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LocalizedBy Jordan Deverauxtomjordan21@gmail.comThis month’s Localized features the dynamic lineup of Eons and Oxcross,with Yaktooth opening up. Drop what you’re doing on April 12 andcome check out these up-and-comers rage real hard at Urban Lounge.10 p.m., 21+, $5.Every member of Oxcross isdeeply rooted in the Salt Lakemusic scene—they are seasonedveterans. Every member has been in10-plus bands, and a couple of themhave been involved in more projectsthan that. They have seen trends comeand go and dabblers dip in, then selltheir equipment for something a bitmore sturdy than the sometimes-volatilelifestyle that is rock n’ roll. Yep, they’redefinite lifers, but in the good wordsof LeVar Burton, “You don’t have totake my word for it.”Oxcross is comprised of AndyPatterson on drums, Jeff Andersonon guitar, Taylor Williams onguitar and vocals and Dave Joneson bass. The band started about twoyears ago by what seem to be naturalcauses, as all of the band membersare associated with each other throughyears of musical involvement in SaltLake City. “We were all in hardcorebands back in the day, back in theearly ’90s,” Patterson says. Perhapsthe strongest force responsible for theincarnation of Oxcross, though, stemsfrom Patterson’s recording studio. Hesays, “I got to know Taylor a little moreby recording his other band, Glacial,which I ended up joining after a fewyears.” The same is true for Anderson,who says, “Andy has made most of therecords I have ever recorded in anyband I have ever been in.” When I askhow they landed on their band name,Williams says, “We initially wanted tocall it Ox, and then we found that thatwas taken, and my old bass player T2… knew that I was a Game of Thronesfan, and he just randomly textedme: ‘You should name your bandOxcross!’”They all have rich and interestingmusical backgrounds. Patterson andWilliams both played violin as their firstinstrument. They say they both learnedthe “Suzuki method.” Jones says of hisintroduction to music, “My parents …didn’t listen to music. At some point, Istarted buying punk rock CDs becauseI liked the covers.” Williams’ dad isa musician who plays traditional Irishmusic, and Williams says his dad “hasalways supported [him] in music.”Anderson also comes from a musicalbackground, and he says, “My dadraised me on a steady diet of fuckin’prog rock … My introduction to PearlJam was from my parents.”Patterson describes Oxcross’ liveshows as “blue collar” and jokinglyrefers to their style as “power bottom.”Williams says, “I’ll attempt to make afew poor jokes—I’ll probably beratethe audience a little bit.” They describetheir music as doom metal withmelody—Anderson says, “It’s doom tolisten to when you’re sitting in a patchof sunflowers.” They declared Williamsto be their primary songwriter, andPatterson says, “Generally, Taylor hasa song and shows it to us, and we playit. If it sucks, we will fix it.”Oxcross have yet to tour as a band,but they aren’t altogether ruling it out.Patterson says, “I’d like to tour—we’reall older and we have houses andsome of us have kids and stuff like that,so it makes it a little harder to dropeverything and go hit the road, but I’malways interested in playing in Denveror going out to California and playingshows.” They haven’t released anymusic to date, but they assured me thatthey were well into the making of it, andthey projected that they would finishtheir album within a couple of months.They are a busy bunch, too. With theexception of Williams, every memberof the band is currently involved inother musical endeavors outside ofOxcross: Jones plays in Dwellers,Old Timer and Laughter, Pattersonplays in Top Dead Celebrity, Døneand Subrosa, and Anderson plays inTop Dead Celebrity as well.After talking to Oxcross, I was remindedof the importance of persistence. Theseguys comprise large notches in thebackbone of not just the Salt Lake Citymetal scene, but the entire local musicscene. For being such giants in themusic community, it doesn’t take muchto satisfy them—Patterson says of theband’s plans, “If there was some bigband that, for some reason, [when]the planets aligned, wanted to takeus on tour … we would cross thatbridge when we got there, but as faras expectations, we don’t really haveany. We just play shows and put outrecords and hope people like it.” Theywere also kind enough to edify me ingeneral pop cultural matters: Pattersonsays “… that the lost sound of the ’80sis saxophone and fretless bass,” that“Gwen Stefani is an American,”and that Williams “ain’t no hollerbackgirl,” in either definition of the word.Photo: Russel DanielsJeff Anderson (top), (L-R) Dave Jones, TaylorWilliams and Andy Patterson make doom with ahuggable allure in Oxcross.10 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 11Morbid, interstellar andsorrowfully good: Eonswill comfort you whenyou’re blue, guide you through theelectric dimensions of your brainand entertain you with their troubledand highly personal narrative. Eonsharness misery, feed it acid andinject it into a particle accelerator.What’s more, they are a bunch ofgoofballs. They jestingly told methat their ultimate goal was “DisneyRecords,” and that they want to starttouring with the Jonas Brothersand One Direction. After meetingthese fellas, I wager they’ll do it.The group took form about 10 monthsago as a three-piece outfit consistingof bassist Scott Wardle, guitaristMatt Wiley and their first drummer,whom they recently replaced withtheir current drummer, TaylorOrton. After a short period ofjamming as a three-piece, they addedsecond guitarist Chase Covingtonand singer Tylor Blackburn, andbegan playing shows.Nobody in the band quite knewhow to describe their music. Wileytook the lead, saying, “It’s like …spacey post-hardcore. When thisband started, we all kind of had thementality to just do whatever camenatural … In this band, it was, ‘Havesome beers and play some riffs.’”While this sounds like a sure-fire wayto blunder, it doesn’t seem to show intheir songs. Almost everyone in theband has been playing music for 10-plus years, a detail that is reflected inthe structurally complex songs of theirfirst EP, The Weight Of Tragedy, whichwas released last September.The fact that none of them have anyserious musical training seems tobelie the rhythmically jarring aspectof their tunes. The music isn’t the onlycompelling aspect of their songs.Blackburn spares no gruesomedetail when dealing with his subjectmatter—caterwauling every lyriclike a ghoul’s impassioned readingof a coroner’s mad diary. Blackburnsays of his writing process, “How itusually works … Matt will come upwith a riff idea and him and Scottwill work on it together, and thenthey’ll bring it to a band practice… The song is almost done before Ireally start writing. I think it’s, at leastfor me, more appropriate to feel thetone of the song without lyrics andthink of what that reminds me of, andthen write.”Last October, Eons went on aNorthwest tour with local bandDespite Despair. They were elatedto tell me that they “got to play withTrial, which is fuckin’ rad,” saysCovington. This was their first tour asa band, and they sighed when tellingme that “it was too short.” Whileon tour, they played hippie havenArcada, Calif. I shuddered at thethought of a hardcore band playingfor a gaggle of hippies, but theredidn’t seem to be any friction. Wardlesays, “It was probably the funnestshow … We went from playing with abunch of straight edge bands, whichwere rather mellow … [and when] weshowed up [in Arcada], people werejust smoking blunts, drinking beers.”They played with a band calledOodles of Heroin, and Wardleannounced to the crowd, “Hey, myname is Scott, and tonight you’re allmy friends.” Someone replied, “Hey,Scott!” and threw him a beer.When the topic turned to playinglocal shows, they spoke endearinglyabout the area: “The good thingabout Utah is there’s a good scene,”Wiley says. When I asked them whatlocal bands they enjoy playing with,they responded with a list too vast forthe scope of this article, but Blackburnsays, “I’ve never really played with alocal band that I didn’t enjoy playingwith.” They put a lot into their liveperformances, and Blackburn saysthey try to capture “the idea ofthe song,” and describes their liveshows as “full of energy” and “crowdinvolv[ing].” Covington says, “It’sawesome when everyone’s like ‘Yes!’and excited, and the energy is up.”One of the raddest things about thisband is their sense of camaraderie.In spite of each member occupyinga unique slice of the band, they allseemed to be on the same page.When I asked them what they dowhen they hang out together, theyreplied in near synchronicity, “Drinkbeers and play music.” They planon cutting a full-length album soon.Wardle says, “We’re really justwriting enough that we can playdifferent sets rather than what’son the EP … We got some newstuff rollin’ which is awesome—itfeels really good.” Their goalsinclude touring, playing Europe andAustralia, and at the top of the listis “having fun and enjoying everysecond of it,” Wiley says.You can find Eons’ music onBandcamp at eons801.bandcamp.com. After you check out Eons atUrban Lounge on April 12, check outWiley and Orton’s other projects:Starvist and Still Sea, respectively.(L-R) Taylor Orton, Tylor Blackburn, Matt Wiley,Chase Covington and Scott Wardle build off of riffsthat launch them into sonic outer space.Photo: Russel Daniels