Discography
“I’ve seen The Ophelias three times now, twice in the last few days, and they are just amazing. […] The Ophelias are fortunate in several respects: the musicians do new things with the music yet retain a certain warped traditionalism, they are accomplished enough to play around with a multitude of styles, and they have a particularly strong singer/songwriter. These forces will, I think, combine fortuitously to make The Ophelias well-known beyond the local scene. Lately, the only bands I notice are the ones who don’t fit into any specific genre, whose music is so original that hearing them is like hearing a completely new way of playing.”
Joni Hollar, The Daily Californian, April 23, 1986
The View From Here
“Combining electric and acoustic textures in a way reminiscent of The Kinks, T. Rex or the Bunnymen, The Ophelias stride into the worldwide marketplace with their big, self-titled debut on Strange Weekend Records. No single track can adequately represent this band’s many musical personnas, but the kickoff track, Palindrome, borrowed for this album, does illustrate their aim at uniting both the playful and the thoughtful in dramatic and evocative rock songs.” Sleeve note by Steve Weinberg, Executive Producer, The View From Here, July 1987
More Oar
In 1999, The Ophelias 1989 cover of “Lawrence Of Euphoria” was included on More Oar: A Tribute To The Skip Spence Album produced by Bill Bentley, who assembled an impressive line-up of artists, including Robert Plant, Tom Waits, and Beck, to record tracks exclusive to the compilation. Of the album’s 17 songs, only “Lawrence Of Euphoria” was not recorded in 1999 specifically for the tribute CD, The Ophelias version having appeared on The Big O in 1989 accompanied by a video which featured on MTV that year. It can be inferred from its inclusion on More Oar that Bentley had been enjoying The Ophelias version for some years previous to his compilation project. Indeed, it is likely that The Ophelias “Lawrence” was the only More Oar song covered and released during the 30 years preceding the tribute CD. Medford: “Our cover was a vehicle for a short, one-and-a-half-minute comic video, and was the last track on The Big O album, a bit reminiscent of how “Her Majesty”, also comic and very short, ends The Beatles Abbey Road album. It’s great to be included on what is an excellent compilation CD – don’t get me wrong about that – but I wish listeners understood it is hardly indicative of what we would have done given the opportunity to record something specifically for More Oar in 1999. The fact that our cover was part of the inspiration for Bill Bentley’s entire project was completely lost on the public and never mentioned in any review I saw, and our video was not reissued as part of the proceedings, so I’m afraid our track was lost in the shuffle, a little out-of-context from the rest, and somewhat misunderstood. Not that any version of “Lawrence of Euphoria” – admittedly a silly, almost throwaway, song – was going to shine out from any collection of Spence’s more thoughtful works.”
