The provocative San Francisco-based quartet Oxbow formed in the late '80s around vocalist Eugene Robinson, guitarist Niko Wenner, bassist Dan Adams, and drummer Greg Davis. Combining the squall of bands like the Birthday Party with elements of free jazz and musique concrète, the group debuted in 1990 with F******t, followed in 1992 by King of the Jews. The menacing The Balls in the Great Meat Grinder Collection also appeared in 1992, and after 1995's Steve Albini-produced Let Me Be a Woman, Oxbow signed to the SST label for 1997's Serenade in Red, which featured guest vocals from Marianne Faithfull. They released a split EP with the Italian band White Tornado in 1999, followed by An Evil Heat in 2002. The compilation Love That's Last: A Wholly Hypnographic and Disturbing Work Regarding Oxbow arrived in 2006. A new studio LP, The Narcotic Story, was released via Hydra Head Records in 2007. A decade later, Oxbow returned with their seventh studio long-player, the pugilistic Thin Black Duke. ~ Jason Ankeny