Of The Tower
Gig Seeker Pro

Of The Tower

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
Band Alternative Rock

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"Tower of Cower"

Of the Tower, the metro’s most adventurous post-punk act, builds a show aimed to blow minds and alienate the weak at heart.
Charles Martin October 19th, 2011 Of The Tower with Kill The Reflection and The Secret Post
8 p.m. Saturday
VZD’S Restaurant & Club
4200 N. Western
vzds.com
524-4203
$5


Crowds swelled at the OKC Farmers Public Market, waiting to enter the 2010 Carnality Ball when a handful of Bible-thumping protesters with bullhorns set up shop across the street. Hellfire-and-brimstone Scripture was volleyed at scantily clad women and drag queens, but members of the avant-garde band Of the Tower stormed out in costume, banging drums and shouting back with a bullhorn they’d borrowed.




After an hour of having their evangelizing answered with improvised poetry and music, the protest ended, leaving the revelers to their “sin.”

“It came out of thin air so quickly because we had a natural tendency to do those things, to pull public pranks,” said drummer Todd Plunkett. “That was the point that solidified what we wanted Of the Tower to become: a kind of spontaneous, improvisational, performance-artist band. That was more fulfilling for us than the show we did.”

In the year and a half since, Of the Tower has explored evocative and shocking performance art to enhance its music’s impact. Front man David Goad decided it was time to take the concept to its full potential for Saturday’s “Halloween spectacle” at VZD’s.

If we play for 50 people, 48 scratch their heads.
—Todd Plunkett

“I want the catharsis of the music represented by the expression and the choreography,” said Goad of his fourth-wall-breaking plans. “It’s right there in front of you rather than just a band onstage. There’s a mixture of fear and anticipation that I’d like to instill in the audience.” He admitted a danger of alienating audience members, but felt it was time to distinguish Of the Tower as not just another dark-wave act.

“We’ve even talked about doing things that are more happenings,” Plunkett said, mentioning a junkyard show that might include “blowing up a car or something. Things like that are never going to get you on MTV, and if we play for 50 people, we might have 48 scratching their heads. But then there are those two people coming out of the audience to tell us they were waiting for this forever.”

Although the group may appeal to a niche market, Goad said it’s important for people to see someone in town doing this sort of thing.

“In Oklahoma, people get stuck in this routine,” he said. “They do their 9-to-5, they come home and have kids, go to LifeChurch and get bored. They start experimenting with what’s around them, whether drugs or swinging. There is not a lot here that speaks to that despair ... but it’s an important part of Oklahoma culture.”

- The Oklahoma Gazette


"‘Trust’-worthy"

Gloomy OKC act Of the Tower unveils part one of an ongoing video project.By Matt CarneyJanuary 11th, 2012

I spoke with Of The Tower leader David Goad and a vocal coach he was seeking advice from, when I was visiting ACM@UCO a couple of weeks ago. I was doing a bit of reporting for a forthcoming Gazette story, and the coach, Jaime Babbitt, told me she’d suggested some vocal exercises to David that would help him with his screaming.




Well, that work appears to have paid off. Listen to the sharp, droning song “Trust” below, and watch the gritty, black-and-white corresponding video from Blackcar Media Works.

Warning: intravenous drug use and torture by electricity to follow. Might want to save this one for after work, unless you work at the kind of place where people attach scary-looking machines to other people’s nipples. <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ytaxU3jCRA0?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
- The Oklahoma Gazette


Discography

Opus No.1 Samizdat

Photos

Bio

Formed in 2009, their dark glam-inspired rock has been seen in such events as Carnality Ball, Norman Music Festival, local television in Edmond, major okc clubs, and featured on local radio station 105.3 The Spy.
David Goad is a graduate of the Academy of Contemporary Music in OKC.