Soldiers of Fortune

So, I’m not the only one around here who likes Oneida, am I?

If not, there’s a sort of side project you should probably know about. Soldiers of Fortune has got Kid Millions and Pat Sullivan (Oneida, but also Oakley Hall), as well as some fellow travelers from Home and other bands…and it’s really good. I’m extracting a bit from my hard-to-condense review from yesterday’s Dusted.


“Sleeping Sentinel” balances the jittery propulsion, the stark, open-chord vocal harmonies of Anthem of the Moon-era Oneida. It is the shortest, most structured, least jammy song on the disc, and also the best. “Worm,” the 17-minute track which takes up the entire second side of the LP, is the other extreme. The song is built around a four-note riff, pushing upward in a short, piston-like motion over a series of half notes, ramming the top one twice, then circling back for another approach. It’s repeated twice a measure over the whole length of the song, a machine-precise foundation over which pianos hammer and basses rumble and guitars execute free-wheeling screeches and nose-dives and someone (possibly Millions in his heavy rock “Did I Die” voice) shouts indecipherable imprecations. It’s also pretty freaking great.

It might make more sense (not promising anything, mind you) if you read the whole thing.

I can't find any audio or video for this, but the record's out on Mexican Summer.

By the way, I was out yesterday watching my son compete in the NH Div. III state championship for XC skiing. They won. Whoo-hoo. Sean threw up all over the place about half an hour before his race and was really sick the Monday before, but still placed third for his team.

Oneida again

So, I'm thinking I'd really like to go to this, but it's impossible to get a hotel in NYC around Christmas...so it would depend on finding a bit of floor or someone's couch at 4 in the morning.

Like to go to what? Oh, yeah, I've buried the lead again...Oneida's curating a one-day sort of festival, which they are calling OaF, short for Oneida Fest. It's on December 13, it costs $10 and here are the bands involved...(obvious highlights: Oneida, Oakley Hall, Dirty Faces, Parts & Labor, but these guys have excellent, serious taste, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were some good surprises among the earlier bands).

Main Space

9 - Brava Spectre
10:30 - Oakley Hall
11:45 - Sightings
2 - Oneida

Tap Bar

10 - Pterodactyl
11:30 - Parts and Labor
1 - Neptune

Old Office

9:30 - Cave
11 - Knyfe Hyts
12:30 - Dirty Faces

Been listening to that new Parts & Labor quite a bit, and it's pretty good, lots louder and less poppy than I thought at first.