New Oneida: The Wedding
Brooklyn stoners have delivered this year's most compelling neo-psych record. The Wedding never bores. On their eight release in as many years, multi-instrumentalists Fat Bobby, Kid Millions, and Hanoi Jane toy with comedic Casio-pop ("High Life"), drone rock ("Spirits," "Know"), '70s metal ("Did I Die"), hippy balladry (the Weeny closer "August Morning Haze"), and a sad carinval waltz ("Know"). Wedding's an ambitious trip, but comes off as effortless. Oneida milk the Zeppelin/Floyd vibe but avoid shtick by switching gears every three minutes. It's ultra proggy (in vogue these days, amazingly). They rhyme about nature. Rainbows and butterflies.
Standout track "The Eiger" (wiki) is a breathless love letter set to piercing violins. Fireworks Ensemble's Brian Coughlin conducted the orchestra, apparently with instructions to channel the Left Banke.
"Bobby and I were driving to Connecticut and listening to the Left Banke. I thought, Wow, it would be cool to do a record like this someday."The Left Banke - "Walk Away Renee" (MP3 link removed)
- Kid Millions in Time Out New York 5/5"Well, we just thought, 'What would the Left Banke have sounded like if they were a machine?' I'm not sure we found out, but we made an interesting record."
- Kid Millions in Jagjaguwar.com's blurb.
Oneida - "The Eiger" (MP3 link removed)
The Wedding is in stores now.
Posted at 9:07 AM
Couldn't agree with you more. This album is fantastic.
Posted by: Niemster at May 12, 2005 1:56 PM | ReplyScore = 0
How about a shout to "The Eiger Sanction"? One of, if not the, greatest Clint Eastwood movies ever made. I defy you not to love it!
Posted by: matt d at May 12, 2005 2:28 PM | ReplyScore = 0
solid album, big fan of the cover art too.
Posted by: chris at May 12, 2005 3:15 PM | ReplyScore = 0
That Oneida song's great! Thanks for the mp3!
Posted by: pageblank at May 12, 2005 3:21 PM | ReplyScore = 0
Its on my shortlist for albums of the year already, totally agree.
Just talkin about it with molars t'other day who also posted this track as the stand out single, and includes the requested Clint shout out matt d.
http://www.greenideasblog.com/molars/archives/2005/05/just_dont_pull.html
You can check out what xxjfg had to say about The Wedding back in march, unsurprisingly we looked at the most kraut track on the album – Lavander, which is getting sadly ignored.
http://20jazzfunkgreats.blogspot.com/2005/03/pagan-weaster.html
Posted by: 20jazzfunkgreats at May 12, 2005 3:46 PM | ReplyScore = 0
The Left Banke's "there's gonna be a storm" collection has been a staple of my music listening for the past 10 months. some old dude at work turned me onto them when he heard i was going to the same Zombie's show as him. Also check out Montage, the post left banke keyboardist's band. he formed it with a bunch of dudes from north jersey in the 70's. the biggest hit they had was "Brother Louie."
Posted by: chet at May 12, 2005 3:51 PM | ReplyScore = 0
"Desiree" is the best Left Banke song ever -- you should post that one. It's full of boombastic emotion.
Posted by: AK at May 12, 2005 4:06 PM | ReplyScore = 0
Not that Oneida are snotty art kids, because they're not, but in general it really annoys me that a lot of pretentious noise rockers are starting to make poppy stuff now and people are eating it up, when people have been making great pop all along.
On that note, Oneida is good. Interesting to hear someone reference the Left Banke.
Posted by: jed at May 12, 2005 4:20 PM | ReplyScore = 0
oneida's best work to date and totally one of the best albums, if not the best, of the year so far. hopefully the wedding will bring them much deserved new fans. thanks for posting about this album and giving them some publicity.
Posted by: anonymous at May 12, 2005 4:26 PM | ReplyScore = 0
Lavender is such a great song- the drums and guitar in that track are priceless (plus a reference to Whitman!), and that penultimate line in the song, "the old men love me as I braid my pubic hair" is just so unexpected and fantastic.
Posted by: Kevin at May 12, 2005 4:31 PM | ReplyScore = 0
I saw Oneida live awhile ago and they played this 10 minute song called "light" where all he did was yell light for the entire time. Bleh. Tired of this ironic pop music, but i guess if it's based off one of the least interesting bands of the lesser known but underground popular 60's- it makes sense.
this post would have been better if it was
the tages- sleep little girl (one of the best lesser known pop bands from the 60s)
and
the boy least likely to - be gentle with me
(and I thought indie pop had become generic...one of the better songs I have heard of the genre in awhile)
Posted by: Devin at May 12, 2005 6:30 PM | Replyyep
Score = 0
boy least likely to? seriously? you're comparing oneida to the band currently being tipped by pitchfork? i'm not a big fan of oneida but they are a damn sight more interesting than a party pop band. also, the best tages songs were the ones they didn't write. those guys couldn't write a good song if i went back in time and watched them write a good song.
Posted by: kyle at May 12, 2005 7:36 PM | ReplyScore = 0
http://www.jamesgomezjr.com/audio/_coldplay/Coldplay - The Edge - May 9th, 2005.mp3
Posted by: will champion at May 12, 2005 10:30 PM | ReplyScore = 0
Goddamnit, I love Oneida. I want to have sex with at least two, if not all three of them.
Posted by: mary at May 13, 2005 1:56 AM | ReplyScore = 0
eh pops disposable. and the tages best song is the one they did write, "forget him" up there with all the best hits.
Posted by: Devin at May 13, 2005 3:07 AM | ReplyScore = 0
oh, and the rest of the boy least.. songs are awful, so I guess they do share something in common with oneida.
Posted by: Devin at May 13, 2005 3:09 AM | ReplyScore = 0
what's disposable is music that is made up more of art damage posturing than thought and craft. Great pop is the stuff that's remembered and revered years down the line, not soundtrack-to-a-lifestyle schlock with a good PR campaign behind it.
That said, power pop sucks.
Posted by: jed at May 13, 2005 9:43 AM | ReplyScore = 0
what's disposable is music that is made up more of art damage posturing than thought and craft. Great pop is the stuff that's remembered and revered years down the line, not soundtrack-to-a-lifestyle schlock with a good PR campaign behind it.
That said, power pop sucks.
Posted by: jed at May 13, 2005 9:43 AM | ReplyScore = 0
While I agree with Jed (except, perhaps, the power-pop bit), I must play devil's advocate and point out that it's (obviously)impossible to identify now what's going to be revered and remembered in years to come.
Oh, and the song . . .well, this is so much better than the noisy, shambolic Oneida I saw perform a year ago that it's hard for me to believe it's the same band. While comparing it to the Left Banke is a bit excessive (Michael Brown is a MUCH better singer, and there's not much of a hook to The Eiger) it's still a massive step in the right direction (provided, of course, they're serious and not merely being "ironic"). If the rest of the album is this good I'll have to check it out.
Posted by: KJB at May 15, 2005 5:02 PM | ReplyScore = 0
I'll say with the possible exception of Cheap Trick and a handful of other acts, power pop sucks.
And you're right- it's impossible to know what might be revered. I mean, that hack Eric Clapton is STILL revered.
Posted by: jed at May 16, 2005 5:18 PM | ReplyScore = 0
am i the only one who actually likes the old noisy oneida better? :/
Posted by: alice at May 19, 2005 4:04 PM | ReplyScore = 0