Oxymoron: Crisis Identity

Oxymoron continued on though the nineties and early aughts but they never topped "Crisis Identity", the A-side of this 1996 single. The basic chugging elements of Oi! are still all accounted for but they're sneaking in disparate elements. Listen to those the big melodic guitar lines alongside the rousing gang vocals that are almost Beach Boys like and ...
The Beach Boys?
Okay, well, scratch that maybe, "the song sounds like the sweet spot between Stranger Than Fiction era Bad Religion and ...And Out Come the Wolves era Rancid" would be more accurate if less likely to chuff off both Oxymoron AND Beach Boys's fans. Just listen:




Download Crisis Identity 7"



Don't forget to visit Frequency 7, where their series on great American Oi! band The Subversives continues.

Oxymoron: Beware Poisonous

Hailing from Nuremberg, Germany, Oxymoron kept Oi! kicking in the nineties, alongside a trans-global army of bald n 'spiky bands. Oxymoron - Sucker (vocals), Bjoern (drums), Martin (guitar) and Filzlaus (bass) - employed the fist-in-the-face musical attack of Oi! but wrote lager-swaying, sing-alongs brimming with twists and turns, like a raw version of fellow countrymen Die Toten Hosen. "Bondage" makes non-gratuitous use of ska guitar figures to keep the pace furious and the almost four minute long (that's prog-rock by Oi! standards), "Beware Poisonous" uses gang vocal arrangements that are almost ...gulp...sophisticated.




Download Beware Poisonous 7"



For more great nineties Oi! (a.k.a. Street-punk, UK '82 and Fuck-core*) go to Frequency 7 where Ollie Stench has posted his fist-pumpin' band, the Subversives.

* Okay, I made that one up.


MRML commenters: Can anyone suggest any good Oi! bands from this century? (the title of a strong single would also be welcomed - this genre works best in short, sharp doses.)