Last year fellow Culture Clash staffer Jerry and myself ventured down to Louisville, Kentucky to see Terrastock 7, a huge psychedelic / kraut / experimental festival that had an enormous amount of bands that we were both excited to see. Grails, Bardo Pond, Hush Arbors, Wooden Shjips, MV + EE with the Golden Road, and well you get the point. One band that was absent from my list of bands I absolutely have to see was Oneida. For some reason they just never did a single thing for me. They were scheduled to play first during the second day of the festival and I wasn’t even sure that I wanted to leave the nice Louisville breakfast we were having to go see them. So as I am standing there in the inside venue waiting for them to set up and yawning and stretching it was both a reaction of me being tired and what I was expecting to play in front of me.
What I didn’t expect was for them to be the highlight of the festival for me after playing a 30 minute set that consisted of their upcoming(at the time) album Preteen Weaponry front to back and having my jaw hit the ground from the first 2 minutes and not be picked back up before I realized I had to get outside to see Wooden Shjips.
The band had finally caught my ear with Preteen Weaponry and in a way that I couldn’t wait for the new album. The three songs on Preteen could only hold me over for so long. So when I heard that the second part of their Thanks Your Parents trilogy of albums, Rated O, was finally coming out I couldn’t curb my excitement. Then when I realized it was a freaking massive TRIPLE CD I basically lost it.
Oneida has gone above and beyond what made me love them with Rated O. Back are the looping kraut-rock jams found on Preteen Weaponry but they have introduced several entirely new elements to their sound that leave you dumbfounded and wondering if you are listening to Oneida.
The beginning of the album was a total headscratcher for the first 15 seconds before I realized how much I loved it. “Brownout In Lagos” is one of the grimiest dubstep songs you are bound to hear this year with Dad-Ali Ziai throwing these shouting vocals over that just fit perfectly. It isn’t until the end of the first CD that you hear a more Oneida type sound in the track “Story of O.” “I Will Haunt You” on the second track even sounds a bit like Terrastock brethren Wooden Shjips.
This album is seriously hours and hours worth of high energy psychedelic rock that will make you feel like you just ran a marathon if you listen to all three discs straight. Let me tell you though, you’ll get much more satisfaction listening to this than you would being worn out after running one of those.
Some MP3s below but three songs of an album that touches on a bit of everything is just a tease really.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser."I Will Haunt You" from Oneida's 2009 album Rated O
"Saturday" from Oneida's 2009 album Rated O
"What's Up Jackal?" from Oneida's 2009 album Rated O
Honorable mentions for June 23rd Record of the Week:
- Bowerbirds – Upper Air (Dead Oceans)
- Tiny Vipers – Life on Earth (Sub Pop)
- My Bloody Valentine – Before Loveless (Lazy)
