Oneida

Brooklyn's Oneida draw foundational inspiration from 1960s garage and punk acts such as MC5 while incorporating weighty, blues-inflected 1970s stoner rock from groups like Blue Cheer and Foghat along with touches of jerky synth pop, avant-garde jazz, and Krautrock. The ensemble built its early reputation throughout the New York region through explosive shows staged regularly inside lofts and warehouses. Their sound, built around warped organ explosions alongside thick guitar lines, grew more cohesive and forceful after the 1997 debut, leading to a burst of inventive output throughout the 2000s highlighted by Each One Teach One in 2002 and The Wedding in 2005. Once the expansive triple album Rated O appeared in 2009, the musicians turned toward experimental side projects, so later efforts including Absolute II from 2011 and the 2016 collaboration What's Your Sign? with Rhys Chatham leaned further into drone, noise, and post-minimalism than conventional rock. The band reclaimed song-oriented material on Romance in 2018 and the garage-punk-leaning Success in 2022 before venturing into fresh territory again with Expensive Air in 2024.

Founding members included guitarist and vocalist Papa Crazy, also known as PCRZ, keyboardist Bobby Matador, also known as Fat Bobby, drummer Kid Millions, whose given name is John Colpitts, and bassist and guitarist Hanoi Jane, also known as Baby Jane. Their first release, A Place Called El Shaddai's, arrived on Turnbuckle in 1997, yet after Enemy Hogs in 1999 the group shifted to Jagjaguwar, which later reissued the debut. The year 2000 proved especially active with both the Steel Rod EP and the album Come on Everybody Let's Rock. Anthem of the Moon followed in 2001, marking the final recording with Papa Crazy before his departure late that year, while Each One Teach One surfaced the next year. Also in 2002 came the split EP Atheists, Reconsider with Liars on the Arena Rock Recording Company label. Secret Wars, the sixth album, was issued in 2004, the same year the band composed and tracked the score for the demolition-derby documentary Speedo about circuits in Long Island and New Jersey, though most of the music was ultimately omitted from the finished film. The Nice./Splittin' Peaches EP appeared on Ace Fu at the end of 2004, succeeded in early 2005 by the ambitious, string-tinged The Wedding and then Happy New Year in 2006, an album centered on themes of death and rebirth.

In 2008 Oneida revealed plans for Thank Your Parents, a three-part project intended to push further explorations of rhythm, harmony, and tonality. Preteen Weaponry launched the series that August, Rated O arrived as the triple album in 2009, and Absolute II completed the cycle in June 2011. Later that year the split album Collisions 02 with Mugstar was released, followed by A List of the Burning Mountains in 2012. After an uncommonly extended recording hiatus, the core lineup of Bobby Matador, Hanoi Jane, Kid Millions, and longtime associates Shahin Motia and Barry London unveiled What's Your Sign? on Northern Spy in 2016, an album written, engineered, and performed jointly with post-minimalist composer Rhys Chatham. Safety Meeting Records put out the double-LP Live at Secret Project Robot in 2017. Joyful Noise, which had already issued several limited-edition Oneida singles, released the studio album Romance in 2018. The holiday single “In the Court of the Christmas King” emerged in 2021. Success, described as the band’s most straightforward rock record in decades, appeared in 2022. A 2023 single found the group, featuring guest KATIEE, covering Siouxsie & the Banshees’ “Halloween.” Expensive Air arrived in 2024; its tracks originated as direct rock songs in the style of the prior album yet ultimately expanded into unanticipated directions.