Ocean Avenue (song)
Encyclopedia
"Ocean Avenue" is the title of a song recorded by American pop punk
Pop punk
Pop punk is a fusion music genre that combines elements of punk rock with pop music, to varying degrees. Allmusic describes the genre as a strand of alternative rock, which typically merges pop melodies with speedy punk tempos, chord changes and loud guitars...

 group Yellowcard
Yellowcard
Yellowcard is an American pop punk/alternative rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1997, and based in Los Angeles, California since 2000. Their music features the use of a violin, unusual for the genre...

. It was released in September 2004 as the second single from Ocean Avenue and the third track. It is known for bringing them into the mainstream, as it received numerous spins on MTV and increasing radio airplay. Ocean Avenue is a street in Jacksonville, Florida, the band's stomping grounds near their high school, Douglas Anderson School of the Arts
Douglas Anderson School of the Arts
Douglas Anderson School of the Arts is a magnet high school in the San Marco neighborhood of Jacksonville, Florida. The school opened in the 1922 as a primary school specifically for African American students. The school is named after local civil rights activist, Douglas Anderson...

, and another street mentioned in the song, Cherry Street. The name of Ocean Avenue in Jacksonville is actually "Beach Boulevard". They left their original base behind when they moved to LA
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

. The song was featured on the Much Music compilation album Big Shiny Tunes 9.

While the song was not officially released until September 2004, it was played on several radio stations in the US throughout the summer before.

On Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009, "Ocean Avenue" was released as a downloadable song for the music/rhythm game, Rock Band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...

.

Background

According to former guitarist Ben Harper, "Ocean Avenue" is written about Jacksonville
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...

. "It’s this place where we used to hang out in Jacksonville. Instead of talking about a girl, it’s talking about a scene and a feeling that we want to get back to: hanging out and writing, before we moved to California."

Track listing

  1. "Ocean Avenue" – 3:18
  2. "Way Away" (Acoustic Version) – 3:47
  3. "Firewater" – 3:27

Music video

The music video portrays Yellowcard frontman Ryan Key facing fate in different ways and starting over again in a time loop
Time loop
A time loop or temporal loop is a common plot device in science fiction in which time runs normally for a set period but then skips back like a broken record. When the time loop "resets", the memories of most characters are reset...

 situation (similar to that of the film Groundhog Day
Groundhog Day (film)
Groundhog Day is a 1993 American comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. It was written by Ramis and Danny Rubin, based on a story by Rubin....

). It had enough of a storyline to become a TRL
Total Request Live
Total Request Live is a television series on MTV that featured popular music videos. TRL was MTV's prime outlet for music videos as the network continues to concentrate on reality-based programming. In addition to music videos, TRL featured daily guests...

favorite, reaching number 1 on the countdown. The video also received the MTV2 Award at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards.

The video contains an homage to Brand New
Brand New
Brand New is an American rock band from Long Island, New York. Formed in 2000, the band currently consists of vocalist/guitarist/lyricist Jesse Lacey, guitarist/vocalist/lyricist Vincent Accardi, bassist Garrett Tierney, drummer Brian Lane, and guitarist/keyboardist Derrick Sherman.In the late...

's video for "Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades
Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades
"Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades" is a 2004 single by the rock band Brand New from their second album Deja Entendu.The full phrase from which this song takes its title is Sic transit gloria mundi...

". The suitcase featured in the Ocean Avenue video has the same logo of a lamb on it as is featured in the Brand New video. This is because the videos were directed by Marc Webb, who used the lamb in his videos only to show that he directed them. This song is featured in Thrillville: Off The Rails
Thrillville: Off the Rails
Thrillville: Off the Rails is a theme park simulation video game developed by Frontier Developments. The sequel to the 2006 game Thrillville, it is again published by LucasArts...

. The suitcase is also featured in the video "Rough Landing, Holly
Rough Landing, Holly
"Rough Landing, Holly" is a song by the American pop punk band Yellowcard. The song was written collaboratively by all the band members for their fifth album, Lights and Sounds . The track is built around an introductory guitar sound, followed by a soaring chorus, and heavy beating drums...

".

This is the last music video to feature Alex Lewis as the band's bassist.

Charts

> > > > >
Chart (2004) Peak
position

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK