Jackson Free Press

Oneida record new album, The Wedding CD/LP; Tour w/ Black Mountain + Kinski; prepare split 12" with Plastic Crimewave Sound.

Be prepared for an ONEIDA record that begins and ends with strings! Three years in the making, ONEIDA's The Wedding CD/LP is finally complete and will see release on May 3rd from JAGJAGUWAR (US) and ROUGH TRADE (UK). The Wedding marks ONEIDA's seventh full-length release since the band, originally a quartet and now a three-piece, formed in 1997. Oneida are FAT BOBBY, KID MILLIONS and HANOI JANE, and their most recent notable achievements include creating the first in a new line of epic rock records, the double album Each One, Teach One, and then following it up with last year's anthem-psych gem Secret Wars. ONEIDA primarily reside in Brooklyn, NY where they remain an influential act in the ever burgeoning NYC music scene.

The Wedding was originally conceived in early 2001. ONEIDA immediately began building the largest music box on the east coast of the United States. Built of plywood, salvaged marine pilings, industrial motor parts and over seventy saw blades, the hand-cranked behemoth was assembled in the warehouse loading dock that's also home to the Vale of Tears, ONEIDA's own recording studio. By hammering nails and spikes into the cylindrical pilings at carefully mapped intervals, and rotating the pilings through thickets of variably-tensioned saw blades, ONEIDA created and recorded unearthly tones and melodies; these were subsequently used as the basis for a series of melancholy, yearning songs that now see the light of day as The Wedding.

"Well, we just thought, 'What would the LEFT BANKE have sounded like if they were a machine?'" says KID MILLIONS of the unusual compositional process. "I'm not sure we found out, but we made an interesting record."

"Yeah, throw in some serious random chance and our inability to build anything more advanced than twelfth century siege weaponry, and you've got a little medieval avant-garde orchestra in a box," adds HANOI JANE.

After working for several years to complete the songs, the band added a number of complex, lush string arrangements. BRIAN COUGHLIN, leader of the NYC new music group FIREWORKS ENSEMBLE, contributed his arranging talents and assembled a group of string players whom he felt were capable of understanding the unusual demands of the songs at hand. "Other than my version of STRAVINSKY's The Rite of Spring for Fireworks, no arranging task has pushed my skills and talents to such extremes as the music of Oneida," according to COUGHLIN. "The emotional complexity of the music is unmatched -- except maybe by the steel-drum version of 'Stairway to Heaven' I arranged for an amusement park."

Other guests at The Wedding include PHIL MANLEY of TRANS AM, ADAM DAVISON of COMPANY (who also appeared on ONEIDA's recent EP Nice/Splittin' Peaches), BRAD TRUAX of HOME, and avant-garde piano wizard EMILY MANZO.

"You know, we ended up working so hard on these songs that the original melodic sources are frequently buried or mixed out," notes FAT BOBBY, "but folks shouldn't worry - we're thinking about releasing a wicked heavy dub record of the music box tracks sometime, called The Weeding."

Until ONEIDA drop The Weeding upon us all, the band is preparing the release of a split 12" with PLASTIC CRIMEWAVE SOUND this summer on JAGJAGUWAR.

Tour Dates:
03/12 Eugene, OR - TBA w/ Black Mountain
03/13 Seattle, WA - Crocodile Cafe w/ Kinski + Black Mountain
03/14 Vancouver, BC - Richard's on Richard w/ Kinski + Black Mountain
03/15 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge w/ Kinski + Black Mountain
03/17 Oakland, CA - Lo-Bot Gallery w/Black Mountain
03/18 San Francisco, CA - 12 Galaxies w/ Black Mountain + Comets on Fire + The Fucking Champs
03/19 Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland w/Black Mountain
04/16 New York, NY - Knitting Factory w/ Magnolia Electric Co.

"The Wedding" Track List:
1. The Eiger
2. Lavender
3. Spirits
4. Run Through My Hair
5. High Life
6. Did I Die
7. You're Drifting
8. Charlemagne
9. Know
10. Heavenly Choir
11. Leaves
12. The Beginning Is Nigh
13. August Morning Haze

Links:
Oneida's Jagjaguwar page:
http://jagjaguwar.com/oneida/index.htm
Oneida Press Alcove:
http://jagjaguwar.com/press/oneida/oneidapress.htm
Oneida's website:
http://www.enemyhogs.com