San Francisco experimental rock veterans Oxbow’s 36-year run abruptly ended a few days ago when frontman and founder Eugene Robinson announced his departure from the band in the middle of their European tour. Near the end of Robinson’s Substack post about leaving the band, he wrote, vaguely and ominously, that “the very real prospect that we might have contributed to the misery of the world makes me sick to my stomach.” Now we get a few more vague and ominous details.

In a message posted on Robinson’s Instagram, Oxbow guitarist Niko Wenner writes that Oxbow “no longer exists,” at least for now, due to an unspecified allegation leveled at Wenner during the tour. Here’s the whole message:

Niko Wenner, Oxbow update.
An accusation was leveled at me, Niko, during our 2024 European tour. It’s probably inappropriate for me to give details since the allegation is still unresolved. The alleged incident, said to have occurred in a crowd, involved only myself and the person making the accusation. None of the others in Oxbow were there.

The accusation led to the cancellation of the last 4 shows of our tour, all in France. I have always greatly enjoyed playing in France and I apologize to anyone who had intentions of seeing us there.

Eugene Robinson has at least for now left the band, as he has already made public in his latest substack article.

As it stands now Oxbow as a band no longer exists. Whether this is a permanent state of affairs remains to be seen.

Niko

Maybe someday we’ll find out what happened.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Eugene Robinson (@mrsleep3)