The Fucking Ocean - Double Negative Records

Releases	Shows
thefuckingocean.org
myspace.com/thefuckingocean

Beginning in 2003, the Fucking Ocean quickly established themselves as a post-punk force to be reckoned with, despite their name (which the Onion A.V. Club included in their list of “Best-Worst Band Names”). Comparisons to bands like Fugazi, Mission of Burma, Electrelane and Gang of Four are common but fail to provide a complete picture. Perhaps The San Francisco Bay Guardian captured it best when they wrote, “The Fucking Ocean generate delightfully angular and beautiful songs to transform their audience into a sea of head-nodding, knee-shaking clones.”

As a self-described musical volleyball team, band members Matt Swagler, John Nguyen and Marcella Gries are constantly rotating on vocals, guitar, bass and drums. Former member Elias Spiliotis also used to get in on the act, but recently left the band to engage in a spiritual battle with science (translation: finish his high-level schooling and get a real job).

The Fucking Ocean have played shows with 31 Knots, The Mall, Boyskout, Battleship, Yikes (ex-Coachwhips), Paradise Island, Fuckwolf, Health, Moggs, We Be the Echo and more. They recently invaded New York and completed a West Coast mini-tour. The band also took part in the 2006 Mission Creek Music Festival.

The band recently finished recording their debut album at Tiny Telephone Studios with Ian and Jay Pellicci, who have previously been behind the boards for bands like Deerhoof, Erase Errata and Gravy Train!!!. The album will be released in November 2006 on Double Negative Records.

The Fucking Ocean Press

The Fucking Ocean Press
The Onion A.V. Club Blog, January 12th, 2007 Best Worst Band Names: The Final List
SF Weekly, December 2nd, 2006 Wielding sounds influenced by Ian MacKaye bands, no-wave, and Erase Errata, local trio the Fucking Ocean grips short songs by the neck, rips them to shreds, and moves on - but not because it doesn’t love them. Compact, complicated flashes of drum barrage and guitar blast back up passionate, syncopated screams from two boys and a lady. Matt Swagler, John Nguyen, and Marcella Gries switch instruments and vocal time like a well-practiced volleyball team. It’s like Sonic Youth highly caffeinated and itchy, or a happier D.C. hardcore band. A CD, Le Main Rouge, recorded at Oakland’s Tiny Telephone studio and released earlier this month on Double Negative Records, delivers more of same, with clean-cut sharps and perfectly hairy fuzzes. - Hiya Swanhuyser
San Francisco Bay Guardian, November 16th, 2006 (click for full article) The Fucking Ocean are seriously fucking refreshing: they’ve taken cues from Mark E. Smith and Ian MacKaye alike to produce biting, sincere post-punk that’s nigh anomalous in American music.
Mesh Magazine, November 2006 The Fucking Ocean’s debut full-length, Le Main Rouge, is a somewhat frantic but never grating post-punk album in the vain of Erase Eratta and The Ex. The band weaves in out of styles within each song. The noodle-y guitars of the opening track, “Literacy Test” give way to urgent, staccato chords, which give way to only bass and drums. “Adam” features off-kilter rhythms which give way to a sugary guitar riff in the middle and confrontational pro-choice lyrics, “Do you remember when women used to have to risk their lives just to live again?” The most melodic song, “Bombs in the Underground” is also the fullest sounding track, and even mixes a bit of dub-sounding bass and guitar playing. “Elias (Has Been Waiting For An Hour)” features some amazing drumming and is the album’s standout track. - Brian Brophy
The Onion A.V. Club Blog, May 26th, 2006 Nominee, Best-Worst Band Name
San Francisco Bay Guardian, April 5th, 2006 San Francisco post-punkers the Fucking Ocean generate delightfully angular and beautiful songs to transform their audience into a sea of head-nodding, knee-shaking clones. Marcella Gries, Matthew Swagler, Elias Spiliotis, and John Nguyen rotate between punchy guitar, boxy percussion, Ian MacKaye-like yelps and roars, and pulsing bass lines, with Rylee McGowan chiming in with keyboard textures. “We’re like a volleyball team,” Gries says with a laugh. Tonight they’re doing double duty, first opening for pop-rock darlings Boyskout at Mezzanine, then jumping over to El Rio to headline a benefit for a new documentary about a veteran Tenderloin cabaret performer. “We’ll be flushed, sweaty, and ready to dance!” Gries assures me. - Eliana Fiore
FecalFace.com - May 21st, 2006 (scroll down) The Fucking Ocean were great…. I’ve never seen them before. They have this surfy kinda sound to them… Droney/ with some great guitar and driving rhythmic… wait, I suck at writing about music. Listen to some of their music on their MySpace Page.
SF Weekly, October 19, 2005 (scroll down) It’s now possible to love a scrappy local band without ever having seen it, thanks to the Internet. So it goes with the Fucking Ocean. I’ve never been to a show, but I know through stealthy online research (aka MySpace) that FO makes sharp-edged art-rocky songs that take cues from the Fall and Gang of Four. An elegantly angular guitar characterizes the band’s sound: Whose is it? We do need to go to the show to find that out. - Hiya Swanhuyser