OXES

One would be easily forgiven for mistaking these gentlemen for a 1996 era Don Caballero coverband. Not casting judgement here, per se... just calling a spade a spade. The night I saw them play, I was out on the sidewalk in front of the club, talking to some friends. A kinda nerdy looking fella with an old aluminum-necked Kramer guitar equipped with a wireless unit came walking out of the front door and stood and stared blankly at us for a bit as he played on it. It took me a moment to realize that the faint muffled music I heard coming from inside the club was him. We followed him back inside and took in the show. Both of the guitarists had wireless rigs and took this as an opportunity to leave the stage and mingle with the crowd. Not between songs... during songs. I felt bad for the drummer, being left alone on the stage. At one point, the same kid who'd played at us out front got really really close to someone in the audience, invading their personal space and staring them in the face. The audience member laughed nervously and pinched the guitarist's chest. Without missing a beat, the guitarist leaned forward and attempted to bite the person. I thank God I was there to witness all of this.

After listening to and being a huge fan of the Oxes self-titled (2000), I bought this EP to see where the band was at 5 years later. Oxes are definately in a different place and trying new things on this EP; perhaps exploiting the awesome, heavy riffs and that have defined them all along. What I do find lacking is the strange, off-beat time signatures that (in part) made Oxes Self-titled such an incredible record. I suggest that anyone new to Oxes buy the self-titled first, as it is the essential Oxes record. If you need more, and think that ZZ-Top rocks (yes I think there are some similarities), pick this up as well. It will be interesting to see what comes from Oxes next.

After being initially impressed by the songs I'm From Hell Open A Windle and And Giraffe Natural Enemies I was surprised to find the rest of the album is mostly weak and dull. They don't really do much, they just have a few blah rock riffs and a bit of dissonant noisyness, but they don't really demonstrate any interesting or good ideas, and the ideas they have really don't go anywhere or warrant the amount of repetition they get. I wanted to like this band but I guess it's not going to happen. I thought the rest of the album would at least be semi interesting, but these songs are bitterly disappointing. They mostly revolve around powerchords and single notes with a bit of noisyness. They don't have any focussed or interesting chord arrangements. The whole thing just feels like a lazy jam session.

As with all things the Oxes do, this kicks butt, especially the first two tracks. It's a blast to hear Marc bust out the slide on track 2 like that. The final track is actually a funny little dance number. If you enjoy loud, phrenetic rock, the first two tracks alone make this album a must. P.S. - See them live. Anything outside a Melt Banana or Lightning Bolt show will seem like crap in comparison afterwards.