Oblio Joes is a Missoula, Montana-based original rock group in existence from 1993-2007. The band released four full-length recordings, appeared on several compilations, and played many hundreds of shows during their 15 year run. The band called it quits in the summer of 2007 with a final blowout show at the edge of the Clark Fork River in downtown Missoula.
This website will remain live as a way to document the band as thoroughly as possible. We will be adding as much content as we can over the next few months. Please contact us if you have pictures, video, or just a good obe-ish story to share.
What are they up to now?
Secret Powers - new beautiful flowery-pop outfit featuring ex-Obes Stu Simonson, Dan Strachan and John Flemming.
Johnny Apple - occassional songwriter and performer Johnny Brownell.
"It was sad indeed, and I was only able to catch a few of their final songs. I look at it as fourteen memorable years, an incredible body of original work, several tours, a split 7" with an obscure hardcore band called Humpy, and more from-the-gut, sublime bar rock than the Small Faces were ever able to produce. To me that's "making it" in a big way. I always thought the Obes started as a Sebadoh/Pavement apers, but they quickly grew up and I think they will be remembered among Montana's finest contributions to the international canon of independent music.
The commercial music industry has damn near defined itself by missing the cream of the crop. Viva Obes!"
-Josh Vanek, Wantage Records
"...a fantastic collection of off-centre songs that as much recall the giddy optimism of prime Beach Boys and the glossy vacuity of 10CC as they do the noise-tinged melodies of Pavement and Built To Spill."
"At the heart of their music, Oblio Joes employ a skilful sense of arrangement and contrast. Songs like ‘Capricorn Cowboy’ and ‘Holes’ sound initially simple, but underneath their surface lies a strange collection of sounds and multi-layered instrumentation. It’s this seemingly effortless mastery of songs that can be peeled back to reveal rich seams of musicianship and emotional tugging that sets Oblio Joes apart, as not only a great pop band, but one with real depth and the ability to reward the careful listener. If it is thank you and goodbye from them, this album is a fine way to bow out."
- Simon Minter, diskant.net