Music: Julie Ocean Sets Sail

Map It:  U Street-Cardozo 

IT HAD BEEN seven years since vocalist and guitarist Terry Banks played in a band. Fellow bandmate Jim Spellman had played more recently, but more than a decade had passed since he played with Velocity Girl, the D.C.-based indie-pop group that reached mild stardom during the '90s.

When the two took the stage at Iota a couple Saturdays back, along with bassist Hunter Bennett and drummer Alex Daniels, it was in a different decade and in a new band: Julie Ocean, named after the eponymous Undertones tune.
Despite the newness of the group and the nerves that accompany any return to stage, the quartet set the room abuzz with its alternative to the District's dominant rock and punk scene: straight-up pop.

"We were all rather stunned at how many people after the show Saturday came up and said, 'Wow, it's so great to hear someone playing [pop],'" Spellman recalls.

"You'd think more people would do this energetic, fast pop, but there aren't many ... maybe that's kind of old school," Banks adds.

A throwback or not, Julie Ocean is marching onward with its catchy, melody-driven songs and lighthearted lyrics.

The band arose from humble origins. Though Banks and Spellman were casual acquaintances, it was Banks and Bennett who first began playing together. Then, they started looking for bandmates.

"How we got together was like the 'Piña Colada' song," Spellman jokes. Basically, Banks and Bennett had placed an ad in the City Paper and he responded.

"We put the ad in the City Paper half-heartedly just to see if we got any responses," Banks says. "I think we got one really metal guy and Jim, and then we just decided to give it a whirl."

With the addition of Daniels, the group began rehearsing and writing songs, finally making their public debut about six months later, at their May 12 Iota show.

"It sounds cheesy to say it was the right combination of people, but it was just sort of happenstance," Banks says. "We all sort of knew each other and it happened kind of easily. It wasn't a big sort of impetus: 'Must form band.'"

Aside from Banks' history with bands including The Saturday People and Tree Fort Angst, and Spellman's with Velocity Girl, Bennett and Daniels have also pulled their weight in numerous local acts. Bennett spent time in Weatherhead and Stabb, while Daniels was a member of hardcore band Swiz and its subsequent reincarnation as Sweetbelly Freakdown. With years of experience under each of their belts, Julie Ocean wasn't founded on delusions of grandeur, but rather on an innate desire to just make music.

"We're all pretty secure and like what we're doing outside of music and music is just a really nice addition," Banks says. "It's not a sort of pipe dream — I just do it because I like doing it."

Spellman agrees: "I think we're all doing it for its own rewards: the doing it, the playing, the shows are why we're doing it, not to lead to the next level.... It would have to be some sort of amazing series of events for this to become a full-time kind of thing."

Though the band might not be aiming for fortune and fame, that doesn't mean they don't take their music seriously.

"Since Velocity Girl broke up, I've never stopped writing songs or listening to music or being a fan of music.... We take the music part very seriously, we take the band part very seriously, and the songs are very important," Spellman says.

It helps, of course, when the responsibility for all the music doesn't fall upon one person.

"For me, it's a great pleasure playing in a band with another songwriter," Spellman says.

Banks adds, "I wouldn't want to do it if I had to lead a band. It's nice to be able to split it up."

"Which may, I think, remind you of a certain Lennon and McCartney," Spellman jokes.

Julie Ocean's influences don't differ greatly from the ones that Banks' and Spellman's previous bands drew upon.

"From the songs I've written in Velocity Girl to now, I've more or less written the same song over and over again," Spellman laughs. "It's not like now I'm into 20-minute prog rock odysseys or mopey confessionals. It's still the same ... being drawn to the excitement of well-crafted, exciting power pop."

Banks' music tastes developed in a similar manner. "I've always liked the same kind of music, which is sugary pop, but doing it in this intense way. I know there's this theory you're supposed to progress and get into Nick Drake, but I just sort of like the same sort of music I've always liked." he says.

» DC9, 1940 9th St. NW; with The Ladybug Transistor and The Public Good, Sun., 9:30 p.m., $8; 202-483-5000. (U St.-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Katherine Silkaitis
Photos courtesy Julie Ocean