Fluid Ounces
Encyclopedia
Fluid Ounces were a piano-based, power pop
band from Murfreesboro, Tennessee
that garnered a cult following for their critically acclaimed records, which featured a distinctive blend of hooks, varied musical styles, clever wordplay, and intricate, complex arrangements.
. Once Ella broke up, Timbs joined with Ella’s bassist, Ben Morton, along with Elijah Shaw and local music legend/drummer Sam Baker (of local bands like the F Particles, These Are Houseplants, Blind Farmers, and Speake, among others) to form a new band. Timbs' long-time collaborator/friend, Brian “Tha B” Rogers, briefly joined Self
, the new band with Ella’s drummer Matt Mahaffey
, but ultimately decided to work on Timbs' new project.
The new band called itself Fl. Oz. (going by “Fluid Ounces” would come later when people didn’t understand the band name in its abbreviated form) and began playing and recording in 1996 in Murfreesboro and Nashville
, TN on the newly formed Spongebath Records
.
, Harry Nilsson
, The Beatles
, Elvis Costello
, Ray Charles
, They Might Be Giants
, XTC
, Randy Newman
, and Thelonious Monk
, and with their combined love of jazz, they created a very energetic sound with (mostly) upbeat tempos and complicated chord progressions. Because of the prominence of piano in the songs, the band often was often compared with contemporaries Ben Folds Five
. However, as Stewart Mason with Allmusic noted:
, with producer Ross Rice of Memphis band Human Radio
behind the console. Big Notebook for Easy Piano, released in June 1997, garnered dozens of positive reviews from publications such as Alternative Press, Magnet
, CMJ, The Tennessean
, Nashville Scene
, and Billboard
, and was eventually nominated for Rock Album of the Year by the Nashville Music Association. After months of continued gigging and building a fan base, the band then recorded their follow-up album, In the New Old-Fashioned Way
, in Jackson, Mississippi
with producer Richard Dortch. The recording for their second album was done live with minimal overdubs—the opposite approach they had taken with their debut album.
Their following in and around Nashville grew, and the band began touring around the country, especially after scoring a minor radio hit with “Vegetable Kingdom.” In 1999, just before the official release of the second record, drummer Sam Baker left the band and was replaced by Justin Meyer. During this time, the band all shared a house together on Broad Street in Murfreesboro, sandwiched between a car dealership and a gravestone salesman, a fact that many journalists found humorous considering Timbs' fondness for noir themes and dark humor.
In the New Old Fashioned Way was also reviewed very positively in press outlets like Ink19, PopMatters
, Nashville Scene, Amplifier, Audiocafe, and Lollipop. This line-up continued gigging, and temporarily based themselves out of Chicago
for midwest touring. Eventually, the band began working on songs for the third LP.
Rogers and Morton then left in 1999 around the time the band parted ways with Spongebath Records. They were succeeded by Doug Payne (on guitar) and Jason Dietz (on bass). Meyer moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 2000, and Elliott Currie took his place on the drum throne. This line-up continued working on the third release, called Foreign Legion
, which was completed sometime around January 2001.
Trev Wooten took over the bass duties in March 2001, and Sam Baker re-joined the following May as the band prepared to promote the release of the new record. The band was then signed to Cutti Records in Japan and began scoring success overseas. Seth Timbs made several trips to Japan in order to promote the music, and he took the whole band with him in February 2002.
After that, the band essentially broke up as Seth moved to Los Angeles
and the other members went on to other projects. Seth recorded the fourth album, The Whole Shebang
, with Spike and Mallets drummer Kyle Walsh in hopes of releasing it in Japan. Instead, the album was released nationwide by Murfreesboro-based Vacant Cage Records as Seth returned to Middle Tennessee. Upon his return, Seth re-formed Fluid Ounces with Brian Rogers back on guitar, Brian G. Pitts on bass, and Kyle Walsh on drums.
Fluid Ounces recorded one more album, Instant Nostalgia, before disbanding in 2008. (Band history borrowed from "Hung On Every Word," a blog about Fluid Ounces at fluidounces.blogspot.com)
Timbs now performs in the Nashville band Hot New Singles.
Power pop
Power pop is a popular musical genre that draws its inspiration from 1960s British and American pop and rock music. It typically incorporates a combination of musical devices such as strong melodies, crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements, and prominent guitar riffs. Instrumental solos are...
band from Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Murfreesboro is a city in and the county seat of Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 108,755 according to the United States Census Bureau's 2010 U.S. Census, up from 68,816 residents certified during the 2000 census. The center of population of Tennessee is located in...
that garnered a cult following for their critically acclaimed records, which featured a distinctive blend of hooks, varied musical styles, clever wordplay, and intricate, complex arrangements.
Inception
Seth Timbs had been writing his own songs on both guitar and piano for years. By the time of he had formed Seth Timbs & The Mad Hatters, he had already accumulated a rather large back catalog. After the Mad Hatters, Timbs played in the band Ella Minopy with his good friend Matt MahaffeyMatt Mahaffey
Matt Mahaffey is an American multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and recording engineer best known for his band Self.-Personal:Matt grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee and was involved with music from a young age...
. Once Ella broke up, Timbs joined with Ella’s bassist, Ben Morton, along with Elijah Shaw and local music legend/drummer Sam Baker (of local bands like the F Particles, These Are Houseplants, Blind Farmers, and Speake, among others) to form a new band. Timbs' long-time collaborator/friend, Brian “Tha B” Rogers, briefly joined Self
Self (band)
Self is an American alternative pop/rock band from Murfreesboro, Tennessee and largely the brainchild of writer, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Matt Mahaffey....
, the new band with Ella’s drummer Matt Mahaffey
Matt Mahaffey
Matt Mahaffey is an American multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and recording engineer best known for his band Self.-Personal:Matt grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee and was involved with music from a young age...
, but ultimately decided to work on Timbs' new project.
The new band called itself Fl. Oz. (going by “Fluid Ounces” would come later when people didn’t understand the band name in its abbreviated form) and began playing and recording in 1996 in Murfreesboro and Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, TN on the newly formed Spongebath Records
Spongebath Records
Spongebath Records was an independent record label based in Murfreesboro, Tennessee during the mid-nineties. During its heyday, Spongebath was often viewed as the vibrant epicenter of Murfreesboro/Nashville's music scene with a robust artist roster of critically acclaimed bands, singers, and...
.
Sound
Their sound was catchy piano pop, influenced by the likes of Elton JohnElton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
, Harry Nilsson
Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...
, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
, Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years Flansburgh and Linnell were frequently accompanied by a drum machine. In the early 1990s, TMBG became a full band. Currently, the members of TMBG are...
, XTC
XTC
XTC were a New Wave band from Swindon, England, active between 1976 and 2005. The band enjoyed some chart success, including the UK and Canadian hits "Making Plans for Nigel" and "Senses Working Overtime" , but are perhaps even better known for their long-standing critical success.- Early years:...
, Randy Newman
Randy Newman
Randall Stuart "Randy" Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is known for his mordant pop songs and for film scores....
, and Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
, and with their combined love of jazz, they created a very energetic sound with (mostly) upbeat tempos and complicated chord progressions. Because of the prominence of piano in the songs, the band often was often compared with contemporaries Ben Folds Five
Ben Folds Five
Ben Folds Five is an alternative rock trio formed in 1993 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The group comprises Ben Folds , Robert Sledge , and Darren Jessee . The group achieved mainstream success in the alternative, indie and pop music scenes...
. However, as Stewart Mason with Allmusic noted:
"Unlike Folds' strained "look at me" cleverness, ivories-tickling leader Seth Timbs doesn't draw too much attention to himself lyrically, and his cohorts...[were] a much more cohesive and musically capable unit than the Five were."
History
With this line-up, they recorded their first release, Big Notebook for Easy PianoBig Notebook for Easy Piano
Big Notebook for Easy Piano was the debut release by Murfreesboro, Tennessee band Fluid Ounces. It was recorded in Memphis, Tennessee with producer Ross Rice...
, with producer Ross Rice of Memphis band Human Radio
Human Radio
Human Radio was an American rock band from Memphis, Tennessee. The group was formed in 1989 by lead singer Ross Rice, and in 1990 they released a self-titled LP on Columbia Records. The single "Me and Elvis" was a hit in the US, reaching #32 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart...
behind the console. Big Notebook for Easy Piano, released in June 1997, garnered dozens of positive reviews from publications such as Alternative Press, Magnet
Magnet (magazine)
Magnet is a music magazine which generally focuses on alternative, independent, or out-of-the-mainstream bands.-History:The magazine is published four times a year, and is independently owned and edited by Eric T. Miller. Music magazines with a similar focus in the 1990s era included Option,...
, CMJ, The Tennessean
The Tennessean
The Tennessean is the principal daily newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Its circulation area covers 39 counties in Middle Tennessee and eight counties in southern Kentucky....
, Nashville Scene
Nashville Scene
Nashville Scene is an alternative newsweekly in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1989, became a part of Village Voice Media in 1999, and later joined the ranks of sixteen other publications after a merger of Village Voice Media with New Times Media early in 2006. In 2009 the paper was...
, and Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
, and was eventually nominated for Rock Album of the Year by the Nashville Music Association. After months of continued gigging and building a fan base, the band then recorded their follow-up album, In the New Old-Fashioned Way
In the New Old-Fashioned Way
In the New Old-Fashioned Way was the highly-anticipated second album from Spongebath Records artists Fluid Ounces. The album was recorded in a marathon two week session with producer Richard Dortch in Jackson, Mississippi. All tracks were recorded live, with minimal overdubs...
, in Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
with producer Richard Dortch. The recording for their second album was done live with minimal overdubs—the opposite approach they had taken with their debut album.
Their following in and around Nashville grew, and the band began touring around the country, especially after scoring a minor radio hit with “Vegetable Kingdom.” In 1999, just before the official release of the second record, drummer Sam Baker left the band and was replaced by Justin Meyer. During this time, the band all shared a house together on Broad Street in Murfreesboro, sandwiched between a car dealership and a gravestone salesman, a fact that many journalists found humorous considering Timbs' fondness for noir themes and dark humor.
In the New Old Fashioned Way was also reviewed very positively in press outlets like Ink19, PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
, Nashville Scene, Amplifier, Audiocafe, and Lollipop. This line-up continued gigging, and temporarily based themselves out of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
for midwest touring. Eventually, the band began working on songs for the third LP.
Rogers and Morton then left in 1999 around the time the band parted ways with Spongebath Records. They were succeeded by Doug Payne (on guitar) and Jason Dietz (on bass). Meyer moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 2000, and Elliott Currie took his place on the drum throne. This line-up continued working on the third release, called Foreign Legion
Foreign Legion (album)
Foreign Legion was the third studio album by Murfreesboro, TN band Fluid Ounces.The album marked a turning point for Fluid Ounces. The band had separated from Spongebath Records, and both founding members Brian Rogers and Ben Morton had left in 1999 to pursue other interests...
, which was completed sometime around January 2001.
Trev Wooten took over the bass duties in March 2001, and Sam Baker re-joined the following May as the band prepared to promote the release of the new record. The band was then signed to Cutti Records in Japan and began scoring success overseas. Seth Timbs made several trips to Japan in order to promote the music, and he took the whole band with him in February 2002.
After that, the band essentially broke up as Seth moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and the other members went on to other projects. Seth recorded the fourth album, The Whole Shebang
The Whole Shebang (album)
The Whole Shebang is the fourth studio album and third record label for Murfreesboro, Tennessee band Fluid Ounces.Largely performed by Timbs himself and engineered by Murfreesboro producer Brian Carter, The Whole Shebang received typically warm critical acclaim and some of Timbs' strongest...
, with Spike and Mallets drummer Kyle Walsh in hopes of releasing it in Japan. Instead, the album was released nationwide by Murfreesboro-based Vacant Cage Records as Seth returned to Middle Tennessee. Upon his return, Seth re-formed Fluid Ounces with Brian Rogers back on guitar, Brian G. Pitts on bass, and Kyle Walsh on drums.
Fluid Ounces recorded one more album, Instant Nostalgia, before disbanding in 2008. (Band history borrowed from "Hung On Every Word," a blog about Fluid Ounces at fluidounces.blogspot.com)
Timbs now performs in the Nashville band Hot New Singles.
Discography
- Big Notebook for Easy PianoBig Notebook for Easy PianoBig Notebook for Easy Piano was the debut release by Murfreesboro, Tennessee band Fluid Ounces. It was recorded in Memphis, Tennessee with producer Ross Rice...
(1997) - In the New Old-Fashioned WayIn the New Old-Fashioned WayIn the New Old-Fashioned Way was the highly-anticipated second album from Spongebath Records artists Fluid Ounces. The album was recorded in a marathon two week session with producer Richard Dortch in Jackson, Mississippi. All tracks were recorded live, with minimal overdubs...
(1999) - Foreign LegionForeign Legion (album)Foreign Legion was the third studio album by Murfreesboro, TN band Fluid Ounces.The album marked a turning point for Fluid Ounces. The band had separated from Spongebath Records, and both founding members Brian Rogers and Ben Morton had left in 1999 to pursue other interests...
(2002) - The Whole ShebangThe Whole ShebangThe Whole Shebang may refer to:*The Whole SHeBANG, an album by country music trio SHeDAISY*The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe Report, a book by Timothy Ferris*The Shebang, a radio program previously known as The Whole Shebang...
(2005) - Instant Nostalgia (2008)