Ocean Alley

One Liner:  Reggae-tinged rock grooves from Down Under

Wikipedia Genre:  Alternative rock, psychedelic rock

Home: Sydney

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 9
Both Weekends.
Saturday.

Thoughts:  I'm hearing all sorts of things here.  Thundercat, Moon Taxi, Black Crowes, like 311 or Rebellution or one of those other vaguely reggae-ish rock bands...  Wikipedia claims that their style has been described as "cruisey psych, rock and reggae fusion."  If I told you that these names had created a band - Baden Donegal, Angus Goodwin, Lach Galbraith, Mitch Galbraith, Nic Blom, and Tom O'Brien - where would you guess that band hailed from?  Sounds like Scotland or Wales to me, but instead it is from good old convict island of Australia.

They joined up in a backyard shed in 2011, and soon had gigs all around Northern Beaches, which is apparently a suburb of Sydney.  Wikipedia says "Not to be confused with North Beach, North Shore (Sydney), or North Sydney."  I guess they are not very original with their naming down undah.  Actually kind of cool, they apparently toured the whole of Australia five times in their own four-wheel drive throughout 2014 and 2015.  I like the idea of the band piled into a classic Land Rover pounding the sand between Canberra and Perth, eating wallaby legs they've killed with their bullroarer and listening to Midnight Oil the whole way.  Even if it was significantly less romantic than that, I have been enjoying just letting these tunes roll along all day today.

2013's Mellow Yellow EP kicked off their career, and the title track was the initial hit that has continued to resonate even today.  87.9 million streams.

I like the bouncing little bass rips that are cruising along under that reggae-ish guitar licking.  Makes for a funky groove.  Slightly in the jam band lane, in the way a Moon Taxi or Revivalists can be.  I enjoy.  2016 was the first real album with Lost Tropics.  A couple tunes on there top more than 10 million streams, but the winner is "Lemonworld" with 56 million.

What is their deal with yellow and lemon?  Still got that reggae-style guitar lilt going.  Feels a little under-produced.  I wonder if they were doing all of this themselves in the backyard shed still.  In my completely uninformed opinion, I feel like their band name hurts them.  It's not as awful as Hootie and the Blowfish or something, but it will not stick in my mind.  I've been enjoying this music and yet the name will not stick.

They followed up this album with a full on European tour, playing sold out shows all around.  Their 2018 album that followed boasts the big boy song.  Chiaroscuro is the album, and "Confidence" is the song with 241.4 million streams.

There is some of that Thundercat funk bass business.  Skates are for sure one of those things that seems way more fun than it actually is, although watching attractive ladies come close to eating it is more fun than I would have expected.  Ah, I kinda wanted mega-dork to find one of the ladies and impress her with his skillz.  Good groove though.  Two more albums, 2020's Lonely Diamond and 2022's Low Altitude Living.  Both are good, neither has a huge hit on it.

According to Wikipedia, "Confidence" actually shot up the charts to popularity in 2023 because of a TikTok trend called Behind Every Girl, celebrating confidence and happiness.  Way to go TikTok!  Since then, they have announced a big tour and sold out a bunch of shows and festival slots.

I'd absolutely check this out.  I want to just keep it playing right now.