“While spacerock typically conjures the vast openness of interstellar space, Brooklyn’s Oceanographer nods more to the unknown territory of the deep sea. Spilling Blood is an album of waves. The songs gently ebb and flow with the tide, though the wind picks up at times and things get a bit choppy.”
— Chuck Foster, The Big Takeover
“Dallas music snobs, here is your record for 2006. Go ahead–set the CD for On Leaping From Airplanes in the stereo, put your Funland pajamas on, curl up in your Tripping Daisy bedsheets and dim the UFOFU nightlight, so that you might fall asleep and dream of a nostalgic era in Dallas music. That’s not to say Oceanographer is either poppy or particularly psychedelic; in fact, that’s not to say they’re from Dallas, either. These former Dentonites wrote and recorded much of their second album in Brooklyn, but the sounds are steeped in the spirit of the Dallas metroplex, a blend of spacey textures and raw, country-tinged songwriting that you just won’t find anywhere else in the country. And for that, bedroom dwellers in every 752XX zip code will want to equip headphones for this disc, a lovely meeting between the New Year’s Newness Ends and Pleasant Grove’s Auscultation of the Heart where guitars, synthesizers and spare strings melt together like a Phil Spector wet dream.“
— Sam Machkovech, The Dallas Observer
“The sound of this album and of this band is very original. The band is reminiscent of some alt-country acts such as Mojave 3 or The Zephyrs as they provide additional country-sounding echoes to the songs. In addition to this evolution from the EP, they bring us some noisier songs that travel through their shoegazer influences in songs like “Junebugs” that brings to mind bands like Readymade, Low, Lorna, Idaho, Should or even Slowdive at some points.
“Check out these guys, they are worth it.
“Songs to hear: The whole thing…seriously.
“SCORE: 9.4“
— Alexandre Poulin, Two Way Monologues
“[W]hile all five were at UNT (not one of them majored in music), they formed the lineup that would become Oceanographer. With their dreamy, post-rock instrumentation and Jeremy Yocum’s languorous voice, Oceanographer […] was a hit with the press, receiving raves in this publication and rotation on Josh Venable’s Adventure Club. In 2004, they were nominated for a Dallas Observer Music Award for Best New Act. Unfortunately, they’d already moved to New York.
“The band’s practice space is in a sketchy section of south Williamsburg better known for carjackings and break-ins than trendy visual arts students. It’s a Hasidic neighborhood, which means the kosher grocery stores don’t sell beer, so we stop on the way for a couple of six-packs.
“The space is used by several Brooklyn bands, including hard-core favorites Black Dice, but it’s musty, dilapidated and utterly spare, a Martha Stewart nightmare. The toilet alone could get the place condemned. To get there, you walk along a narrow sliver of driftwood slapped atop a shallow, murky puddle. But at $450 a month, ‘it’s pretty much a miracle,’ Yocum says.
“’I’m afraid I’m gonna get my ears blown out,’ I say, cramming into the nine-by-nine space as the boys strap on their instruments.
“’You forget,’ says Yocum, ‘we’re one of the quietest bands in the world.’”
— Sarah Hepola, The Dallas Observer
“Oceanographer’s [2002] six-song debut should have been issued with a pack of smokes and a few bottles of wine, just to save listeners the trouble. Singer-guitarist Jeremy Yocum sings as though he’s trying not to wake the baby, a whisper that feels like a scream, while the band builds a wall of sound out of smoke and snowflakes. It’s a winter wonderland of an album. Too bad they moved to NYC.”