Oxbow

Emerging in the late '80s as a provocative quartet based in San Francisco, Oxbow coalesced around vocalist Eugene Robinson, guitarist Niko Wenner, bassist Dan Adams, and drummer Greg Davis. Their sound merged the squall associated with acts such as the Birthday Party alongside strands of free jazz and musique concrète. The band made its recorded entrance in 1990 via Fuckfest and continued two years afterward with King of the Jews. Also surfacing in 1992 was the menacing The Balls in the Great Meat Grinder Collection. Following the 1995 release Let Me Be a Woman, which Steve Albini produced, Oxbow moved to the SST label and issued 1997’s Serenade in Red, an album that included guest vocals from Marianne Faithfull. In 1999 the group put out a split EP alongside the Italian band White Tornado, then delivered An Evil Heat three years later. The compilation Love That's Last: A Wholly Hypnographic and Disturbing Work Regarding Oxbow appeared in 2006. Hydra Head Records brought forth the next studio LP, The Narcotic Story, the following year. Ten years afterward, Oxbow resurfaced with its seventh studio long-player, the pugilistic Thin Black Duke.