Babe the Blue Ox

by John Bush
Babe the Blue OX (BOX) formed in Brooklyn in 1991 when Midwesterners Tim Thomas (guitar, vocals) and Rose Thomson (bass, vocals) moved into Hanna Fox's apartment and persuaded her to play drums. Their first single, "There's Always Room for One More, Honey," appeared on Stamp and showed their Captain Beefheart take on indie rock; the trio uses jazz, sludge rock and punk to screw up their pop songs. Signed to Homestead, they released the "Chicken Head Bone Sucker" single in 1992, [BOX] and the Je m'Appelle Babe EP in 1993, and Color Me Babe in 1994. People, the group's first album for major label RCA, appeared in 1996; The Way We Were followed two years later.