"Edge of the Ocean" (Ivy, Long Distance, 2001)

"Edge of the Ocean," Ivy's signature track off its third album, Long Distance (2001):

http://youtu.be/Zkd4vGZuXc0

I remember hearing this song a lot back in the day (well, actually, not even that long ago....). For a good couple of years, it was featured in many commercials, films, and television shows, including a 2001 episode of Roswell, where the band itself appeared on the show to perform the song. From the information available on Wikipedia, it seems the last notable use of it was during the end credits to the film Music and Lyrics (2007), which Ivy band member Adam Schlesinger did the music for.

Fast forward to 2014, and Ivy is a largely forgotten act. When I went to see Blondfire perform last December, my brother mentioned he had seen them open for Ivy some eight years or so ago, and I was like "Ivy? Who?"

Schlesinger, of course, remains an active and successful songwriter in film and television. The other two band members, Dominique Durand and Andy Chase, are married with children. The trio reunited after a six-year hiatus to release another album, All Hours, in 2011, after which Ivy quickly dropped off the map once more.

I tried looking on YouTube to see if there were any noteworthy live recordings of "Edge of the Ocean," but there's barely any video of the band at all. One fan channel, Ivy Fan Page, is virtually the only source for Ivy-related videos on YouTube (like the one above), including one circa-2002 acoustic performance of "Edge of the Ocean" and a lo-fi recording of the official music video for the Duotone remix of the song.

Anyway, the song and band came up on my radar again because I've been watching Veronica Mars (in preparation for the upcoming film), which features "Edge of the Ocean" on not one, but two separate episodes (Season 1, Episode 3 "Meet John Smith" and Season 2, Episode 10 "One Angry Veronica"), in addition to a couple other Ivy songs on other episodes.

Eventually Veronica Mars will be forgotten as well, but it's interesting how, in this Netflix era (though Veronica Mars specifically isn't on Netflix, so not the best example) of people binge-watching roughly decade-old shows for the first time, a strictly of-its-day hit like "Edge of the Ocean" can get a limited extension on its life from having been featured on a cult TV series.

Then again, according to TuneFind, "Edge of the Ocean" was used again as recently as 2011, on the short-lived ABC Family show The Nine Lives of Chloe King, so maybe the song yet has life in it!