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NEW LOCAL RELEASE

Fluid Ounces

Instant Nostalgia

Self-released

In the mid-’90s, long before Ben Folds had settled down in Nashville (well, between his early ’90s settling and ’00s re-settling, if you want to get technical), Seth Timbs was Middle Tennessee’s primary exporter of piano-pop, cranking out ornate, uniquely melodic and subtly incisive tunes with his group, Fluid Ounces.

Alongside Self, The Katies and The Features, the Ounces were among the founding members, brightest stars and longest runners among the revered, long-gone Murfreesboro label Spongebath Records. (Local legend has it Timbs actually came up with the label name.)

If you’ve been backstage at any local venue or around a guitar case at any point in the past 10 years, you’ve no doubt seen that bright blue "FL. OZ" sticker — a permanent symbol of just how ubiquitous and promising that scene was in its heyday.

Twelve years later, including a few years spent in L.A. and the band’s subsequent low-key return to the local scene, Timbs has announced intentions to hang up the Fluid Ounces name once and for all, following the release of this, their final album and a handful of shows in town. Moving forward, he plans to focus on a few less piano-driven projects.

Among Timbs’ reasons for calling it quits is that he’s sick of those pesky comparisons to Folds. While Timbs asserts his own identity on the disc, there are a few moments, as in highlight "There Ought to be a Law," in which the resemblance is uncanny, if unintentional.

But Timbs isn’t channeling today’s complacent, goofy live-show Folds. The bashed-out piano chords, proggy bassline and Timbs’ bitter, dissonant melody evokes the fiery, determined version of Folds we haven’t seen much of since Whatever and Ever Amen. Maybe that’s a consolation prize for not becoming rich and famous.

Fears that Timbs might be turning his back on what he does best may be assuaged by Nostalgia’s biggest departures. The choppy new-wave guitars married with ambient pianos on "Private Hell" and the stiff yet jangly psychedelia of "Invisible Boy" show a couple of promising new directions to be explored.

Instant Nostalgia may be a low-key, unceremonious end to one of Nashville’s longest-running pop acts, but for Timbs to go out sounding, at points, as inspired as he did on his first promise-packed albums, is a feat that refuses to go unnoticed.

Fluid Ounces performs Fri., March 14, at The Basement. Admission is $5.