Pleasure Cruise

If the cast of Empire Records, Joey Ramone, Sunshine and all of social media had a lovechild, Pleasure Cruise would be it. Danielle Hall discovers what it’s like to hang out with the musical antidote to the winter blues.

Pleasure Cruise is a four-piece band that is the music baby of Quinn Omori. They play fuzzy sun-soaked love jams, reminiscent of pop from when music was a little simpler. I arrive at the restaurant to talk to the band before one of their shows in Vancouver and am met with three heads bent over their phones. Front woman, Jody Glenham, is posting a photo onto Instagram of her misspelled name on the reservation board; not terribly surprising for a band that claims to have been formed on Twitter.

Quinn, who is also known for writing music blog From Blown Speakers for the last seven years, had already written the three-song EP Business or… when the band formed in the summer of 2011. As drummer, Dustin Bromley, one quarter of Pleasure Cruise as well as another Vancouver-based band Keep Tidy, explains, “A year or so ago Quinn asked me if I would drum for him if he wrote some pop songs. He didn’t want to sing so we looked for a singer on Twitter.”

That’s where they found Jody, the lone girl in the band but with a voice that often gets them compared to bands like Dum Dum Girls, and Best Coast. The girl band label doesn’t seem to bother Quinn though. “That’s fine,” he says. “My favourite albums last year were by Dum Dum Girls and Eleanor Friedberger.” Bassist Kyle Bourcier, who recently moved to Vancouver from Victoria, was the last of the quartet to join. “I only met these guys in the summer.

I did see one of Dustin’s bands play on [Vancouver] Island a while ago and I was pretty excited to work with him.” Kyle’s confession is followed by mock star struck high pitched screaming. Despite the band’s fairly unconventional formation, dinner with them is all giggles and inside jokes like that of old friends.

Business or… was recorded in one day at the band’s jam space in Vancouver’s Gastown, and their friend Hayz Fisher had the three songs mixed within a couple of days. “We recorded it on a Monday and had it for our first show on Thursday,” Kyle says of the EP. Jody adds, “That night I looked out into the audience and there were already people mouthing along to the words, and I was like, ‘How do people know this stuff already?’” It seems good news travels fast, especially when you can get it for free on the internet.
It’s an uncomplicated and devilishly catchy EP. “Weeks and Months” is a straight-up pop tune with a guitar riff that wouldn’t be out of place on the soundtrack of an eighties John Hughes movie.

Followed by the much fuzzier sounding “Summer Fling” (and to clear up some confusion, has a line that says, “I don’t have to be a full-time love”, not “I don’t have to be a full-time mom”). Track three slows things down so you can grab that special someone and stare longingly into their eyes. I ask Quinn what drew him to write so many love songs and he replies straightforwardly, “I just wanted to write pop songs and they are usually about love.” These songs may not come from any inner emotional longing on Quinn’s part, but they sure lodge themselves in your head.

The influence of 1960s pop music is evident in their music, but when I told them I could hear hints of nineties girl bands, Quinn shrugs nonchalantly, “I went to high school in the nineties so I guess that’s where that’s from. And I know Jody listens to a lot of Mazzy Star.” Jody avoids the nineties reference and is more direct when it comes to defining the band’s sound saying, “It’s The Ronettes meet the The Ramones.” Everyone nods in approval as Quinn then smiles, “That’s because we blatantly rip [The Ramones] off a bunch of times. (Pause). That’s also why Jody does all of our press.” Everybody laughs.

It’s clear that this band doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is refreshing in a hardnosed industry that is usually a tough nut to crack. But these guys have done it with apparent ease. It’s nice to hang out with people that just want to make good music and have fun doing it.

The EP was only released digitally, as the band blew the record-pressing budget on sky blue Ray-Ban style sunglasses, with Pleasure Cruise emblazoned on the side in white, to sell at their first show. Jody told the crowd about the new merch, saying, “We have sunglasses if you feel like your future is too bright.” In the end, the band didn’t make much money off them. “We ended up giving most of them away,” explains Dustin. “We gave ALL of them away,” confirms Quinn.

As it turns out, Kyle’s mom came to the show and bought a pair so it wasn’t all a loss. But fret not vinyl fans, the band is already hard at work on another EP, and they assure me it will be released as a seven-inch, which may or may not be called Major Crush, featuring Dustin on the cover dressed as the “major”. Dustin says of the record, “It will be something to help Vancouver people hold out until they can go back to the beach.” After the interview, I walk over to the venue with the band. They are the first on the bill that evening, and people are just beginning to pour in as the music starts.

Despite the bar being half empty and filled with the typical unenthusiastic Vancouver music crowd, a good-sized audience forms at the front of the stage. Between songs, Quinn enjoys some pretty hilarious banter with the crowd, and when Jody forgets the words to one of their new songs half way through, everyone just laughs and starts over. After they finish, Quinn says into the microphone, “It was nice of Jody to screw up tonight because it’s usually me.” Pleasure Cruise is just trying to have a good time, so maybe you should just put your blue sunglasses on and try to have a good one too.

Words: Danielle Hall
Photos: Coreena Lewis - Ion Magazine

Wet snow falls indecisively outside my window, but even the threat of oncoming winter can’t dampen the feel-good vibes pouring out of my stereo courtesy of sun-bleached Vancouver rockers Pleasure Cruise. The band may have formed only a matter of months ago (on Twitter, no less), but their debut three-song EP is nothing short of a fuzzed-out pop miracle. Recorded, mixed and released via bandcamp in less than a week, Business or… is brimming with sing-along melodies and that perfect balance of pop sensibilities and punk rock spirit – a testament to the talented ear of producer Hayz Fisher. On each track, lead vocalist Jody Glenham’s soaring, bleeding-heart vocals are anchored by the band’s driving, reverb-laden arrangements. More than just an antidote to rainy B.C. winters, Pleasure Cruise exhibit enormous potential on their first release. With a running time of just under seven minutes, the EP barely qualifies as a sampler; yet I can’t shake the feeling that this is a band with a bright future. - The Cascade

Soon after I clicked on local act Pleasure Cruise’s recently released EP, my emotional physiology changed from crappy to feeling pretty good.
There’s a respectable sincerity emanating from the lyrics in Business or…. Some serious issues are talked about, like being a single mom, but mostly it’s about generic problems within a relationship. Yet even before you hear Jody Glenham’s vocals, the guitar, bass and drum riffs laid down respectively by Quinn Omori, Kyle Bourcier and Dustin John Bromley somehow engage the listener. Their unique sounds and riffs build up anticipation and, combined further with the sound of Glenham’s voice, convince you to delve into the perspective being presented.
Having just formed––they played their first show this past September at the Biltmore––they only have three short tracks on their debut EP: “Weeks & Months,” “Summer Fling” and “I Really Wanna Know.” The stars have aligned and positive things seem imminent for Pleasure Cruise. Check out http://pleasurecruise.bandcamp.com/ for more info on the band’s upcoming shows around Vancouver. - Discorder Magazine

When a crowd that’s part thrash, part chanteuse and part doo-wop comes together, it’s hard to imagine how anything harmonious could result. That’s exactly what Pleasure Cruise is, however. The four-piece - consisting of songstress Jody Glenham, music blogger Quinn Omori and rockers Dustin Bromley and Kyle Bourcier - were people who seemed to perpetually orbit around each other within Vancouver’s small creative scene, before a fortunate series of tweets and emails finally brought them together. “We all ended up following each other on Twitter,” singer Glenham explains. “We knew each other but I didn’t know them well. Dustin and Quinn were having a Twitter conversation; Quinn had written these songs and Dustin had agreed to drum, and they were looking for a female singer.” And when she sent them a message, a band was born.

It seems like the matchup was inevitable, really - at least after listening to the three-song EP, Business Or…, that resulted, which was mixed and mastered by local pop-punk aficionado Hayz Fisher. Perfectly crafted ’50s-infused pop floats effortlessly beneath Glenham’s sultry voice, which sounds like it was made exactly for this project. “Sometimes you can’t explain why you respond to music,” she says, “but as soon as I heard the demo, I was like, ‘I want to be a part of this.’ ”

Omori has been the musical mastermind thus far, and he writes with a breezy sentiment for melody and place, approaching nostalgia with care not to revel in it too deeply. “His stuff is super melodic. He writes in the style I listen to: the sort of Beach Boys throwback, summer pop kind of thing. I grew up on that,” Glenham tells me. Thus far, the reception has been equally warm from a musical community not typically known for its openness. Though this only means the work is cut out for the foursome in the cold months ahead, as they try to keep the memory of summer fun alive.

With plans to record again in the upcoming winter months, this shouldn’t be too hard however, as Pleasure Cruise will be having a good time either way. “We really like hanging out together,” enthuses Glenham. “We’re the ones making all the yacht jokes though.” - Beatroute Magazine