OXBOW RELEASE “DEAD AHEAD”
NEW SINGLE, AND VIDEO, ARRIVE AS THE BAND ANNOUNCE THEIR FIRST U.S. TOUR DATES IN SUPPORT OF LOVE’S HOLIDAY (JULY 21, IPECAC RECORDINGS)
OXBOW release “Dead Ahead,” the third single, and its accompanying video (viewable here), from their forthcoming Ipecac Recordings’ debut album, Love’s Holiday (July 21, Ipecac Recordings).
“’Dead Ahead’ was made to order for starting our new album, Love’s Holiday,” says guitarist/pianist Niko Wenner. “It is one of the few songs without choral singing and the only in D Minor, my co-producer in crime Joe Chiccarelli calling for fast and abrasive, it was birthed playing for my kids on an acoustic guitar given to me at age 6 and handmade before 1957 in Umeå, Sweden by Göran Frii. The recording features both the tiny toy tine piano Dan [Adams] gave our children and my 1981 white Stratocaster, the chorus adds a Little Big Muff Pi fuzz pedal I bought in 1979 from Tom Stevenson, my friend from age 4, recently deceased, who taught me to play AC/DC, Judas Priest and Van Halen songs. RIP and rock on, Tommy.”
On the Chris Purdie-directed video, who also created a pair of clips for the band’s 2017 album, Thin Black Duke, vocalist Eugene Robinson shares: “This may be the only video wherein we appear just as actors/characters and while the gaming scene recalls nothing if not Ingmar Bergman’s ‘The Seventh Seal,’ the lyric is pure OXBOW: ‘This god of love destroys and creates’…indubitably.”
Purdie adds: “The concept for the mirrors used in ‘Dead Ahead’ were inspired by Orson Welles noir, ‘The Lady From Shanghai,’ a film partly based in and around San Francisco. The idea of mirrors and reflection were used to evoke themes of duality, and the idea that there are multiple perspectives, or that things aren’t entirely as they seem.”
The Bay Area quartet have simultaneously announced their first tour dates in support of the 10-song album, with both east and west coast swings slated for this Fall. Tickets for all shows are on-sale now, with ticketing links and additional details available here.
October 20 Philadelphia, PA PhilaMOCA
October 21 Portland, ME SPACE
October 22 Brooklyn, NY Elsewhere
November 9 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
November 10 Los Angeles, CA Regent Theatre
November 11 Mesa, AZ Pub Rock
European tour dates (previously announced):
September 1 Glasgow, UK Broadcast
September 2 Birmingham, UK Supersonic Festival
September 3 Leeds, UK Brudenell Social Club
September 4 Bristol, UK Exchange
September 5 London, UK Studio 9294
September 6 Kortrijk, BE Wilde Western
September 7 Brussels, BE Botanique
September 8 Nijmegen, NL Merleyn
September 9 Tetange, LU Human’s World Festival (free entry)
September 10 Bochum, DE Die Trompete
September 11 Vienna, AT Volkstheatre Rote Bar
September 12 Wroclaw, PL Liverpool
September 13 Warsaw, PL Hydrozagadka
September 14 Berlin, DE Roadrunners Paradise
September 15 Hamburg, DE Hafenklang
September 16 Aalborg, DK Lasher Fest
Love’s Holiday track listing:
1. Dead Ahead
2. Icy White & Crystalline
3. Lovely Murk
4. 1000 Hours
5. All Gone
6. The Night The Room Started Burning
7. “ “
8. Million Dollar Weekend
9. The Second Talk
10. Gunwale
Love’s Holiday pre-orders, including limited-edition indie exclusive red and Ipecac.com marbled grey vinyl variants, as well as standard vinyl, CD and digital, are available now: https://oxbow.lnk.to/love. OXBOW previously released two previews from the upcoming collection: “Icy White & Crystalline,” a pulsing song with an equally dynamic live clip, and “1000 Hours,” which Stereogum described as “a rumbling, wide-open landscape that sort of sounds like an apocalyptic yet hopeful Soundgarden song produced by Mark Hollis.”
OXBOW is Dan Adams (electrical/acoustic bass), Greg David (drums/percussion), Eugene S. Robinson (vocals), and Niko Wenner (guitars/pianos). The San Francisco-born band have released seven studio albums since their inception in 1988, with Pitchfork saying the foursome have released “some of the most eccentric heavy music albums ever.”
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