We just found out that from May 11 - 14 we will be a "Featured Artist" on the MySpace.com front page... pretty sweet huh?
And the press reviews for our new album "Pasadena" have been pouring in, and they're overwhelmingly positive. Check it out...
LOS ANGELES TIMES 5/2/07 -- Buzz Bands:
'Pasadena' has energy and heft
And file this under coincidence: Ozma is back.
The underrated, Weezer-endorsed quintet, dormant for most of 2004 and 2005, releases a new album "Pasadena" — a nod to its hometown — on May 15. The music is more muscular and mature than the crunchy power-pop that gained Ozma a large Southland following over its first three albums.
Did the band spend its time off in the gym working out? Quite the contrary, singer-bassist Daniel Brummel says. While his mates played in another project, "I got really into folk music, things like Harry Smith, Appalachian music....It helped me see lyrics a little differently, and see the value in using things like idioms and tropes, powerful archetypes that stand the test of time."
If the songs have more heft than "our previously hopelessly romantic boy-girl thing," Brummel says, they also sound infused with new energy. "When we all came back, it was a very fertile period for songwriting," he says.
After five months in the studio with friends and co-producers Billy Burke and Greg Doyle, Ozma turned "Pasadena" over to Matt Hyde (No Doubt, Sublime, Sum 41), who Brummel says "really brought [fortitude] back to the mix." The album also features a vocal turn by Rachel Haden (That Dog, the Rentals) and guitar contributions from Nada Surf's Matthew Caws.
Brummel and bandmates Star Wick, Ryen Slegr, Kenn Shane, and Jose Galvez start a West Coast tour this week that ends with dates May 16 at Chain Reaction and May 17 at the Troubadour. Says Brummel: "It feels fantastic."
PORTLAND TRIBUNE -- Ozma is championed by Weezer (the band invited Ozma along as the opener for two tours) and its new album boasts guest appearances by Nada Surf's Matthew Caws and the Rentals' Rachel Haden. If those endorsements aren't enough to make you stand up and take notice, one listen to the infectious new album, "Pasadena," will be. Instantly memorable, bouncy, nerdy-cool and tough-vulnerable in a way that only power-pop bands can get away with, it's a winner from beginning to end.
BOULDER WEEKLY -- The comeback kids: Ozma strikes a new chord with their old band -- by Dave Kirby (buzz@boulderweekly.com)
The street date for Ozma's new CD, Pasadena, is May 15. That means that what few record stores still exist will actually have the disc on sale then, although the band hit the road for its headlining tour of western states this past Tuesday and is doing some theater-lobby commerce ahead of time.
The high-pitch buzz on the Ozma fan forum boards focuses on the new CD, speculation on why it hasn't been pirated yet, and what appears to everyone to be a permanent reformation of the southern Calfornia indie-pop quintet after a couple of years of uncertainty.
"We like to do things sort of suddenly, kind of sneak up on the press and appear without much advance notice," guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Ryen Slegr notes cryptically. "We don't believe in too much lead-up time."
Maybe what he means is that in an online pop music world, the press is frequently last to hear anything. Ozma's fans have kept the faith on the 'Net—trading stories and outtake singles and videos—and to have the band back in full form, getting ready to play new material after some warm-up opening gigs last year, is like a promise fulfilled.
"We basically reformed about a year ago," says Slegr. "We were just doing some demos with friends in my house. Our original drummer left the band. He's playing with some other bands around here, so it was just the four of us. We were starting to collect lots of new material, so we decided we'd get another drummer and make a new CD.
"We had originally planned to finish the record by the end of '07 and start touring then, but we were fortunate to find management that really pushed us to do the record sooner."
Pasadena draws from the band's deep pedigree of quirky, SoCal indie pop that extends all the way back to Ozma's 2000 debut long-player Rock and Roll Part 3, recorded when the band was barely out of high school.
Financed from local gigging, the CD caught the attention of Rivers Cuomo, who invited the quintet to open for Weezer tours in 2001 and 2002.
Kicked suddenly into a big stage limelight that even Slegr admits they were barely ready for, the band experienced the twin-edged charms of being closely associated with Weezer on a national scale and getting lots of exposure, but eventually fighting to establish their own identity.
"It definitely all happened in reverse. We were getting national exposure before we had even played most of California. We kind of had to learn how to be a band on the road. In some ways, we were making it all up as we went. But in the end, yeah, I'd say it added a lot of stress to the band."
The band also found itself on the Warped Tour in '02, basically an indie pop band on the stage with a handful of punk outfits.
"Yeah, that was..." Slegr struggles to describe the experience. "Well, let's just say we're not a punk band, and that's what most of the fans on that tour were ready to see. We kind of didn't fit in."
After kicking the plug out for a couple of years, drawing a breath and diving back in, Pasadena may be the band's strongest statement of independence, yet. With special guests like Rachel Haden from the Rentals and Nada Surf's Matthew Caws, cuts like "Barriers" and "Incarnation Blues" work tight, hook-driven pop smarts into broad, ambitious instrumental figures, alongside quirky, irony-spiced bits like "Lunchbreak" and desperation-tinged testimonials like "I Wonder."
Fans may also note the reappearance of a couple of recorded tunes—"No One Needs To Know," released originally on an EP, and the punchy "Eponine," originally released on their 2003 full-length CD Spending Time On The Borderline, rerecorded here and hoisted high as the band's MySpace signature howl.
Regarding the latter, "We don't really go in for rerecording stuff, but it was a good single. The original version seemed too long. We always felt like it deserved another chance."
As for whether Pasadena will retire lingering comparisons to Weezer, Slegr shrugs it off.
"People have been categorizing us as power pop, indie, whatever. We definitely want to push the boundaries, and we all have lots of ideas. I really don't know how to categorize it. We leave that for everyone else."
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
PORTLAND MERCURY -- OZMA, NEW YEARS DAY, KADDISFLY, PEACHCAKE
OMG! Ozma is coming! I was like, super super sad in '04 when they broke up. It was, like, the worst year of my life. But then they got back together! Yay! And they didn't have their original drummer, which is good, because the new one is, like, way more cute. My mom took me to see them when they opened for both Weezer and the Rentals, which are easily my two favorite concerts ever. She said this time I was old enough to go by myself, though! I made a sign that says "Ozmawesome," and hopefully I'll meet their keyboardist, Star Wick, because she's like the coolest person. This is so going to be the BNE: Best Night Ever. RS