The provocative San Francisco-based quartet
Oxbow formed in the late '80s around vocalist
Eugene Robinson, guitarist
Niko Wenner, bassist
Dan Adams, and drummer Greg Davis. Combining the squall of bands like
the Birthday Party with elements of free jazz and musique concrète, the group debuted in 1990 with
Fuckfest, followed in 1992 by
King of the Jews. The menacing The Balls in the Great Meat Grinder Collection also appeared in 1992, and after 1995's
Steve Albini-produced
Let Me Be a Woman,
Oxbow signed to the SST label for 1997's
Serenade in Red, which featured guest vocals from
Marianne Faithfull. They released a split EP with the Italian band White Tornado in 1999, followed by
An Evil Heat in 2002. The compilation Love That's Last: A Wholly Hypnographic and Disturbing Work Regarding Oxbow arrived in 2006. A new studio LP,
The Narcotic Story, was released via Hydra Head Records in 2007. A decade later,
Oxbow returned with their seventh studio long-player, the pugilistic
Thin Black Duke. ~ Jason Ankeny