Between bars, coffee shops and backyards, Chico has a lively music scene due to the cultural melting pot that is Chico State. Campus is crawling with aspiring musicians, especially given the excellent music and recording arts programs offered, which leads to people collaborating and creating bands. A perfect example of this is Oblong – a local garage rock act.
Oblong was started by Chico State students Johnny Orton — vocals, guitar — Julius McIntosh — keyboard — Roland Otterness — drums — and Logan Porter — bass. Johnny and Roland bonded over their passion for making music during their orientation. They remained in contact over the summer and – according to Johnny – Roland was very enthusiastic about playing music together.
When asked about his favorite memory with Oblong, frontman Johnny Orton was unable to name a specific one, but said that backyard shows are usually his favorites.
“I like to play music and I like to party … Everyone in Chico likes to party, so everyone can [come to our backyard shows and] have a good time. I like being the entertainment … we’re dancing music,” Orton said.
Julius and Johnny met just before their first semester of classes started at a campus event that was giving away free In-N-Out. Shortly after, they ran into each other again at a mutual friend’s house, where Johnny was showing up for a jam. It eventually came up that Julius plays the keyboard, which Johnny was excited about because he had been listening to a lot of garage rock, which commonly uses an organ.
Before long, Johnny, Julius and Roland started jamming and talking about forming a band, but they were missing a bassist. The three of them had met Jack already, but at the time he was playing bass for another local band made up of Chico State students called “Caught in a Flood.”
“I remember the moment, [because] we were talking about starting and we didn’t have a bass player and things like that and it was ‘Caught in a Flood’s’ first ever show,” said Julius. “I remember you walked up to Jack and you were like ‘dude you were rippin’ it, you wanna jam sometime?’ and that was it.”
The four of them started jamming together at The Social Chico Dorms not too long after, which somehow never ended with a noise complaint. Someone left notes on their door saying that they loved the jams and wanted to see them play live. The anonymous note-leaver got their wish granted quickly, with Oblong playing their first show in December of 2023, only about a month after they started practicing. They have been playing shows around Chico ever since, performing everywhere from backyards to coffee shops to theatres.
Oblong will be playing their next show on Saturday. The address can not be shared publicly, but you can contact the band through their Instagram account for more information. Fans of Oblong should make sure to give their account a follow to keep up with announcements about the upcoming release of their first album.
Owen Messer can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].
