Oxbow
Side A
- Mr. Johnson
- Geometry of Business
- Time Gentlemen Time
- Down A Stair Backward
- She's A Find
Side B
- Frankly Frank
- A Winner Every Time
- Fran's Frolic
- It's the Giving, Not the Taking
The Narcotic Story LP BDX04
It's a major honour for us to be able to bring you the deluxe vinyl version of the latest album from Oxbow - "The Greatest Art Rock Band In The World" (Vice Magazine). A strictly limited edition gatefold heavyweight pressing in a sanguine red colour to match the retro pulp novel / blue note style album art. The album was incredibly well recieved the world over, earning the Album Of The Year in UK's Rock -a-Rolla magazine.
Here's what Hydra Head had to say about the original CD release: "After blotting out the sun with 2006's CD+DVD compilation, Love That's Last: A Wholly Hypnographic And Disturbing Work Regarding Oxbow, our boys besmeared the Record Plant in San Francisco with Grammy-winning producer Joe Chiccarelli (The Raconteurs, Frank Zappa, American Music Club) in tow and emerged with The Narcotic Story, possibly the finest fucking album of Oxbow's 10,000-year career. In fact, we're gonna go with the word masterpiece here.
Presumably, the Story in question follows vocalist Eugene Robinson's alter ego Frank in his terrific and triumphant struggle against non-drug use - but the way Robinson writes lyrics, one just never knows. In all likelihood, the joke's on us (and it's a painful and disturbing one) even though we're pretty sure Eugene prefers not to joke about these things. And neither does the band, for that matter: On The Narcotic Story, Dan Adams (bass), Greg Davis (drums) and Niko Wenner (guitar/organ) unfurl the quiet and creepy and desperate and successfully deconstructed in a kind of ominous/strident/triumphant rock (yeah, we said it) that expresses, in no uncertain terms, the fact that Oxbow do not fuck around. Eugene describes it as "a disturbing stroll through a place where everything's broken," but to us, it's more like a terrifying sprint from the very real prospect of severe bodily harm inflicted by some omniscient & immutable force. We're still not sure why Eugene insists on removing his pants on stage, or why approximately 15% of Oxbow shows end in fistfights, but we're kinda like you in that respect: We've got a lot to learn."
