Ex Velocity Girl Member re-emerges with “Long Gone and Nearly There” debut out late Spring

Just because a CD will hold 80 minutes of music doesn’t mean it should. Ten songs totaling just over 25 minutes in length, Long Gone and Nearly There, the debut album from Washington D.C.-based quartet Julie Ocean makes a case for fast over fatuous, poppy over prog, and concise over complicated. The album is being released by Transit of Venus, distributed in the U.S. by RedEye.

Julie Ocean songs generally follow three simple steps: they start, they make their point, and they stop – but, somewhere along the way, they charm, too. Long Gone and Nearly There is underpinned by a taut, frenetic energy reminiscent of Dag Nasty and The Descendents, is infused with the casual chaos of primetime Guided By Voices and Pavement, and contains undeniable elements of sweet 60s pop of an early Beatles stripe, coupled with the searing melodicism of late 70s heroes The Jam and The Undertones (from whom the band takes its name).

 Guitarist/singer Jim Spellman was a member of 90s alterna-faves Velocity Girl, who released three top selling albums on the Sub Pop label, and he played guitar in The High Back Chairs, Jeff Nelson’s post-Minor Threat combo. Guitarist/singer Terry Banks has played in a host of critically acclaimed indie rock bands, including the Saturday People (Slumberland label), Tree Fort Angst (Bus Stop) and Glo-Worm (K Records.)  In the late 80s, drummer Alex Daniels was the teenage dynamo propelling the young-and-angry Swiz and later took an artier turn as the drummer in Severin, who recorded for the Dischord label. Bassist Hunter Bennett began musical life in a post-Government Issue outfit called Weatherhead, an odd, D.C-based collective who troubled the early 90s stages of DC Space and other hallowed spots – sometimes wearing masks.

  Long Gone and Nearly There was produced by Geoff Sanoff whose production credits include Fountains of Wayne, Luna, and The Secret Machines, among others. Julie Ocean frequently plays live in the D.C. area and plans to play dates in support of the record on the East Coast – and perhaps a few other further-flung places, too.

For more information on the band, visit :
myspace.com/JulieOceanDC

Track Listings
01 Ten Lonely Words 02 #1 Song 03 My Revenge
04 At The Appointed Hour 05 Here Comes Danny 06 Bright Idea
07 Complications 08 Ebb & Flow 09 There’s A Place (In The Back Of My
Mind) 10 Looking At Me/Looking At You

Sargeant

John Sargeant, writing on NeuFutur as Sargeant, is the founder and editor-in-chief of NeuFutur Magazine, where he has covered independent music, PC hardware, consumer tech, and gaming culture since 1998. With over 25 years of continuous digital publishing experience, he has written thousands of hands-on game and record reviews, conducted in-depth hardware field testing, and analyzed digital media monetization trends. His work prioritizes first-hand evaluation and long-term product testing.

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