Megan Hamilton and I started OxBlood after commiserating over our experiences in the music industry. She is a former member of Frogpond, who did time on a major label, while I worked for indie and major labels in Los Angeles in the late 80’s. Soured by the treatment of bands by record labels, we vowed OxBlood would be artist-friendly. With the scene in Kansas City (and Lawrence, Kansas) burgeoning, there is no better time than now. We want to showcase the diverse talent of our scene and what better way than compiling some of the scene’s stars for our initial release? The compilation has an old-school approach…all new and exclusive tracks recorded at the same studio by one producer -- Mr. Paul Malinowski (Season To Risk, Shiner).
First Blood: The Compilation includes a mix of new projects from Kansas City area veterans featuring former members of Season To Risk, Shiner, The Pedaljets, The Get Up Kids, Boys Life, Dirtnap, The Gadjits, and Butterglory and from the young lions --the likes of The Republic Tigers, Softee, Ghosty, Spoon and more. A heartfelt thank you to the musicians, artists, and friends who made this recording possible.
Our first release is filled with murder ballads and dark elegies courtesy of American Catastrophe. Check out "Excerpts From The Broken Bone Choir".
We reissued a remastered version of the self-titled album from Kansas City's The Pedaljets, originally released back in 1989. And, the latest from indie-popsters Ghosty, titled "Answers" has been receiving rave reviews from NPR, Crawdaddy, Obscure Sound, All Music Guide and others. Our releases can be purchased on itunes, rhapsody, emusic, ruckus, napster, amazon and bluecollardistro.com.
Robert Moore
OxBlood Records
