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Monday September 6, 2010
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If the music business and professional sports share commonality, Andy Kropf would know. Prior to fronting Ocean Street, a roots-pop quintet, Kropf did time in the Detroit Tigers farm system. As a singer, Kropf crafts hooks that stick in your head and lyrics that avoid the obvious. His vocals are accessible yet warm. During his four years in the minors, Kropf, 28, played every position except centerfield and shortstop.
“There’s a real direct relationship between a touring musician and a minor leaguer,” Kropf said. “In the minors, we’d be traveling from town to town on a bus and 35 guys. In a band, you’re doing the same thing, but with maybe seven people. I took things from baseball on the business side more than anything. Both are very cutthroat, but baseball has more structure. In music, you have to wake up every day and make things happen for yourself.” And things are definitely happening for Ocean Street. Songs from the Atlanta-based band’s self-titled debut, released in 2006, have been licensed to appear in seven TV shows, including MTV’s “The Real World” and “Road Rules.” Ocean Street has also received airplay on Atlanta’s Dave FM and over 200 college radio stations. The tunes on “Ocean Street” are über catchy. And although Ocean Street drummer Brian Stephens produced the record to a fine shine, the disc still sounds organic. Ocean Street was able to cut the LP at their leisure using Stephen’s gear from his now-defunct Duluth, Ga. studio, Sound Decision. (Stephens now owns and operates BonzoTunes Studio in Buford, Ga.) “We were really able to let the songs breath a little bit,” Kropf said. “A lot of indie bands don’t have that luxury. It let the band go from guys playing beer joints to studio musicians.” The refined tunes on “Ocean Street” are reminiscent of The Counting Crows, early Ryan Adams and Matchbox 20. The disc’s first single, “’Till I’m Gone,” rides breezy acoustic picking, graceful piano accents and a falsetto bridge. On the piano ballad “Memphis Blues,” a maraca keeps time while Kropf spills melancholy over a lover “who doesn’t like sunsets.” Island guitar blips and a windswept groove propel “Where It Hurts.” On “Cold,” Kropf sings about a girl who “cried when Jerry Garcia died” but not when her own father passed. “That song is quasi-based on my Aunt Marianne,” Kropf said. “After becoming estranged from her father when she was 16, she kind of went into that whole hippie scene and followed The (Grateful) Dead for a while. She got really into the music and political icons of her time. In the song, she takes on people like Jerry Garcia and John Kennedy as father figures because her dad wasn’t talking to her.” Marianne’s father was also Kropf’s grandfather. The singer wrote “Cold” on an airplane after his grandfather’s funeral. Although Ocean Street began in late 2003 as the Andy Kropf Band, the combo isn’t a star vehicle. Stephens, keyboardist Mark Kovaly, lead guitarist Lance Price and rhythm guitarist Steve Queisser provide a vivid musical canvas for Kropf’s blue-eyed soul. Kovaly’s piano work echoes the honky-tonk virtuosity of Chuck Levell (The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, The Allman Brothers). “Whenever we go and play with other bands, whether it’s South By Southwest (Music Festival), some college town or somewhere in Atlanta, the first thing they talk about is Mark,” Kropf said. “He’s a weapon.” Ocean Street takes pride on replicating the thick, three part harmonies from their LP during live performances. However, the shows feature much more instrumental interplay — particularly between Kovaly and Price — than on “Ocean Street.” According to Kropf, although Price doesn’t sound like Dickey Betts, he gleaned his succinct melodicism from listening to Allman Brothers’ records. Meanwhile, Queisser’s affinity for Tom Petty and The Grateful Dead inform his own cosmic cowboy licks. Kropf cut his teeth listening to Temptations’ tapes, which led him to bluesier territory. The end result is, as Kropf puts it, “a Molotov cocktail of Motown, soul, blues and singer/songwriter stuff thrown in the pot.” Tinderbox Music — a promotions company based in Minneapolis, Minn. — has helped Ocean Street land on Top 10 play lists from California to Pennsylvania. This summer, Tinderbox will launch another major Ocean Street publicity campaign. An autumn push for play on AAA (Adult Album Alternative) radio — the same format that’s given rise to John Mayer — is also part of the Tinderbox agenda. “People ask me all the time is I think we’ve made it or are we on our way,” Kropf said. “I think we’re on our way.” Reposted from UpstateToday.com
3AM - Matchbox 20
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