Friday, October 13, 2006

Flashback: The Ocean Blue

Sometimes you just need to revist the past, so we are going to repost some of the things that we did before anybody read this site. These are posts about bands that we feel strongly about. This is our first post from August 1.


After years of wanting to get our voices and musical tastes out in to the world, the day has finally arrived. We are two guys who grew up in southcentral Pennsylvania that have been hanging out for almost 22 years. We have seen bands and trends come and go, yet we always navigate through all of the crap out there and find our way to good music. Now that we are spread out across the country (we will be covering Austin, TX, Baltimore, MD and southcentral Pennsylvania), this is our way to share music with each other, our friends and any fans that we may pick up along the way. In the weeks and months to come, we hope to provide you with frequent updates on what is worth listening to. We also plan on doing flashbacks to bands that you may have missed over the years whose music is still quite valid. In fact, we have decided to dedicate our first post to a band whose music is a big reason that we have been music fans all of these years. Let us introduce you to The Ocean Blue.


The Ocean Blue is a band from Hershey, PA (yes, THAT Hershey) that formed in the late 1980's. After becoming a local underground success with their legendary shows at Lancaster, PA's Chameleon Club, they signed to a major label. In 1989, they released their major debut and toured the world. Their sound is probably best described as the American answer to the British bands of the day... The Cure, The Smiths, Echo and The Bunnymen, New Order and The Psychedelic Furs. It is some of the most soothing music that you will ever hear, perfect for a late night rendezvous or an early morning drive to work. When you listen more closely, you find that there is a lot of depth. Why wasn't this band huge? Well they came from the wrong place at the wrong time. A British influenced band in Pennsyltucky? Hair bands like Kix and Poison were dominating radio play and their local scene and their peers across the pond were either disbanding or losing popularity. Shortly after that, the 1990's kicked in to gear and grunge took over modern rock radio. Admist all of this change, one thing remained constant. The Ocean Blue continued to tour and produce albums for their small but loyal following and occasionally found success on college radio. The lineup changed slightly in the mid-90s and the time between albums wasn't exactly short, but their relevance still remained.

With the 80's British sound influencing bands like Interpol and Editors and musicians such as Morrissey, New Order and The Cure enjoying success again, the time is as good as it will ever be for this band to finally shed it's title of one of the most underrated bands of all time and finally enjoy some of the accolades that they deserve. Recently, there was a sign that this just may happen. Death Cab For Cutie covered one of their songs. They also have a new album that is tentatively scheduled for release later this year.

If you enjoy their music like we do or just want to learn more about them, please check out their website and purchase any of their wonderful albums. We would also like to say thank you to the band for making the last 15 or so years so much more enjoyable for us. With that, we will leave you with a few of our favorite Ocean Blue songs.

The Ocean Blue - Marigold
The Ocean Blue - Ballerina Out of Control
The Ocean Blue - Sublime
The Ocean Blue - Crash
The Ocean Blue - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (Smiths Cover)

2 Comments:

Blogger iwiwag said...

Cool ;)

Friday, October 13, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

criminally overlooked band...great stuff

Saturday, October 14, 2006  

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