It was bound to happen eventually: After two decades of non-stop prolific output under the many guises of his Osees project, John Dwyer seemingly cloned himself to lead a second, parallel existence as the band leader for a revolving set of collaborators within jazz fusion projects like Bent Arcana and Witch Egg and beyond. Having recently released SORCS 80 with his primary band, Dwyer is already moving onto his next full-fledged collaboration, this time enlisting iconic new-wave drummer David Barbarossa of Adam & the Ants and Bow Wow Wow, further padded out by members of Lydia Lunch’s Retrovirus and punk newcomers FKA Smiley, as well as tapping into the Osees and Bent Arcana talent pools.
Ahead of the release of their self-titled debut album, Chime Oblivion are sharing another new single today that melds the influences of some of today’s most exciting punk outfits with the acts that originally inspired them. “I think it pulls a bunch of pieces from bands that we all loved over the years,” Dwyer confirms of “Kiss Her or Be Her,” a proto-punk rager embracing the bounce of Barbarossa’s percussion as FKA Smiley vocalist HL Nelly does a pretty convincing Sue Tompkins. “Obviously we have David as weapon X to bring in the old-school talent. I think that’s a rare thing these days.”
Working with Nelly’s lyrics, Dwyer continues on to note how the song was inspired by a mutual friend among the band that Nelly appeared to be “taken with.” “My friend is quite charming, so it’s totally understandable,” Dwyer notes. “I played her the song and she was, I think, really moved. She’s a pretty cool motherfucker, and Nelly recognized that and wrote a really great, playful, busy song about their first meeting. [This] one took a long time to get wrapped up. I would say it was our opus together.”
Check out the results below.
