Oxes
Geiger Counter
Calvados Beam Trio
Oxes are a trio which have risen from the twisted wreckage that is the city of Baltimore. Armed with matching day -glo yellow shirts and construction – sign orange flex- fit trousers, cordless electric guitars, a stack of drums and lip-curling stage antics, they commence at once with their metallic atonal scapery and vicious backbeats, stretching their harmonic-tinged pick stabs and angular riffs into far-flung directions, yet retain enough resiliency to quickly recoil, redirect and charge headlong into a brick wall or two.
They do not wear protective headgear.
On stage, Oxes are to rock venues what hyperactive children are to daycare centres. They are the fury dressed in shortpants. The drummer refuses to sit still, stopping midbeat to readjust his shorts, or pausing to gawk at the audience. The guitarists go from posing on black boxes positioned at the front of the stage to wandering backstage and amongst the unsettled crowd, where they flawlessly transmit the rock to their amplifiers by remote.
These live antics, whatever their humorous intentions, should not detract from the serious rocking qualities of their music. An Oxes song, for all its atonal riffs, abrupt changes, and crashing drums and mathematical tendencies, is not a mish mash of guitar licks, trig equations and drum solos. Oxes combine these tasty, virtuoso elements with fluid transitions, odd stops and starts, false endings, phony introductions, manic aggression, and considerable aplomb. Holding their own while playing with such giants as Shellac, U. S. Maple and Don Caballero, OXES are creating a genre of their own: Confrontation ROCK! With an in your face approach towards performing, the OXES demand your attention and once they have it, they aren’t letting go. Its the right combination of greed energy and time travel.
Geiger Counter is made up of two members of the experimental/post-rock 3-bass group Rothko – Jon Meade (guitar) and Crawford Blair (bass), along with Jason Carty (guitar) and Paul Westwood (drums). Geiger Counter began in 1994, but broke up when Jason left to go to college. The band reformed a few years back out of the ashes of Bel Geddes, another instrumental rock band which also featured Jon with Mark Beazley of Rothko and Bradley Teale. When Jason returned from college Geiger Counter reformed with Paul and Crawford taking up the rhythm section, completing the current line-up that we know today.
