Oxford Collapse Get Up and Do It Some More

Four full-length records in about four years … don’t America’s indie rockers have TVs anymore?

But it’s clear that Oxford Collapse are having too much fun not to be churning out their raucous, sing-along pop tunes on automatic. The Brooklyn-based art pop trio are best known for keeping alive the poignant embers of guitar-driven ’80s college rock and “jangular” pop.

Oxford Collapse’s forthcoming album, Bits, is a departure from the trio’s past efforts. In Sub Pop-inspired PR poetry, the band’s previous work “reflected an almost preternatural awareness of the ['80s college-rock mindset] and was/is excitable and bounding against prison walls of their own device.” Um. Well that’s a charming way of saying that the new record sees the the band loosening up the creative process, overthinking things less and writing songs with greater urgency and compulsion.

In fact the band had 30 songs worth of material going into the studio for this record, forcing some spillage of the surplus exuberance onto two separate vinyl releases (the Spike of Bensonhurst 7-inch on Flameshovel Records and the Hann-Byrd 12-inch on Comedy Minus One).

If that doesn’t tide you over until Aug. 5, when Bits is released, then go see their joyous, blistering live show this Saturday, Aug. 2 at Black Cat, alongside We Are Scientists and Frightened Rabbit. Expect to be entreated with soaring melodies, frenetic guitars, and some of the noisiest heartfelt songs you’ve heard in a long time.

Here is Oxford Collapse’s video for “The Birthday Wars,” a track off of Bits:

Tags: Frightened Rabbit, Oxford Collapse, Sub Pop, We Are Scientists