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 English smooth rockers Gomez broke hard and fast with their debut, Bring it On (1998), which won them the prestigious Mercury Music Prize. The fivesome’s sound hit a particular niche that was largely absent in commercial music at the time — a bluesy groove with jazz-rhythm undertones and quirky patchwork pop lyricism. The loopy “Get Myself Arrested,” the warped psychedelic blues of “78 Stone Wobble,” and the sunset-simple approach of “Tijuana Lady” charmed critics and helped make the world safer for a subsequent slew of eclectic Brit bands.
Formed in the seaside town of Southport, the Gomez lineup has remained the same since its inception: guitarist Ian Ball and drummer Olly Peacock (childhood friends who first played together in a metal band called Providence), plus guitarist Ben Ottewell, bassist Paul Blackburn and multi-instrumentalist Tom Gray. Ball, Ottewell and Gray share lead vocal duties.
The band’s first three albums, Bring it On, Liquid Skin (1999) and In Our Gun (2002) were all self-produced. Despite the fact that their fourth, Split the Difference, was their most impactful in the U.S., Gomez found themselves dismissed from Hut/Virgin Records. They slipped over to Dave Matthew’s ATO Records — a better fit — for the live disc Out West (2005), as well as subsequent efforts How We Operate (2006) and A New Tide (2009).
The band members often work outside the framework of Gomez: Ball’s Who Goes There was released in the fall of 2007, and Ottewell occasionally tours solo. (Parrotheads know of Gomez’s connection with Jimmy Buffett: the band appeared on Buffett’s cover of Crowded House’s “Weather With You” in 2006 and have performed live with him.) Operation Aloha, a collective including Ball, Peacock and Dajon Everett (a frequent part of Gomez’s touring band) plus members of Maroon 5 and Phantom Planet, recorded together in 2008 and 2009.
Provenance: Southport, England
Latest release: A New Tide (2009)
© 2009 Nigel Music Media LLC. Used by permission.
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