New York based gothic country band o’death are named after the Dock Boggs penned song later made famous by Ralph Stanley on the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack. They combine elements of folk, bluegrass, punk, metal and Americana music.
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.
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.
In 2008, they 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.. The album included a new version of the single, “Lowtide,” with a video directed by Oscar-nominated, Benh Zeitlin. 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.”
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. Out Of Hands We Go, was released in October 2014 on Northern Spy Records.
O’Death continues to play the occasional show and tour, mostly up and down the East Coast.
