Singer/guitarist Tonie Joy is a Baltimore music legend, having begun his career 25 years ago with the formation of Moss Icon. That group started out at the tail end of the first wave of American hardcore, but had soon branched out siginficantly from the restrictive boundaries of that genre, mixing Joy’s complex single-note guitar riffs with singer Jonathan Vance’s lengthy and dramatic vocal narratives. As one of the first punk bands to write songs that stretched past the ten-minute mark, Moss Icon were a divisive band, but in time, their place in history was cemented by the influence their groundbreaking albums, Lyburnum Wit’s End Liberation Fly and It Disappears, had on underground music in the 90s and beyond. When Moss Icon broke up in the early 90s, Joy didn’t slow down at all, starting a new, heavier but equally experimental and influential group, Universal Order Of Armageddon, and going on to play in other important bands such as Born Against, The Great Unraveling, and The Convocation Of. Throughout his long career, Joy’s creative pace has never slowed. Now he brings his latest group, Slow Bull, to Richmond.
Singer/guitarist Tonie Joy is a Baltimore music legend, having begun his career 25 years ago with the formation of Moss Icon. That group started out at the tail end of the first wave of American hardcore, but had soon branched out siginficantly from the restrictive boundaries of that genre, mixing Joy’s complex single-note guitar riffs with singer Jonathan Vance’s lengthy and dramatic vocal narratives. As one of the first punk bands to write songs that stretched past the ten-minute mark, Moss Icon were a divisive band, but in time, their place in history was cemented by the influence their groundbreaking albums, Lyburnum Wit’s End Liberation Fly and It Disappears, had on underground music in the 90s and beyond. When Moss Icon broke up in the early 90s, Joy didn’t slow down at all, starting a new, heavier but equally experimental and influential group, Universal Order Of Armageddon, and going on to play in other important bands such as Born Against, The Great Unraveling, and The Convocation Of. Throughout his long career, Joy’s creative pace has never slowed. Now he brings his latest group, Slow Bull, to Richmond.
A seven-piece project with diverse instrumentation (two drummers, two keyboardists, two guitarists, and one bassist), Slow Bull is the culmination of nearly a decade that Joy spent exploring unique ideas that began as solo demos. In addition to Joy’s lengthy list of credits, members of Slow Bull have also played with Vincent Black Shadow, Charm City Suicides, Pinback, and The French Mistake, among others. Slow Bull are not as heavy as some of Joy’s previous groups, instead exploring psychedelic, progressive, yet fundamentally melodic grooves through improvisational evolution, in much the same manner as his long-departed Moss Icon side project Breathing Walker. This show is the first stop on a full-scale tour of the South, and while Slow Bull don’t have any proper releases out just yet, records are planned this year on Black Tent Press and former Universal Order Of Armageddon label Gravity Records. These guys are on their way to being much more popular and well-known than they are right now–see them now and beat the rush.
WHAT: Slow Bull Tour Kickoff Show In RVA!
WHO: Slow Bull, The Pilgrim, Boney Loner And The Sacred Teachers
WHERE: Strange Matter, 929 W. Grace St.
WHEN: Friday February 17, 9 PM
ADMISSION: FREE!! (Though donations for the touring bands will of course be welcome)
And just to further entice you, here’s a live video of Slow Bull performing their song “Revelation Of The Method” last April. Check it out:
