The Ocean Blue?

Then I heard they were homophobes and stopped listening. Was that just a rumor or is it true?

answer in the thread.
summary : no(well, my reading of the thread)

It seems completely at odds with the band, their image, their sound etc, to have them fire someone for being gay. I hope it was a misunderstanding but how do you go from creative differences to fired for being gay? Worst game of telephone ever.

probably wouldn't have happened in the Internet era

I was mistaken about Bobby Mittan above, think I got 'im confused with Rob Mining.

But all the other stuff RE: Steve Lau is accurate.

Steve produced one of my all time favorite albums right before the time he left tOB with Riverside's One. It's a bright, jangly album with slight shoegaze influences:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAzb-fFCrH0

The band v. Steve Lau "being gay" was a misunderstanding of epic proportions by everyone except the band and Steve Lau. They wanted to go in a more guitar oriented direction, Steve wanted to produce. So, that's what they did. A much forgotten fact is that bassist Bobby Mittan left the fold around the same time for a lot of the same reasons (differences of opinion about the direction of the band). There may have been some bitterness at the time, but it had nothing to do with anyone being gay. There are Ocean Blue bootlegs from about a decade ago (Davy Jones' Locker era) where David Schezel sees Steve Lau in the audience and introduces him very cordially. So, consider the hatchet —if there ever was one— long buried.

i took this as the definitive say so in this ..

Well, thank you very much.

sorry, did not mean to come over as hardcore, just my interpretation of the thread to date.

No, that was a genuine thank you.

ahh phew.

have really succumbed to their delicate 80s indie groove of late - new moodswing and all that ..

I currently prefer Horsebeach when I want to put on some 80s style indie jangle, but there was a time when the Ocean Blue dominated my listening time. I should give their albums post Beneath Rhythm & Sound a spin.

The Planetarium Scene + Emotions Ring both sound pretty fantastic today.

Beneath the Rhythm and Sound is my favorite, but Ultramarine is their best later period work.

The band v. Steve Lau "being gay" was a misunderstanding of epic proportions by everyone except the band and Steve Lau. They wanted to go in a more guitar oriented direction, Steve wanted to produce. So, that's what they did. A much forgotten fact is that bassist Bobby Mittan left the fold around the same time for a lot of the same reasons (differences of opinion about the direction of the band). There may have been some bitterness at the time, but it had nothing to do with anyone being gay. There are Ocean Blue bootlegs from about a decade ago (Davy Jones' Locker era) where David Schezel sees Steve Lau in the audience and introduces him very cordially. So, consider the hatchet —if there ever was one— long buried.

i took this as the definitive say so in this ..

I guess I have a different definition of "definitive." "It was a misunderstanding" is the band's explanation, which Austin repeats here. How is that definitive?

I know Steve. After he left the group, he told me it was because he was gay. To me, that's definitive, unless Steve tells me otherwise. Doesn't have to be definitive to you, because you don't know me. (He also said the same thing in a 1995 Out magazine interview, according to multiple references online, though I couldn't find the original via Google, which casts some doubt on its existence.)

The Ocean Blue started as a Christian band. That's a fact. Followers of Christ often don't like gay people. That's a fact. Bands sometimes lie about their history in order to make themselves seem like better people, or because they're embarrassed at something they did when they were young, or because time has scrambled their memories about how certain things happened. That's a fact.

The fact that they're now cordial? That could just be forgiveness.

But IDK, maybe Austin is saying Steve misunderstood why he was kicked out of the band. Or maybe Steve misunderstood sexuality and isn't actually gay.

Hey Ernie,

Tell Steve he's a good man. He probably already knows it, but it certainly doesn't hurt to hear it from a stranger from time to time.

Every version of the story I've ever heard has Steve leaving the group of his own accord. I'm not saying anything other than just that: he left. Maybe he was asked to leave, I don't know. That's a bad situation indeed if that was the case. Inexcusable even.

But I'd like to think that we grow up and learn from our mistakes. I certainly regret many things I did ten, fifteen years ago even though I had to do those things in order to learn they were mistakes. If we just go on living the same life and never learn anything, it becomes apparent to those around us who were wronged and they eventually leave. But the fact that Steve is friendly again with his old band mates tells me that mistakes were indeed made, but wrongs have since been righted and people are older, wiser. Imperfect and flawed, just like the rest of us.

idk anything about the above controversy and i don't care tbh

posting because this band played at the venue attached to my workplace last night and i snuck in for a couple minutes to see if i could hear a song i recognized and i did! i walked in right as "drifting, falling" started and had a massive flashback (not really a bad one just a weird shimmery time warp), enjoyed the very jangly guitars for a minute, and went back to work.

I like to put on Cerulean in the autumn and think about lazy days when I left my high school at lunchtime and listened to my walkman in a park somewhere.

I won that album off my local college (actually k-12) radio station before they banned me from winning bc I won too much. It’s how I learned the word “cerulean” but honestly I found it mostly kind of uninspiring bc I was very angry at the time. It’s much more pleasant as an adult!

Hearing "Sublime" on heavy rotation in fall '93 during the season of In Utero was one of those glimpses into a college radio world already vanishing.

Ocean Blue are miles better than Nirvana. Actual melodies, decent lyrics, no heroin addictions, no abandoning a little baby because you're privileged life as a millionaire is so hard.

Sure! And Benjamin Harrison was a better man than FDR.

I remember someone saying one of the songs off Beneath the Rhythm and Sound was an anti-Bill Clinton screed, that's some classic 90s Internet. Could be true though!

"Cerulean" at the campus bookstore an hour ago....unexpected.

I thought I heard Ice Skating at Night at Dulles Airport early one morning but I was just hallucinating from being awake for like 36 hours straight

i'd be extremely pleased to encounter "mercury" in the wild.