Oceanator, the project of Elise Okusami, has announced her third album, Everything Is Love and Death, due August 30 via Polyvinyl (pre-order). It was produced, engineered, mixed, and mastered by Will Yip, who also contributed drums, percussion, and additional key pads, and it also features instrumental contributions from Elise’s brother/frequent collaborator Mike Okusami (bass, piano), Andrew Whitehurst (drums), Eric Sherman (trumpet), Pianos Become the Teeth’s David Haik (timpani), and Megan Siebe (cello), plus gang vocals by Queen of Jeans members Miri Devora & Matheson Glass, and Josh Hernandez.
The first single is “Get Out,” which finds Oceanator diving into riffy hard rock territory. It’s a banger, and you can check out the song and its video below. Ellen says:
“Get Out” is about fighting your brain and depression when it’s trying to immobilize you. I wanted to do a video on film, and the inspirations were Buffy and The Outsiders. So we figured if we were going Buffy anyway, might as well make it about literally fighting your demons and the idea for the video was born. [Director] Paul [DeSilva] and Liz and I had a bunch of talks putting the idea together, and I’m very pleased with how it came out.
Paul adds:
The concept for”‘Get Out” came largely from Elise (of Oceanator) who wanted to create a fight scene homage to some favorites like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Outsiders. With the lyrics being a sort of rallying call to fight back against depression, we settled on a demon character who would steal a symbol of her tranquility and she would chase him down, stopping at nothing until she had regained that peace. Shooting on film was the obvious choice to get the gritty, textural quality we were looking for and Cinematographer Martin Parsekian did a great job capturing the mood, especially during the chaotic fight scene. We hope you enjoy our video for Oceanator’s “Get Out”!
Oceanator are opening a few Team Dresch shows in June, a few Bad Cop/Bad Cop shows in July (including Connecticut’s Space Ballroom on July 12), and they also open one of the nights of Jeff Rosenstock‘s Brooklyn residency: August 24 at Warsaw. All dates are listed below.
Tracklist
1. First Time
2. Lullaby
3. Cut String
4. Happy New Year
5. Get Out
6. Home for the Weekend
7. Be Here
8. All the Same
9. Drain the Well
10. Drift Away
11. Won’t Someone
Oceanator — 2024 Tour Dates
06/19 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom %
06/20 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Catalyst %
06/21 – Sacramento, CA @ Goldfield Trading Post %
06/22 – Albany, CA @ The Ivy Room %
06/23 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill %
07/08 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro #
07/09 – Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall #
07/11 – Boston, MA @ Deep Cuts #
07/12 – Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom #
08/24 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw !
% w/ Team Dresch
# w/ Bad Cop/Bad Cop
! w/ Jeff Rosenstock