O’Death (stylized as o'death) is an American

gothic country Gothic country (sometimes referred to as gothic Americana, Southern Gothic, the Denver sound, or even simply just dark country) is a genre of country music rooted in early jazz, gospel, Americana, gothic rock and post-punk. It's lyrics focus on ...

band from

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. They combine elements of

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fo ...

, bluegrass,

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

and

Americana music Americana (also known as American roots music) is an amalgam of American music formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the musical ethos of the United States, specifically those sounds that are emerged from the ...

History

All the members of O'Death met between the years of 2000 and 2003 at SUNY Purchase. With Greg Jamie on guitar and vocals, Gabe Darling on electric guitar, ukulele, piano, and vocals, David Rogers-Berry on drums, Robert Pycior on violin, and Andrew Platt on bass - O'Death put together a very raw, 10-track CD-R, entitled ''Carl Nemelka Family Photographs'', recorded by Joshua Benash (of the bands Kiss Kiss and Vuvuzela) in 2004. In 2005, Gabe Darling switched to banjo and ukulele, the band added bass player Jesse Newman to the permanent lineup, and O'Death played a year-long monthly residency at the now defunct Apocalypse Lounge in NYC. The band built a local fan base around their irreverent take on Americana by playing dive bars in the East Village and house parties around Brooklyn, as they worked on new material for their second self-released LP, ''Head Home.'' In 2006, they took the stage alongside acts such as

Battles A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

Dr. Dog Dr. Dog is an American rock band based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Its lineup consists of Toby Leaman (bass guitar), Scott McMicken (lead guitar), Frank McElroy ( rhythm guitar), Zach Miller (keyboard), Eric Slick ( drums), an ...

, Art Brute,

Langhorne Slim Langhorne Slim is an American singer-songwriter, (born Sean Scolnick on August 20, 1980 in Langhorne, Pennsylvania). He attended high school at Solebury School in New Hope, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the Conservatory of Music at Purchase ...

, THEUSAISAMONSTER, and

Old Time Relijun Old Time Relijun is a band founded in Olympia, Washington, United States and a longtime member of K Records. Current members consist of Germaine Baca on drums, Aaron Hartman on upright bass, Ben Hartman on saxophones, and Arrington de Dionyso ...

in New York City, and began touring the United States. The band's nonstop touring caught the attention of the New York-based Ernest Jenning Record Co., who re-released ''Head Home'' in June, 2007. Later that summer, Germany-based label City Slang released ''Head Home'' in Europe. O'Death continued to tour the US and Europe throughout 2007, putting out a limited edition (500 copies) vinyl version of ''Head Home'' on Ernest Jenning Record Co./City Slang, followed by a 7" single of two new songs, "Low Tide" and "I Think I'm Fine," as well as a cover of Pixies' "Nimrod's Son" as an internet bonus track. ''Head Home'' was nominated for a 2007

Shortlist Prize The Shortlist Music Prize, stylized as (shôrt–lĭst), was an annual music award for the best album released in the United States that had sold fewer than 500,000 copies at the time of nomination. First given as a cash prize in 2001 under ...

. On February 5, 2008,

Gigantic Music Gigantic Music is an independent record label, founded by Brian Devine in 2000. Gigantic Music is based out of New York City. Gigantic Music signed New York's well-established act The Walkmen for the band's fourth album, ''You & Me''. Other acts ...

released a new 7", which features the songs "Spider Home" and "Silk Hole". In August 2008, City Slang released O'Death's second LP, ''Broken Hymns,'' across Europe and Australia. The record was released in the United States later that year by

Kemado Records Kemado Records is an American record label based in New York City founded in 2002 by Andrés Santo Domingo and Tom Clapp. In 2006 the label released the ''Invaders'' compilation, which featured many of the label's bands alongside other hard rock ...

br>.
The album included a new version of the single, "Lowtide," with a video directed by

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

-nominated,

Benh Zeitlin Benjamin Harold Zeitlin (; born October 14, 1982) is an American filmmaker, best known for writing and directing the 2012 film '' Beasts of the Southern Wild'', for which he received two Academy Award nominations. Early life Zeitlin was born in ...

. Kemado Records also released a 7" single in 2009 for the song, "Underwater Nightmare," b-sided with a cover of "Mongoloid" by Devo, and an original song called, "Prince of Beasts." In this time, O'Death toured with

Murder By Death ''Murder by Death'' is a 1976 American comedy mystery film directed by Robert Moore and written by Neil Simon. The film stars Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote, James Coco, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Elsa Lanchester, David Niven, Peter Sellers, M ...

, and later on with

Les Claypool Leslie Edward Claypool (born September 29, 1963) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, filmmaker, and author. He is best known as the founder, lead singer, bassist, primary songwriter, and only continuous member of the ro ...

, playing main support to both artists. The band also participated on

Vincent Moon Vincent Moon (real name Mathieu Saura, born 25 August 1979) is an independent filmmaker, photographer, and sound artist from Paris. He was the main director of the Blogotheque's Take Away Shows, a web-based project recording field work music vid ...

's The Take-Away Shows and
Ukulele Session
for the Belgian newspaper

Le Soir ''Le Soir'' (, "The Evening") is a French-language Belgian daily newspaper. Founded in 1887 by Emile Rossel, it was intended as a politically independent source of news. It is one of the most popular Francophone newspapers in Belgium, competing ...

, recorded b
Noahm
in their studio (New York). After being on hiatus due to David Rogers-Berry undergoing cancer treatment, they released the album, ''Outside,'' in April, 2011. The first single, "Bugs," from the album was released on 26 January 2011, and the band toured extensively in the US and Europe in support of the record. The band's newest album, ''Out Of Hands We Go'', was released in October 2014 on Northern Spy Records. The album was recorded and mixed by Caleb Mulkerin (of Big Blood, Fire on Fire, and

Cerberus Shoal Cerberus Shoal was a United States rock band formed in 1994 in Boston but largely based in Portland, Maine. They split up in the mid-2000s with some members going on to form Big Blood and Fire on Fire. History The band's initial line-up was Cale ...

) in South Portland, ME.

Discography

Albums

* ''Carl Nemelka Family Photographs'' (Self-released, 2004) * '' Head Home'' (Self-released, 2006; Ernest Jenning Record Co., 2007) * '' Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin'' (

, 2008) * '' Outside'' (Ernest Jenning Record Co., 2011) * '' Out of Hands We Go'' (Northern Spy Records, 2014)

EPs and singles

* Carl Nemelka Family Photographs EP (Self-released, 2005) * “Low Tide” / ”I Think I’m Fine” / “Nimrod’s Son” 7” (Ernest Jenning Record Co., 2007) * “Spider Home” / “Silk Hole” 7” (

, 2008) * "Brother" / "Home" 7" split single with Murder By Death (self-released by Murder By Death, 2009) * '' Underwater Nightmare'' 7” (Kemado Records, 2009)

Videography

Members

*Greg Jamie -

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. Th ...

*Gabe Darling -

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are ...

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

, guitar, banjo,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

*David Rogers-Berry - drums,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

*Bob Pycior -

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

*Jesse Newman - bass,

Past members: *Dan Sager -

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

euphonium The euphonium is a medium-sized, 3 or 4-valve, often compensating, conical-bore, tenor-voiced brass instrument that derives its name from the Ancient Greek word ''euphōnos'', meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced" ( ''eu'' means "well" o ...

, keys *Tristan Palozola -

, auxiliary *Andrew Platt -

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

References

External links

O’Death’s Official Website

O’Death on Myspace

O’Death’s Daytrotter.com session

Live O’Death show on BandsThatJam

City Slang's release of Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin

Interview with drummer David Rogers
in ''Chief Magazine''
Twang Nation's Review of O’ Death's Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Odeath American country music groups Gothic country groups Musical groups from Brooklyn Musical groups established in 2003 City Slang artists Northern Spy Records artists