Experimental indie rock lifers Oneida came to their 17th album in circuitous fashion. Singer/guitarist Bobby Matador created templates for songs from his home in Boston, and then sent them to the rest of the band in NYC to finish. “We were working out the songs in New York without Bobby. We would start outriding the riffs, and then Shahin and Jane would add wild, out-of-tune licks,” says drummer Kid Millions.
“It seemed so perfect.” What started as straightforward, hooky songs in the same vein as Oneida’s 2022 album “Success” turned darker, looser and decidedly louder. “Expensive Air” rocks with defiant fists in the air, and with those ragged riffs (and Kid Millions’ heavy-on-the-fills style) they really rip it up. Bobby says if “Success” was “like laughing in a car gunning carelessly through an ice storm,” then “Expensive Air” is “how you laugh at yourself as the car spins into the ditch, or a tree. Same trip, but a little closer to the bone.” Buckle up.
A song is a song until it isn’t, until it’s pushed to its limits and beyond to become harder, faster and more dissonant. The music on Oneida’s 17th full-length album, “Expensive Air”, all started as tightly structured, melodic rock songs—very much in line with the non-stop bangers of “Success” from 2022—but along the way, they changed.
released July 19, 2024
Oneida is:
Kid Millions
Bobby Matador
Hanoi Jane
Barry London
Shahin Motia
The Fat Angel Sings 