wht.rbbt.obj Deliver a Noir-Fueled Triumph with “Oscar Bravo Juliett”

The following feature is now included in our online magazine which is also available in print.

Issue #4

wht.rbbt.obj Bring a Noir, Gasoline-Fueled Triumph with "Oscar Bravo Juliett" Chicago's noir rock underground is on the receiving end of a fresh reckoning, and it takes the form of wht.rbbt.obj, the married couple whose late-night debauchery and unvarnished rawness has drawn comparisons to Amy Winehouse singing for The Black Keys. Their sophomore album, Oscar Bravo Juliett, is out October 17, 2025, as the frenetic peak of the ambitious NATO Call Sign Trilogy, sandwiched between Whiskey Hotel Tango (2023) and Romeo Bravo Bravo Tango (2024). Dark, cinematic rock in nine songs is designed to translate the live freneticness and shadowy menace fans have come to anticipate, a set of songs that sound like surreptitious instructions passed back and forth across lines of fire. Frank Rabbitte, The Architect, and River Rabbitte, The Femme Fatale, have co-written a deadly soul – noir – infused rock sound. It's eroticism and garage sleaze blended, created for closing time and second chance. Oscar Bravo Juliett hears the pair further refining their characteristic tension, balancing weight and fragility, as River's assertive vocals slice through Frank's crunchy, blues-infused guitar riffs. The outcome is an album that is cinematic yet also intimate, the sense that each song is a vignette from some dismal city tale that is both personal and charged.

The album is also a tease for a second record, out single, Monsters of Nothing (The FURY Edition), a song with Chicago rapper FURY. The individual couple River pairs femme fatale firepower with razor, sharp hip, hop, crashing the duo's noir sense of style into rock, rap that propels their story world into new and uncharted dimensions. For listeners, it's a promise that wht.rbbt.obj won't remain confined to genre lines; their aesthetic resonates in tension, in uncertainty, and narrative depth.

Their live lives attest to this reputation. The pair, supported by a touring band, have tore through SXSW, Summerfest, and Riot Fest stages, sponsored events, with drenched-with-sweat, high, sweat-drenched, energy shows that sound as loose as they are tight. Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, Detroit, and Nashville have all received their blues-inflected garage rock and soul plugged into urgent and style. Rolling Stone admired them with their "velvet tones and late, night decadence," and NPR's Sound Opinions called them "heavily distorted roadhouse raunch." This citation illustrates the duo's skill at crafting music that is raw but captivating, a contemporary renaissance of rock's danger and sexiness.

Oscar Bravo Juliett will appeal to The Kills, The Dead Weather, and bands who invoke grit with glamour fans. Movie fans who love rock stories, such as the noir-soaked swagger of Drive's score or the smoke-suffused smolder of Amy Winehouse's Back to Black, will be transported to wht.rbbt.obj's world. Their EP releases Whiskey Hotel Tango and Romeo Bravo Bravo Tango demonstrated them capable of crafting narrative via audio tension, and this third installment threatens the complete cycle, tension, yearning, and cathartic payoff bound in black, throbbing rock rhythms.

Wht.rbbt.obj excel by their subtle blending of narrative, texture, and urgency. Frank's guitar and production providing the songs' roots in blues, dirty grime, and River's vocals imbuing them with a femme fatale seductiveness, exposed and authoritative. The songs are shaped with the DIY anger of a seasoned band, from cramped basement practice rooms to summertime festival headlining stages, without sacrificing the close-up danger and security that renders their songs so appealing.

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