Oceanography — Live

Oceanography is a lyrically driven indie-rock project from San Francisco Bay Area native Brian Kelly. With a deceptively powerful voice, Kelly layers melodies over guitar, keys and drums for a sound that’s been compared to Damien Jurado and Jim James — though there are also threads of Echo & the Bunnymen and an obvious reverence for Tom Petty. His writing, meanwhile, turns a literary eye for detail on both the Pacific coastline and his own unpredictable edges, arriving honestly at moments of catharsis and beauty amid the bleak and mundane.

Growing up in the East Bay suburbs, Kelly was raised on the New Wave records his older sisters listened to; they also took him to his first concert — Oingo Boingo. He picked up the guitar at age 10, thanks to his sister Cori, who had both a nylon string guitar and a boyfriend with a Peavey Predator. The fifth-grader was quickly hooked. His father noticed, and said if young Brian learned to play “Dueling Banjos,” he’d buy him his own electric guitar. His dad kept that promise; Kelly’s been playing guitar ever since.

After spending his college years in West Coast rock bands, Kelly moved to New York in 2001 to work as a graphic designer and began honing his solo singer-songwriter chops in small venues around Brooklyn and the Lower East Side. Oceanography was born of an unexpected homecoming: In 2009, his older sister was diagnosed with cancer, and Kelly moved back west to help. Alone in his childhood bedroom, he began recording without overthinking the end result. In the decade since, while Kelly has worked with a slew of collaborators, recorded at renowned studios, and garnered critical acclaim, the project has retained that singular vision and intimate, introspective feel.  Tickets are $20.00