The Ocean Blue - Extras: demos & live (1986-94)

This is hardly the first time I've given The Ocean Blue the "live and rare" treatment.  Four years ago I treated you to two complete O/B concerts wherein the band covered their first two albums in their entirety, and earlier on I pitched a handful of early demos and such to you.  Tonight is a half and half bundle, so to speak.  Since last year, I've found a vastly improved and expanded clutch of demos, and a live set from 1994, albeit shorter than the album shows I mentioned above.

I was onto this Hershey, PA quartet as soon as their 1989 debut dropped.  In fact, the band's signature song from that album, "Between Something and Nothing," with it's indelible cascade of tingly arpeggios was a clear distillation of their obvious affection for The Smiths and Echo & the Bunnymen. They signed to Sire either when they were still attending or fresh out of high school, and made inroads not only on college radio but with then-emerging commercial-alternative outlets as well.  An astonishing feat for any nascent musical aggregation, and in their case they had the tunes and chops to back up any perceived precociousness.  Though never a top tier favorite of mine (heck, I haven't even been exposed to so much as one note from their "reconvened" records from this decade past) the Ocean Blue's early output is still pretty impeccable.      

All told there I've got eleven demos culled from multiple sessions for you tonight, and even though it's a solid LP's worth of tunes it somehow feels like it's still an insufficient amount. David Schelzel and Co. had those chiming guitar chords down pat from the get go. Demos are really nothing more than prototypes or glorified dry-runs before the finished product gets committed to tape, but to think they came up with so many tight, deftly crafted tunes while they were still in their teens is flabbergasting.  A few cuts here didn't make it to the aforementioned debut - "Frigid Winter," "Wounds of a Friend," and "Be Still," all striking me as album-worthy. There's a little overlap with the demos I posted a few years ago, but the sound here is exponentially better.  I downloaded these from one of my file-sharing haunts, and apparently track five is unaccounted for, so apologies in advance.

I'm not certain if the nine-song Ventura, CA concert from 1994 was the band's full set that night, but if not, the fact that it's a soundboard recording adequately compensates. The band was supporting their third and final album for Sire, Beneath the Rhythm and Sound, with songs from it and the preceding LPs all being represented.  Fittingly, a Smiths cover plays them out. Finally, if you want to learn more about the Ocean Blue past, present and future, check out a podcast interview with Schelzel from 2019 here.  

1986 demos
01. Frigid Winter
02. Wounds Of A Friend

1987 demos
03. Vanity Fair
04. Between Something & Nothing
06. untitled
07. Be Still
08. The Office of a Busy Man
09. Ask Me Jon
10. Blue sky
11. life was Easy
12. Renissance Man

Live Ventura, CA 6/20/94
13. Don't Believe Everything You Hear
14. Sublime
15. Bliss is Unaware
16. Between Something & Nothing
17. Marigold
18. Drifting, Falling
19. Ballerina Out of Control
20. Cerulean
21. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

Hear