I Said Stop

I Said Stop puts its own individual spin on indie pop

TOM GILBERT / Tulsa World I Said Stop is Brian Keller (left), Kyle Herley, Ian Gollahon and Sam Crowin.

By MATT ELLIOTT World Scene Writer
4/27/2007

Tulsa's fertile underground music scene has produced yet another addition to its broad and surreal landscape, this time in the form of I Said Stop!

The band is a little hard to pin down, but with its three-song EP released last weekend, the listener is three songs closer to defining the band's catchy, Super Mario Bros.' indie space-pop. The band celebrated the EP's release in a show with Callupsie at the Mooch and Burn.

"We love the Tulsa scene and what goes on here, and I feel like my band is really closely connected, too," said vocalist Ian Gollahon.

The band has performed with everyone from El Paso Hot Button to Elliott the Letter Ostrich and Shiny Toy Guns.

Gollahon started playing in bands around when he was in the eighth grade along with bandmate Brian Keller.

Keller and Gollahon's musical styles varied wildly, changing with whatever new fancy struck them. Their band got a new name each time their music morphed -- from Goodnight, Space Cowboy! and When I Doodle I Draw Toasters to Awkward Silence.

Those changes could be attributed to the musicians' tendency to get bored easily.

"I don't know if it's a mark of immaturity. I've heard it called that by some musicians," Gollahon said.

The band's name came out of a stream-of-consciousness joke. That same stream yielded the danceable weirdness of "Song About Stopping!," the EP's second track (it follows an eight -minute intro).

Gollahon, 19, juggles the band with college. He draws his inspiration for his random lyrics largely from relationships and the afterlife.

I Said Stop! is yet another addition to the same indie pop landscape that spawned Letter Ostrich and Aqueduct, but Gollahon's sound rocks a bit more than others.

The band's first show was a double bill with Callupsie at the late Skypad, an apartment near 11th Street and Delaware Avenue, Gollahon said.

You can find the band's EP at the music store Under the Mooch, at 1423 S. Harvard Ave.

By MATT ELLIOTT World Scene Writer