The Ocean Blue arrived as the 1980s drew to close, and their debut record on the famed Sire Records label in 1989 seemed to summarize the best of the musical decade. The band of four teenagers from Hershey, Pennsylvania quickly achieved widespread acclaim and radio & MTV airplay, with top 10 Modern Rock/College Radio hits like Between Something and Nothing and Drifting, Falling. They followed their debut release with the dreamy and atmospheric Cerulean, which included perhaps their most beloved song, Ballerina Out of Control, and followed that with their highest charting pop album Beneath the Rhythm and Sound and the single Sublime, featuring a video of the band in the sublime landscape of Iceland. The band's fourth record for Mercury/PolyGram, See The Ocean Blue, was a mid-90s departure to a more guitar rock sound of the 60s and 70s but with the band's 80s DNA peeking through. After a busy decade of recording and touring, the band left the majors in the late 90s. Several independent releases and related touring followed in the 2000s, including 2000's Davy Jones Locker and 2004's Waterworks, and wider international touring. In 2013, after much anticipation, the band released their first full length record in 10 years, Ultramarine, on Korda Records, a Minneapolis-based label cooperative the band helped launch that same year. The record was a welcome return for fans of the band as well as a younger generation of like-minded fans, and garnered widespread praise as one of their very best albums.  In 2015, the band worked with Sire and Rhino Records to reissue their first 3 Sire albums on vinyl. The band marked the occasion by performing the first 2 albums in their entirety at limited concerts throughout the U.S. In 2016, the band did a South American Tour where some of their most passionate fans reside. The band has now returned with their signature dream pop sound on the beautifully powerful Kings and Queens / Knaves and Thieves. Out now on Korda Records.

Jupe Jupe presents a collection of darkwave-pop hooks in its latest full-length album, Midnight Waits for No One. Released on No-Count Records, the 12-song album is a noir-cocktail of soundscapes in Jupe Jupe’s unique style—with crooning vocals that soar over pulsing beats as guitars and sax cut across panoramic washes of synth.   Midnight Waits for No One is the result of two full years of hunkering down during the global pandemic—forgoing live performances and concentrating instead on crafting an album that tempers melancholy subject matter with escapism and hope.   To record the album, Jupe Jupe teamed up with producer Evan Foster at No-Count Studios in Seattle, WA. Foster is a member of Dirty Sidewalks, The Boss Martians, and The Sonics. Mixing the album was Matt Bayles, who worked on the two previous Jupe Jupe releases. A former member of Minus the Bear, Bayles has produced and mixed albums by Botch, Mastodon, Murder City Devils, He Whose Ox Is Gored, and more.   Since forming in 2010, the Seattle quartet has released six original albums– Invaders, Reduction in Drag, Crooked Kisses, Lonely Creatures, Nightfall, and now Midnight Waits for No One. The group also joined forces with a variety of renowned artists and producers for its remix album, Cut Up Kisses (featuring Lusine, Rick G. Nelson of The Afghan Whigs, Mike Simonetti, Erik Blood, and others).   Jupe Jupe is made up of My Young on vocals and synths; Bryan Manzo on guitar, bass, and saxophone; Patrick Partington on guitar; and Jarrod Arbini on drums and percussion. The four members are veterans of the Seattle and Austin music scenes.