band's live shows often bring on an uncontrollable crying jag. This is basically the effect AN EVIL HEAT will have on its listeners as well. The members of Oxbow hail from such hallowed indie institutions as The Jesus Lizard, Lydia Lunch, Zeni Geva, and The Rova Sax Quartet, so it's safe to say AN EVIL HEAT will be the kind of disc for die-hard fans only. - Erik Caplan |
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WELCOME TO ETHNIKLASHISTAN!
New York Times: DO YOU THINK THAT'S A WEAKNESS OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION, THAT IT DOESN'T CONSULT WITH CONGRESS ENOUGH? Dick Army: You have to remember, this whole debate on the question of whether we attack Vietnam did not originate in the Bush White House --- NYT: I'M SORRY TO INTERRUPT, SIR, BUT YOU SAID, "VIETNAM." I THINK YOU MEANT IRAQ. DA: Sorry, Iraq. Anyway, it didn't originate with the Bush White House. NYT: NOT TO MAKE TOO BIG A THING OF IT, BUT DO YOU THINK THERE WAS ANYTHING FREUDIAN JUST THEN WHEN YOU REFERRED TO IRAQ AS VIETNAM? DA: I was wondering the same thing, but I don't think so. I was not a Vietnam War protester. But I don't know what to make ot if. I don't think it was a Freudian slip, but who knows? NYT: I'M TOLD YOU'RE NOT FOND OF ALL OUR ALLIES --- THE FRENCH, FOR INSTANCE. DA: Well, I've never been good at foreign policy. It's never been an area of particular strength. But I learned real early on that if you're having a discussion about foreign policy, just say something disparaging about the French, and everybody will think you know what you're talking about." NEXT MONTH: SORROW, SORROW AND STOLEN KISSES [ Newsletter ] |