Hi all,Our new E.P. "My Lucky Stars" will soon be available, but until then you can check out 3 of the songs here. Give "Get That Girl", "Wake Up", and Residence.
Our previous CD Here Comes Nothing is still available online at Lone Prairie Records , and if you're in Nebraska, and all Homer's stores, and in Lincoln at Zero Street, Lincoln Sound & Disk, and Recycled Sounds.
Great...now that you've purchased at least 2 copies of the disk, let's learn about The Static Octopus...
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Lincoln, NE based Power Pop band The Static Octopus combines a unique
blend of 60's based brit-pop, 70's & 80's Power Pop with 90's
and beyond Indie Pop. Anyone who loves a short pop song with a great
melody, awesome multi-part vocal harmonies, a driving melodic
bass line, a bit of jangle and music that will put a smile on your face
will love The Static Octopus. Led by songwriter Tery Daly on Lead
Vocals and Lead Guitar, the band is rounded out by Dan Hutt on Rhythm
Guitar and vocals, Scott Stanfield on Bass and vocals, and Jeff
Gustafson on Drums.
L-R: Scott Stanfield, Tery Daly, Jeff Gustafson, Dan Hutt
Tery also runs Lincoln, NE. music scene site
Starcityscene.com
Here's a review of our last CD by Sam Segrist of the Nebraska Wesleyan Reveille:
The Static Octopus writes highly-evolved and intelligent pop-rock songs. The ten cuts on Here Comes Nothing, their debut album, are intelligent because a listener gets the sense that every little detail in the writing and recording of the songs lends itself to careful consideration. For instance, certain songs such as opener Youre A Curiosity feature a wildly melodic and psychedelic solo over 12-string guitar arpeggiations. The songs are highly-evolved because they distill many of the finest qualities of rock n roll music into a fast and fun collection of tunes. These qualities are driving beats, chimey guitar hooks, harmonious vocal lines, and the punchy immediacy of Top 40 singles. On top of all that, the songs are infectiously catchy.
Most of the songs clock in under three minutes, which of course makes the ten songs fly by. Theyre all quite upbeat and even happy-go-lucky, especially the entirely too-short Magnetic North which recalls the bounce of Hermans Hermitss Something Tells Me Im Into Something Good with Pet Sounds-era Brian Wilson lyrics. Other tracks such as Quality Western Star show the band cleverly rewriting the familiar lullaby Twinkle Twinkle Little Star into a Guided By Voices-esque ditty. Whats especially impressive about the power-pop brilliance of the disc is how lively the tracks sound considering that, according to the liner notes, singer and songwriter Tery Daly sang and played everything but the drums. Studio projects often have the tendency to sound stiff, but thats not the case on this disc.
Considering all of the catchy melodies and intelligent song-craft, the title of the album seems ironic because Here Comes Nothing is most definitely something worth checking out.
- Sam Segrist
Gary Lee Evans of Heartbeat Zine wrote:
Power Pop, with it's jangling guitars, driving rhythms, bouncy bass lines, and muli-part vocal harmonies, comes and goes from popularity with the masses, but it will always have it's purveyors, and Tery Daly is clearly one of them. His band, The Static Octopus, have just released "Here Comes Nothing", and it's a true pop gem in the classic sense.
Daly's last release, "Schzophrenic Sandwich", (released under the band name Creatures of Habit, 1999, Bombco Records ) was a lo-fi psychedelic indie-pop masterpiece that buried his pop genius under tons of effects and tape hiss. "Here Comes Nothing" throws off the shackles of lo-fi distractions and presents the hooks and harmonies in a fairly pristine fashion. Instead of sounding like early Guided by Voices, Sparklehorse or Elephant 6 work, his newest work sounds more like an amalgam of all the great British Invasion bands mixed with power pop greats like The Shoes, The db's, Marshall Crenshaw, Redd Kross and Fountains of Wayne, both musically and production-wise.
Musically the songs are much better developed this time out. Songs which seemed like little more than great ideas on previous releases truly come to fruition here, and yet true to pop roots, few of the songs clock in at much over 2:30, with one, the jaunty, Beatlesque "United Lemmings LTD." clocking in right at one minute. Speaking of The Fab Four (and by extension, The Hollies, The Byrds, Herman's Hermits et. al.), they're definitely a strong influence here, as evidenced on tracks like "You're A Curiosity", "Magnetic North", "Quality Western Star" and most especially on "Ella Going Backwards" which sounds like every Beatles song recorded in 1964 and 1965 thrown in the blender and mixed together. Don't get the idea, however, that this is all just lighweight Brit-pop here, because songs like "Mr. Kensington", "Lying To Me", "Caution City" Flower, and "Braindolls" rock in ways those bands never even imagined in their day. All the songs leave you wanting more, which I suppose is always a good thing.
Another big plus this time out is drummer Jeff Gustafson. On previous releases, Daly played all instruments himself, (and with the exeption of drums, continues to do so), but the addition of Gustafson here makes a big difference.
It's unlikely you'll hear any new material released by The Beatles, The Hollies, The db's or The Shoes this year, but if you pick up a copy of Here Comes Nothing, you can get music that easily stands alongside those.
