Not Perpendicular Nor Parallel
Obliques odd angles in the triangle
Some things have been moving for Durham, NC’s band, The Obliques, since we wrote about them a couple of months ago. In April, this quartet of high school kids—comprised of Angus Gering (guitar/lyrics), Jackson Steffens (guitar/lyrics), Pablo Blackwell (drums), and Donivan Russell (bass)—played their first show outside of family garages and so on. That night they were one of the openers for a Clangoring Presentation featuring Warsaw, Poland’s Moron’s Morons at The Cave in Chapel Hill, NC.
Dressed like fancy restaurant busboys or perhaps door-to-door Latter-day Saint elders, they started their set a bit green but exuded charm and confidence. It did not take the band long to lock into their headspace though. Then it became wondrous.
Having a sound that comes from different angles but somehow balances on all its wobbliness, The Obliques is quite a fitting name for the band. Their music has dug into the dirt to sprout into what it is today. Grafting roots from things like 3rd/Like Flies Chilton and Television’s Eno demo and growing up taking in the modern world around them. Their sound is classically familiar yet refreshingly interesting. It’s bright but rubbery, shaggy yet astute. And they have written some really good songs.
After their set, I gave them praises (and a little guff. Yeah, I know... rustbelt habits are tough to buck). I rustled them up for a quick photo shoot. (If you need to know, the guff was about their very, very low-key online presence. "Ya need at least some photos.")
The camera is one regular readers Clangoring are familiar with by now: the Canon AE1 Program with the nifty fifty. The film is FomaPan Panchromatic (B&W) 400. Foma has been producing a version of this stock in the Czech Republic since the sixties I believe. It has a very seedy, low-budget, but clear character to it. It's a moody film too, which gave a lot of these pictures part of their blown-out look.
The flash is a Focal (which was K-Mart's brand for their photo department). It dates from the late 70s. It might be a rebranded Sunpak. It’s a one setting spartan speedlight. It was a bit over the top and not what I was exactly going for but the results came out interesting.
Here are a few from that shoot.
I really wanted to offer to do a record for them but the resurrected Bancroft Records is back on the back burner for the time being (I still do have the Hue Blanc Joyless Ones and Zurich Cloud Motors album if you are looking. Hit me up!) The awesome news is that Chicago label Hozac Records recently announced they’ll be doing a record with the band set to come out in the fall.
Oh, and the family garage thing I mentioned wasn’t some hyperbole. Here’s the Obliques playing in a garage just a few weeks ago.