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Download "Texas Snow" (mp3)
from "The Quiet Vibrationland"
by Oranger
Amazing Grease Records

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2:25 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Lumberjacks in The Log Cabin of Rock

We unleashed the jazz in Tacoma at Jazzbones.  It was a dinner theater that didn't usually host "rock and roll" groups, so we dusted off our baddest dinnerjazz chops and got all tasty and stuff.  Not much to report about the show beyond that.  I don't think we'll be opening for Branford Marsalis anytime soon, sadly. 

Next night was Portland, OR @ a really bizarre/cool new club called the Doug Fir.  The whole place looks like someone took a Best Western, a ski lodge in Montana (log walls) and a bunch of Playboy Mansion circa 1956 stuff (glass Moose heads, leather diner seats, wall to wall mirrored glass) and magically combined them.  Rock club, hotel and restaurant.  The show was short, but great.  Lots of people came out, including our pal Scott (the Young Fresh Fellows/Minus 5/ REM, as infinitum).  Posies rocked, as did openers Village Green.  Our pal and sometime Oranger member Alan Stewart was in town and sat in on theremin for Garden Party and New Comes and Goes.  He was in town for some shows under his DJ moniker, Shrodinger's Mac (check it out if you get a chance, it is apparently quite the freakshow of sound). 

Before the show we did our first in-store of the tour at Music Millenium w/ the Posies.  We played Sorry Paul, The Writer and Sukiyaki, autographed some bare breasts (and by that we mean copies of our record), and picked up some cds.  Matt grabbed a great James Gang comp for the van, and a puzzling yet somehow enjoyable Doobies comp.  I got some Sister Rosetta Tharpe boxset after Bob turned me onto her on the drive back from SLC.

After the rockshow we went to a few of those Oregon bars and met some interesting folks.  Talk to us in person for the details, as we're trying our best not to "work blue" in the blog anymore.  God knows it's tough.  Oh yeah, Portland legend "Hippy Slayer" kept waking us up at 7:00 a.m. for equally unprintable reasons.  Nice guy.  Just a little misunderstood.

On the way to Seattle now for the last show of the Posies/Oranger tour. I'm going to honest and admit that the Doobies comp is on the stereo and Silkie's at the helm.

-md

4:01 PM - 3 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

John Henry VS the Iron Poodle With Dreadlocks

After SLC show, we got up the next day and got to spend a Sunday at home.  The weather in SF was beautiful.  Not being able to spend more than 24 hours apart, we all decided to get together at a local watering hole before leaving Monday morning for Eugene, OR. 

What can we say about the show in Eugene last night that hasn't already been said?  The cool thing is that everyone who was there to see us bought a cd.  We sold 6.  It was our first show without Patrick "Pirate Leg" Main, who is sitting out the entire Northwest on matters of principle.  With 2 guitars driving the rock, we opted to play what we thought were Thin Lizzy covers, which were met with thunderous silence.  Luckily our repeated references to Dame Ethel Merman eventually won over the Eugenians.

...and the party train kept on a-chuggin' all night long.

We're making our way to Tacoma with the smell of patchouli still in our costumes.   Silkie's driving and Best of Slade (not Sade) on the stereo.

-br/md

PS.  we also saw a toy poodle with dreadlocks. 

12:16 PM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Tourror Stories Volume 12

This is an open apology to the throngs of moshing Oranger fans that demanded their money back on grounds of shoddy drumming last night at the Velvet Room in Salt Lake City.  Just kidding.  The drumming was fantastic, despite the facts that:

a) it was not regular basher John Hofer on the kit, who had to jockey a horse race at Bay Meadows, and

b) it was in fact Darius "Superfood" Odwalla filling in for the entire set, after never having played the songs before live. 

Darius rocked so hard.  Our stuff isn't Cygnus X1, but it's still tough enough that we thought we'd have to resort to psychedelic freakout for the whole SLC set when we found out Hofer couldn't swing it.  Luckily, Darius learned 7 tunes, pretty much on stage, and no one took a swing at us afterwards. Also, our new motto of "At Least It's Not Madison" effectively lowered the bar enough.

The Velvet Room was huge (900 capacity?) and there were at least 34 people there.  Strangely, they were great and made all the bands (Hopewell, Oranger, Posies) feel that special Mormon-kind of love. I'm not sure what that means, but basically it was a good feeling that was only slightly dirty.

Afterwards we hung out with our pal Ivan at an Irish bar called The Republican for pints of Tetley's and foosball, and then we had some tacos next door at (not kidding) La Tormenta.  Sorry ladies, we're taken.

Actually, we lost Patrick for about 30 minutes.  He went into the *other* bar next door to La Tormenta, which was a Mexican dance club.  He paid his cover, allowed himself to be frisked for weapons, and then danced to Norteño Beats until we tracked him down. 

We're in the van now heading to SF to drop off Patrick and then head up to the NW for the last leg of this tour.  Bob's driving, his favorite band who wants to marry, the Tyde, is on the stereo.  We're just leaving (winners) Reno, NV.
-md

4:32 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

InThe Land of Milk and Whiskey

Ok, this is a mega-update.  Let's start where last left our heroes, which I believe was a laundrymat in Madison.... 

Madison @ The High Noon - Mon night
We finished drying our leotards and shot over to the High Noon Saloon for soundcheck.  Hurricane Harris was Force Five already.  Apparently he went to the Mustard Museum that morning and got hopped up on gourmet chocolate-fennel-caribou mustard.  He kept the buzz going through soundcheck and by the time we hit the stage he was in complete Hammer of the Gods mode.  Worst show of the tour, handsdown.  It sounded like a recording of Curly from the Three Stooges sitting in for The Ox during Live at Leeds. 

Hurra pulled it together for the Posies set (after some coffee and a mild beating administered by John Auer), and we left Madison as fast as possible.
Iowa City @ Gabe's Oasis on Tues. 
Lots of really healthy-looking milkfed blonde kids who are really doped up on whatever ya got.  It was actually one of the best shows of the tour for us.  We had some "red beers" which is cheap beer with tomato juice in it.  All the vitamins of beer, with mind-altering properties of the tomato. 

Something about The Madison Debacle helped push us to really kick arse, Hurricane Harris receeded to a tropical shower, and the crowd was drunk and great.  All in all, Iowa City rocked.

Kansas City @ the Hurricane on Wed night. 
We made our first mistake by following yet another rec from our Road Food book (a great book of roadside grub shacks).  We went to Arthur Bryant's and got what appeared to be entire animals wedged between slices of wonderbread.  We got back to club in full meat coma, but realized a tire on our van was cracking so we called AAA (being lazy bastards).  They changed it while we slept in the van. 

Eventually the sounds of the openers drew us out of the belly of the beast and into the club.  Dead Girls Ruin Everything (feat. ex-Ultimate Fakebook kids) were rad.  Total early-90's guitar rock (Swervedriver, Alochol Funnycar, Chavez, etc) crossed with Thin Lizzy.  They also used the word "balls" about 45 times.

Hofer used this opportunity to un-eat his bbq, if you get me (and i think you do), and we played a good set.  Unfortunately we had to split immediately after our set to start the drive to Denver, and we missed what was supposedly the best Posies show of the tour. 

Denver @ the Larrimer Lounge on Thurs.
We got in early and Matt and I ran Darius through some Oranger tunes so he can sub in for Hofer at the SLC show.  Darius nailed them first try.  We hung around backstage with the Posies and Hopewell (NY band w/ an ex-Mercury Revver), watching sports and doing nothing. Eventually Hopewell played and were great.  Kind of brit-psychy with an almost Janes Addiction vocal thing.  They're on the next few shows, so it should be a rock party.

Our set was really good. The stage was cramped so we were all over each other, but that seemed to help somehow.  Ken introduced us in French because his wife Dominique was in town from France.  It went something like "Le DePardiue, Ala Mode!  Le Oranger Gran Du Monde!"  Patrick nearly spazzed another foot injury during New Comes and Goes, but somehow avoided breaking anything. 

Hofer flew back to SF this morning to play a gig @ the Bay Meadows race track, so tonight we're borrowing Darius from the Posies. We're on the 80 heading toward Salt Lake City, Bob driving and John Lee Hooker on the stereo.
-md

11:00 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Where U B At, Oranger?

Sorry we've been out of contact for a few days. It's been a little hectic....
Friday nite we played the Double Door in Chicago. Mike's parents flew in from Florida and Mike's mom brought homemade cookies which were enjoyed by orangers and posies alike. In honor of mike's folks being there ken did the posies encore in hunter green mesh panties!! thans to all at double door, as well as jenny(merch girl) and vince. great after party at the loft(thanks stacy and mike!).
on a downer note, while performing his typical onstage hijinx patrick managed to hurt his ankle. it looked pretty bad before we got him to a clinic. HAIRLINE FRACTURE!!! he did the milwaukee show last nite(which was a weird dinner theater-ey place with tables and carpet on the floor.)  sitting  on a  stool. if you know patrick then you know how difficult it was for him to sit through the whole set. i kept looking over at him and he would be standing on one foot dancing in place....  : (
anyway. in madison wisconsin now doing laundry. the laundry's done, it's been fun but i gotta run......
bob

3:27 PM - 4 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Delivering the Gravy in the Buckeye State

oHIo.  round on the ends and very high in the middle. Puke, cats, dogs, smashed guitars, and lots and lots of gravy. 

We played Little Brothers in Columbus on Wed night.  The staff was great, especially Ike who not only admitted owning a rare Oranger/Alien Crime Syndicate split 7-inch, but actually listened to it before we showed up.  Ike was also kind enough to allow Mike's estranged dog Kobe into the club to watch the show.  Kobe seemed to enjoy the rock, and got lots of love from the club goers.

Locals Miranda Sound opened up and were really good. Our set was aight.  Not our best, but no one demanded a refund, so once again we fooled 'em.  Patrick actually rocked so hard during the New Comes and Goes solo that he bounced off the 6-foot high stage and ducked back stage for quick puke. After we played a guy proposed to his lady friend on stage, and luckily for him she accepted.

Next day we hit a breakfast joint called Jack and Benny's.  In an act of insane hubris, John ordered something called "the gut buster" and later paid dearly for his foolish pride.

Thursday night we rocked the Grog Shop in Cleveland.  The club moved to a new location since the last time we played there w/ the Apples in Stereo. It's much bigger now, but still amazingly cool.  We met up with April from Eenie Meenie, who happened to vacationing in Cleveland (wild times) and had some pre-show whiskey.  The show itself was great, possibly the best one of the tour so far.  We had a long set and played about 13 tunes.  The crowd was great, especially after John from the Posies comanded them to "rock out." 

The Posies played what I thought was the coolest set of the tour for them.  Super loose... jamming on Baracuda and Fly By Night at the same time, getting a guitar stuck in the ceiling and then smashing it to bits, rambling song introductions and all in all completely non-"pro".  Afterwards we hung out for awhile with the Grog Shop staff, who were incredibly cool, and then hung out some more at the hotel with the conscious Posies.  Definitely one of the best nights on the road so far. 

Everyone piled into the van around 11 a.m. to drive to Chicago for tonight's show at the Double Door.  Silkie's at the wheel, everyone else is sleeping, the Twinkeyz are on the ipod, and we're somewhere in the Hoosier state.

12:06 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Motor City Cricket Attack, or A Coney Too Far (Act II)

Detroit.  LaFayette coneys, bowling for vengeance, and rock music for the people.

We got to Detroit early and went to Record Time to hang out.  Got some cool MC5 and Stooges posters from Mike who runs the place.  Mosied back to the club, met up with the Posies and started drinking.

We had a short set due to another early curfew, but it was actually a fun show.  Our new policy of bringing the "A" game no matter what seems to be paying off.  Where once we would've played a 26 minute version of Porpoise Song and called it an evening, we're not just playing a concentrated version of our set, not unlike those 60's package tours with 20 bands each playing 5 minute sets.

Posies rocked, using Technique 14 to great effect (if you turn to page of the Rock Manual, you'll note that Technique 14 is where the band jumps into the crowd to play a few a songs, thereby breaking the Band-Audience Barrier).  They also used Technique 24 (known colloquially as "Pulling a Spree"), in which the crowd joins the band on stage for a song, effectively an inversion of Technique 14 and also very effective at breaking the Band-Audience Barrier.

After the show we bowled really poorly for a few frames and then hoofed it to LaFayette with Hurricane Harris for some coneys.  In the van now heading south on 75 to Columbus, Ohio.  Silkie commanding the sled, Small Faces on the ipod.

10:45 AM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Episode 23: Crabcakes All Around, or It Takes A Village (Act 1)

"... he had sex with each one of the Village People in one night back in the 70s, but he wasn't gay... he was just a HUGE fan." - overheard by Bob and John at the Liquid Lounge in Providence.

We played the Middle East in Cambridge Mass Saturday night. Probably the most destructive show of the batch so far, largely b/c it was the last with the Deathray Davies.

We got to Cambridge early and started off with some sensible bloody marys and beers at some bar with "science" in the name.  We also hit the Salvation Army and scored some great paperbacks for the van, including "2000 Insults For Any Occasion" and "Meet The Globetrotters."  We wandered back to the club and hung out until the Deathrays started.  It was the last night of the tour for DD, and they had everyone in all 2 bands on stage by the end of their set, which ended in everything getting smashed (pics up on the oranger site soon).

The gauntlet had been tossed.  We had Kevin from DD come out for the world's first dualing theremin jam off.  It was like the Alman Brothers, if they were sick whales.  Amazing.  Kevin pretty much stayed on stage for the rest of the set, and the other Deathrays hopped on stage for the last few tunes...  Bob and I tried some new guitar rock poses out, and no one got herniated. 

The Posies came out and pretty much rocked at encore-level from the 1st note.  Ken pantied the people, both John and Ken hopped into the audience and serenaded the fans, and all in all it was definitely badass.

After the show we decided to take scenic historic horse-n-buggy trails out of the city, so our 45-minute skip to Providence turned into a 4-hour Journey Into the Unknown.  John's witty asides from the backseat made the trip even more pleasurable than anyone could've hoped. 

Next day we spent in Providence staying w/ friends, hanging out at bars and doing nothing.  We're on the road to Cleveland now, and heading to Detroit tomorrow for the next show.  Silkie at the helm, Stone the Crows on the radio, sun just set over upstate NY.

-md

4:03 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Northampton, so much to answer for...

The berkshire hillbillies poured off their clean sidewalks and into the Iron Horse to see the Posies'Oranger carnival of musical shame.  Being Friday night in a town with no less that 5 colleges within 5 feet of each other, the club kept the doors open until the late late late hour of 1:00 a.m., which meant the Oranger set was subtitled "25 Minutes Over Northampton."

We played a really good set, though. 

Radio Wave
Mike Love
Sukiyaki
Garden Party
View of the City
Eggtooth
Texas

Deathray  boys were great (again), Posies were particularly ferocious.  Ken ended with "Goodnight Southampton!"  To dodge the club's 20 percent merch surcharge, we sold our wares on the street at the end of the night. 

Went back to the Clarion Hotel where we watched TV, helped people find lost "sahving kits", and slept like rockstars.

11:46 AM - 5 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment