New Merch
"Well, here's some weirdness for you all. I have been using the "Handle" BlueOx/(BlueOxMN) where the other is already taken,) since about 1995 as a chat room name/online ID. Why? I am from Bemidji, I'm a big clumsy guy (ox), and Babe the Blue Ox is a statue of iconic presence in the center of my hometown. I also have bluish colored skin being a super pale Irish American type guy, and I am Gay and like men who look like Paul Bunyan, so the name is a great fit for me. It seems that some time in the last few years a very hardcore metal band came along in MN and started calling themselves Blue Ox. That's all fine, and I haven't yet had any contact from them or issues regarding the name, so all is good. I think its a bit weird to name a furiously scorching metal band after a Big Sappy Blue Ox, I mean, look at the classic Disney Film some time and you'll see Babe is a lover and all about nature, not exactly the Icon of CHAOS one would normally use to christen your blistering angst filled rock aka: Death Metal/Black Metal. Sure, Babe and Paul get into playful wrestling matches and smash entire areas of the North into different natural features now seen today. So I guess Babe could be seen as a Childlike manifestation of terrible natural forces, so in that context Babe is 'sort of' metal like. I checked out their MySpace page, and they seem to be quite a good local band in this genre. They have HUGE numbers on their page for plays, so I'll give 'em props and assume they must be pretty well liked. More power to them, but if they think I am going to stop being the person Blue OX because they called their band Blue Ox, they have another thing coming. I had the handle in active use when these guys were not yet old enough to drive, and it's MINE!!! I will also state that I totally dislike the style of music they are into, but they are DAMN good at it. I play guitar and these guys scorch and howl like a Rhesus Monkey geeked on meth in a woodchipper. Their posted recordings are very well produced, it is really hard to be that loud and distorted, and to get it to come through as clearly in a recording as they did. I produce my own stuff which is certainly way milder by comparison, and I fully appreciate that their studio work is seriously good.
Rock on Blue Ox, but I'm keeping my handle."
GET YOUNG SHOW REVIEW c/o Thomas Rehbein:
One of my favorite parts of the evening was next: the set by Blue Ox. Now, Blue Ox isn’t a band I’m totally bonkers about but they’re pretty descent. They play music that is exceptionally brash and substantially inaccessible to the average listener. Furthermore, they have the aesthetic of a whaling fleet that just pulled into harbor after several months at sea. If you didn’t grow up with older siblings that smoked copious amounts of weed and listened to Pantera***, chances are you will not like this band. That is exactly why their set ruled. For approximately 30 minutes, I got to watch scene kids look really confused and scene girls snarl their noses and make OHMUHGAWD faces at each other. Priceless!
Still, I think they won some new fans, as kids were bangin’ and whatnot during their performance. Blue Ox did play quite well last night.
BLUE OX - "Wet Dreams and Nightmares"
"Who? A new quintet straight outta Minneapolis with their nine-song debut.
Sounds Like? Very Dirty, Very Grimy and very southern-influenced metallic hardcore. Our fingernails turned black just listening.
How Is It? Pretty Gnarly. We’re digging the whole release, but if we had to play favorites, we’d pick "Cameltoe Rodeo" and the title track."
3.5/5 stars
Alternative Press 5/08
"By definition, stoner rock bogs itself down in redundant, slow motion grooves. Many will dub the sludgy tones and southern feel of Blue Ox's guitar riffing as stoner rock-ish, but Wet Dreams & Nightmares plays much more like a two week amphetamine fueled bender of meth rock. High-speed, hardcore punk roots meet raw forms of Crowbar's heavy metal while hints of gloomy, '90s metalcore a la Bloodlet and Disembodied give the record a determined, sober tone. Wet Dreams & Nightmares masterfully straddles the line between bloodshot stoner rock and clear-eyed hardcore."
4/5 stars
Daily Utah Chronicle
