Customer Reviews

Oxxxes [Vinyl]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I must first confess that OXES is my favorite band. I've experienced their live performance twice, which is almost required before most people will "get it". For those jaded souls who think that rock is dead, just listen with an open and bemused detachment as these post-punk math-rockers tear your synapses apart with angular, bombastic, delicately-fried-to-a-crackly-crunch, jazz-metallic, aurally challenging and more than a bit tongue-in-cheek instrumental rock compositions. They are... relentless.

In their live show, the two mesmerizing guitarists, NewYorkCity and DrWindsorCastle play identical custom aluminum wireless guitars, alternately gyrating on small black wooden boxes and meandering throughout the venue and even outside. They race among the astonished audience members while never missing a single intricate riff. The drummer, Prison, is a master of dynamics and inventiveness, and the odd tunings, gritty textures, time-signature changes and sheer pounding rock of the whole experience leaves you permanently changed. I'm still in therapy.

This second CD, entitled OXXXES, continues brilliantly from where their debut left off, featuring slightly more refinement in composition and production, without sacrificing the rawness and unpredictability of their first. Please don't tell anyone else about OXES...let's let it be our little secret.

1. Do you like early to mid period Don Caballero?

2. Do you like The [expletive deleted*] Champs and/or Trans Am?

2b. Do you like the Trans Champs?

3. Do you like the Oxes's first album?

If you answered "no" to one or more of these questions, bite me, and don't buy this CD. You won't like it, because you obviously have no taste.

I like this CD.

[*Rhymes with "flucking"]

Even the most discerning ears agree-- OXXXES is undoubtedly THE album of 2002 for any fan of rock music in any of its many forms.

Haven't heard it? Come, my friend. Join us, the throngs of empassioned Ox supporters who thrive under the Baltimore trio's torrential downpour of guilty aural pleasures. Sure, maybe you thought that screaming gorilla-sized riffs went out with the onset of the new millenium, by I can assure you that OXXXES will make you drop your Joy Division records as well as your pants, and dance to the sound of freedom. Meticulously alternating between hurling jagged boulders of dual-guitar rock and slinky, club-style dance beats at your ears, guitarists Natale and Marco and drummer Handsome will leave you bewildered on the dance floor, not knowing if its time to headbang or thrust your unit.

But fear not, however, fair listener, for if ever there was a band in favor of throwing caution to the wind and hurling one's body onto the traintracks of appropriateness, it is Oxes. Known as Baltimore's reigning kings of shock, the cd artwork for OXXXES is, in fact, altered to reflect the will of those pictured on it-- due to the pornographic nature of the LP version of the album, protests formed almost instantly after its release, leading Monitor Records to change the cd artwork into a photo-retelling of the protests against the LP.

So let go and join the masses. Its the easiest album to listen to that you'll ever own-- headbanging, stage diving, grinding, booty tossing-- its all appropriate while listening to OXXXES, and only the foolish will pass it up. So please, take this reviewer's plea to heart-- buy it. Play it. Shake it. It all works.

Refined towards the point of hard hitting believability, the sophomore still proved lacking the necessary ingredients to take the band further.

First off, anyone who fell for that whole "censored cover/protest" hoax is an unforgivable SIMP. That said, I'm sorry to say the musical content of this album falls far short of expectations set by the OXES' surprisingly good debut album. They seem to have unlearned the dynamics of uniquely coordinated riffs and time signature trickery that were in abundance on that disc. Oh well. I will know better for next time, but my advice for those gathering curiosity about this band would be to immerse yourself in their only (so far) worthwhile venture, the self-titled first CD.