 |
Holiday In |
The Ocean Party, a crew of youngsters from Wagga Wagga, formed in 2009. The core lineup consisted of Lachlan Denton, Liam "Snowy" Halliwell, Curtis Wakeling, and Jordan Thompson at first, with Mark Rogers and Lachlan's brother Zac Denton joining on later. This is a nice intro to their early stuff: work is tough, there's not enough money, but maybe things will get better. |
 |
Portsea |
Here's one by Velcro, a side project of Curtis Wakeling from The Ocean Party. This one has Lachlan and Snowy on deck, too. Those guitars get stuck in my head. Elsewhere on this release is Ashley Bundang, who's in a number of side projects with these guys, to be covered later... |
 |
china |
...and also appearing in Hot Palms from time to time are Alec Marshall, Astral Traveller, and André Vanderwert, the latter lending his name to the project André. This is a nice moody little track, and also, I think Peter would appreciate me including a song with lyrics that say, "why don't you move to china / get a little money, leave it all behind ya?" |
 |
Long Weekend |
Here we have Ciggie Witch, which at the point this was recorded—by the best info I have available and some digging—was Zac & Lachlan Denton and Snowy, from The Ocean Party, plus Ashley Bundang again, and also Mitch Clemens and Joe Foley. This one's way catchy, so it's on the single. |
 |
Point Cook |
Ciggie Witch again with some perfect songwriting. Stranded at the gas station, waiting for your brother to come bail you out, because your paycheck didn't hit yet. In some parallel universe a few degrees off from ours, there's a Hughes or Callaci song about this happening... |
 |
Went Out |
This Ocean Party song is probably my favorite from the whole catalog. Hop in. |
|
Sharps And Taylors |
A beautiful one. Have you picked up yet that the Ocean Party boys trade off lead vocals? Here's what happens when they set aside the perfectly wandering loneliness for a straighter tone, and doesn't that just scratch an itch. |
 |
Sandpit |
Hobby Farm is Zac Denton and friends. Here & there on this record are Dainis Lacey and Ambrin Hasnain (who will be covered in a future post—are you making your little flowchart yet?—when we get to Cool Sounds and Partner Look) plus Ashley Bundang and Alec Marshall from the general André/Hot Palms/Velcro region of side projects we talked about, and Snowy is here to play, mix, and master. This is a sweet song. Were you this kind of child? I was. |
|
Spat Out |
Remember this one. |
 |
Black Blood |
This kicks off the Ocean Party record Light Weight and to me, it suggests these boys from Wagga Wagga have decided to really throw some punches. |
|
Light Weight |
Fans of the rhythm section: hello. This one is likely to get stuck in your head. We're back to jobs, to longing, to the not-really-knowing. |
 |
Restless |
This Ocean Party record has some nice texture. Don't let the piano at the start here fool you, just wait it out. That guitar riff in the chorus is where you remember it's the Ocean Party, but the consistent sound of their early output has given way to much more interesting arrangements. |
|
West Koast |
The boys have range. Get your earbuds or a long headphone cord. Listen to that bass! Get up and dance! |
 |
Slow Release (Magnum Ego Mix) |
Zac Denton and Snowy, stepping off on their own (but borrowing Ashley Bundang for backing vocals on this one) had No Local to stretch out into electronic music. |
 |
Pleasure Ghost |
It's time to groove. The Ocean Party ditch songwriting on this track and let things roll. That drumbeat keeps steady underneath everybody else fading in and out, some spectral keys, the sax... |
 |
All We've Got |
Lachlan Denton put this EP out in 2017.
You're going to want to keep this melody in mind when we get to the end of our recommendations. Lachlan is a very sincere songwriter, and it's a nice song.
|
 |
Concrete View |
Back to that Ocean Party groove, it's another "West Koast" type jam. Bass fans, get in here for this one. |
 |
Do What U Wanna |
Lachlan and Snowy have a little fun here. This one came out in early 2018, and the track mentions our friends in André from near the start of our list. Have some fun for a minute here. |
 |
White Cockatoo |
Ocean Party songwriting in storytelling mode. How catchy is that bit when the lyrics take on that quick bounce to it—by April we'll clean up the air, by April we'll be ready then, by April we'll have landed on a name—and what a song about expecting. This is our last Ocean Party recommendation, from their record The Oddfellows Hall. |
|
The Oddfellows Hall was released near the end of 2018. It was The Ocean Party's last finished record before the news: in October 2018, Zac Denton was hospitalized, and he passed away from complications of a brain cyst.
Zac was 24 years old.
The band would release one last record, Nothing Grows, using material Zac had already prepared. But there could be no Ocean Party without him.
|
 |
Give Up |
Snowy began producing more solo work. |
 |
Do It All Again |
Lachlan Denton put out a record about his brother. There are no complex metaphors, there's no literary distance, there's just Lachlan very plainly laying out his grief. To me, it's honest in a way that feels like someone has lodged a big metal hook in me and they're pulling really, really hard. Which is a recommendation, because it's beautiful. But be ready. |
|
Spat Out |
Lachlan covered "Spat Out" by Hobby Farm on the same record about Zac. |
|
There are other projects and solo efforts, in the big web of connected artists and labels. The members of the former Ocean Party kept busy.
In 2020, a group called Pop Filter emerged.
|
 |
Not Listening To The Same Thing |
Pop Filter are Lachlan Denton, Liam "Snowy" Halliwell, Curtis Wakeling, Jordan Thompson, Mark Rogers, and Nick Kearton. It's not the Ocean Party, and it can't ever be the Ocean Party again. But they've been making new music for years together as Pop Filter, and breaking into new, interesting stuff as they go. |
|
Big Yellow Van |
I can't be sad / ties cannot be broken / our history made in the back of the yellow van / and on the stage / through the songs we sang
(Remember that Lachlan song "All We've Got"?)
|
|
More Pop Filter and other related recommendations coming in a future post. I wrote this for the May 2nd Bandcamp Friday and I hear we don't get another of those for a while, but hopefully another roundup post will come before then. Hopefully.
But this one's a quick write-up before I get back to my other job. One more recommendation, just for fun:
|
 |
sarin gas |
This is a 12-minute ambient drone track that I've been using on the podcast I produce when we have a long news article to read on-air. It's by Frugivore, the experimental project of Durham musician and Mountain Goats tour tech Ben Loughran. Ben is a sweetheart and makes cool music, so if you're into neat textures, go listen to what he's up to. |