The Latest Album
Oceanography’s second full-length, Thirteen Songs About Driving Nowhere in Alphabetical Order, is a postcard from a place of solitude, uncertainty, and grief.
Written as singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Brian Kelly helped care for his sister, who passed away in November of 2020 after a long battle with cancer, the album finds the musician mostly alone with his thoughts in cars, driving between Oakland, his childhood home in the East Bay suburbs, and seemingly endless doctors’ appointments. With a deceptively powerful voice and poignant melodies, he paints cinematic landscapes from black asphalt, red taillights, and the fickle, foggy grey of Northern California skies.
While there’s a bittersweet quality to many of the songs, Kelly’s pop sensibility translates to catchy hooks and an immediate familiarity, recalling at times The War on Drugs, My Morning Jacket, and The Cars, with a distinct thread of Americana woven throughout. The record manages to feel both lush and spacious, heartbreaking and uplifting — it’s no surprise that Kelly spent time with Destroyer and Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska while making it. Each track is self-contained, building keys, guitars, bass, and drums into an atmospheric soundtrack for the unknown road ahead.
Kelly turns a literary eye for detail on both the Pacific coastline and his own unpredictable edges, arriving at moments of catharsis and beauty amid the bleak and mundane. “Homes line the canyon like molars in your jaw, you grind ‘em together ‘til the feeling is gone,” Kelly sings over plaintive piano on opener “Monterey,” a song about changing family dynamics amid illness and grief. “It’s not your fault, it’s not your fault,” he insists before landing with gentle resignation: “We are prone to accidents close to home.”
On “Painted Powder Blue,” meanwhile, a steady beat provides the backdrop for a lonesome drive as Kelly tries to focus on the freeway instead of a relationship’s end: “Coyote blood stains the 101, with my eyes on the road and my headlights on / swear I'm gonna stay ahead as long as I can, but every new day’s a day closer to gone.”
Kelly, who grew up playing guitar in rock bands, began honing his skills as a singer-songwriter after moving from California to New York in 2001. In 2009, when his oldest sister Cori was diagnosed with cancer, Kelly moved back west to help. Alone in his childhood bedroom, he began recording without overthinking the end result.
In the decade since, Kelly has worked with a slew of collaborators, recorded at renowned studios, and garnered critical acclaim. Recorded mostly live, Thirteen Songs represents the culmination of Kelly’s career thus far, with a full, organic sound courtesy of a band of veteran players, including Scott Barwick (Jonathan Richman), Peter Labberton (Parquet Courts, St. Vincent), Bevan Herbekian (Teenager, Colors), and Kirt Lind (Donald Beaman). But the album retains Kelly’s singular vision and an intimate, introspective feel.
“These songs are about navigating the chaos and uncertainty that life can throw at you,” says Kelly of themes that will likely resonate with others after the events of the past year. (This is also reflected in the record’s cover, designed by Kelly, featuring one continuous line winding in all directions.) “How we deal with loss defines who we are, and that’s something I learned from my sister — she lost so much, and her ability to remain positive to the very end was remarkable. Maybe this record can, in some small way, help others find comfort in that part of life.”
The Story Behind "Monterey"
When Brian Kelly’s big sister passed away in November of 2020 — at age 51, she’d lived with cancer years longer than doctors predicted — he found himself swimming in photographs.
“She was the family documentarian, and she was a collector of things,” says Kelly, the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist behind Oceanography. For more than a year before Cori died, her brother had helped serve as her caretaker, all too aware of her daily suffering. He expected going through crates of her belongings to feel unbearable.
Instead, sorting her photos was surprisingly healing: it was a visit with someone he hadn’t seen in a while. Cori was an artist and teacher; a deeply spiritual person with a meditation practice; a woman who had lived fully and joyfully on her own terms. “She had such a hard time at the end, so it was therapeutic for me to recognize she actually had a very happy life,” says Kelly.
Cori’s photos now comprise the music video for “Monterey,” the poignant first track on Oceanography’s new full-length, Thirteen Songs About Driving Nowhere in Alphabetical Order. It’s a fitting intro to the record: Written as Kelly abruptly rearranged his life to help care for his sister, Oceanography’s second LP is a postcard from a place of solitude, uncertainty and grief. Driving between Oakland, his childhood home in the East Bay and seemingly endless doctors’ appointments, Kelly paints cinematic landscapes from black asphalt, red tail lights, and the fickle, foggy grey of Northern California skies.
General Biography
Oceanography is a lyrically driven indie-rock project from San Francisco Bay Area native Brian Kelly. With a deceptively powerful voice, Kelly layers melodies over guitar, keys and drums for a sound that’s been compared to Damien Jurado and Jim James — though there are also threads of Echo & the Bunnymen and an obvious reverence for Tom Petty. His writing, meanwhile, turns a literary eye for detail on both the Pacific coastline and his own unpredictable edges, arriving honestly at moments of catharsis and beauty amid the bleak and mundane.
Growing up in the East Bay suburbs, Kelly was raised on the New Wave records his older sisters listened to; they also took him to his first concert — Oingo Boingo. He picked up the guitar at age 10, thanks to his sister Cori, who had both a nylon string guitar and a boyfriend with a Peavey Predator. The fifth-grader was quickly hooked. His father noticed, and said if young Brian learned to play “Dueling Banjos,” he’d buy him his own electric guitar. His dad kept that promise; Kelly’s been playing guitar ever since.
After spending his college years in West Coast rock bands, Kelly moved to New York in 2001 to work as a graphic designer and began honing his solo singer-songwriter chops in small venues around Brooklyn and the Lower East Side. Oceanography was born of an unexpected homecoming: In 2009, his older sister was diagnosed with cancer, and Kelly moved back west to help. Alone in his childhood bedroom, he began recording without overthinking the end result. In the decade since, while Kelly has worked with a slew of collaborators, recorded at renowned studios, and garnered critical acclaim, the project has retained that singular vision and intimate, introspective feel.
PRESS QUOTES
"Oceanography’s supercharged indie rock has nailed the forgotten art of anthemic guitar rock with a quirky underbelly, serving the non-status quo."
— Glide Magazine
“Oceanography offers up a lyrically driven atmosphere that shimmers brightly”
— Ghettoblaster
“Oceanography manages to carve out its own sound, aided by Brian Kelly’s distinct vocals that recall the manic crooning of Suede’s Brett Anderson and Ian McCulloch of Echo & the Bunnymen.”
— East Bay Express
“The temperament of the band on “Napoleon Holiday” reminds me of the great Pavement album “Slanted and Enchanted.” That ain’t bad company. Kelly’s voice in particular cuts through and leaves quite an impression.”
— Music on The Goe
“Best track you’ll hear all year about a collections agent who uses the name of a Hall of Fame baseball player as an alias.”
—The Bay Bridged
“Oceanography could be described as the best of what rock has offered in the last 20 to 40 years.”
— This is Book’s Music
“The sound, particularly Kelly’s vocals, make for an epic live performance.”
— MXDWN