• • • • •
03/27/08

Target

This is surreal. . . Allen Clapp is singing on a Target ad!

It's something we've kind of been working on since September, when we got asked to submit an Orange Peels version of the Beatles' Hello Goodbye for one of the Target spots. The production company said they wanted it to sound like us, not an ad-version of us, so we got together at Mystery Lawn studio to hammer out an arrangement. A few hours later, we had recorded drums in the kitchen, guitars and bass in the garage, and the song was taking shape.

We were so happy with what emerged -- a coastal, spacey California interpretation of a song we love. It's streaming now on our Myspace page, or you can listen to it here >>>

I think it was a little too much of a West Coast jamboree for the ad in hindsight, but (The Incredible) Bob Vickers had propelled the song with such driving force on the drums, we couldn't resist going with it. Oed Ronne's folky guitar signature, Jill Pries' rumbling bass line and liberally applied Space Echo guitars by Bob and Oed were followed by some Wurlitzer electric piano and vocals by Allen.

And in the end, it was only the vocals that made it to air. After months of waiting and eventually giving up hope, we got a call from Minneapolis saying they were using a new version of the ad with Allen's vocal over a totally different arrangement.

While we can't help but feel a little sad our interpretation wasn't selected, the new arrangement is pretty darn cool: kind of a baroque-pop show piece with harpsichords, chamber strings and big drums.

And it's airing now! Our friend Matt Nightingale, who was on our Eastern Europe trip in fall 2007 reported seeing it Sunday night. Very exciting.

Watch a quicktime movie of the ad here >>>

• • •
• • • • •
02/23/08

Bloom!

Emerging from under winter's chill, flowering cherry and pear trees are going through their pre-spring transformations now on the strip of land between the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay that we locals call the Peninsula. Also getting ready for spring are a couple of exciting things from Orange Peels Headquarters in Sunnyvale.

First, we are proud to introduce new Something Strange Happens t-shirts! Because both the Orange Peels and Allen Clapp recorded versions of the song, we thought it was a clever way of making a "band" shirt that's not really a band shirt. Subversive! Some of you early adopters got ahold of them last summer at the NYC Popfest, and at our San Francisco and Oakland shows surrounding the festival. But now we're making them available to the rest of the world, too!

Portland artist Jill Bliss -- maker and designer of many wonderful things -- drew up a cool, coastal original design for us, based on her famous Native Wildflower Journal illustrations for Chronicle Books. In 2002, before her journals were published, she made a west coast tour poster for a spring Shelflife Records tour with Allen Clapp, Majestic, Laura Watling and Simpatico featuring her now-iconic poppies. The shirts honor the spirit of that tour and the connection between our music and the coastal landscape. We had the design silk-screened onto soft, environmentally friendly cotton tees by Bella (womens sizes) and Canvas (mens). In orange ink on navy and baby blue tees, they are stunning! We are grateful. . .

They are for sale now in the shop. >>>

This week also saw the final delivery of the artwork files for The Incredible Vickers Brothers album, which can only mean we're in the home stretch for a three-plus year project. In the Orange Peels, Bob Vickers has been there from the start, playing drums, guitars, keyboards, singing harmonies and sharing songwriting and arranging duties. His debut release features the talents of Rob and Bob Vickers and a cast of thousands in an eclectic Space-Age pop-folk-psychedelic soup. It's why he's calling the record "Gallimaufry," an antiquated French word that variously means: mixed up jumble; a ridiculous medley, or (our favorite) a promiscuous assemblage. Recorded by Allen Clapp at Mystery Lawn studio in Sunnyvale and mastered by Jeff Stuart Saltzman at Superdigital in Portland, the album will be out on Brian Kirk's fabulous Bus Stop Label in spring.

• • • • •
12/24/07

Our Year

Our best wishes and warm winter thoughts go out to all of you -- especially our friends under snow in the midwest and on the East Coast. Usually, our years between albums are fairly quiet, with the band writing and testing out arrangements as we conceptualize our next release. But this year was different . . . thanks to some wonderful unexpected events.

WINTER: After a slow start, in which our old recording system died, we upgraded our studio with better analog-to-digital converters. These things are amazingly important when you're recording onto something as cold and impersonal as hard drives. We've also equipped ourselves with better software and a couple pieces of gear which will make themselves known on future recordings: a vintage RCA ribbon mic (courtesy of Mr. Oed Ronne) and a germanium microphone preamp, which is actually indescribably cool.

SPRING: It looked like we were back in recording mode, but by late winter, we had been invited to play in New York by organizers of the NYC Popfest. Suddenly, recording was on the back burner and we had to start rehearsing. The festival was amazing, bringing together bands from both sides of the Atlantic and booking them into New York clubs over a 5 day period. We stayed in a great, funky artist's loft in Chelsea and took in sights and sounds, great food and wine, and met lots of new friends. View our NYC Popfest photo album here. >>>

SUMMER: After playing some local shows at the Stork Club and The Make-Out Room, we did a little recording during the glorious summer months, even luring original guitarist Larry Winther back into the studio on a new track. Summer also saw release of the award-winning indie film Jumping Off Bridges on DVD. The movie, filmed in Austin, TX by Kat Candler, deals with teen angst, alientation and suicide. It features Allen Clapp and his Orchestra's original 4-track version of Something Strange Happens on the soundtrack.

FALL: With fall on the horizon, core Peels Jill Pries and Allen Clapp got the opportunity to be a part of a music team going to Eastern Europe. We put together a makeshift lineup of the band and played in Budapest, Hungary and Timisoara, Romania. We also traveled to outlying agricultural villages in Romania, playing in communist bunkers, churches and meeting halls. It was overwhelmingly cool and we met so many wonderful people! Someone posted a video of us from the Budapest show doing So Far, or as it is now known, Pfa, Pfa Pfa Pfa. See our blog and slideshow here. >>>

BEYOND . . . Looking ahead, we're gonna be recording in 2008. To keep on our album-every-four-years schedule, that means we'll have something out in 2009. But other members of the band have been busy as well . . . Bob Vickers has completed work on his first album, produced at Orange Peels headquarters, Mystery Lawn Studio, and it will see release in the first part of 2008! It's called "Gallimaufry," and features a bevy of mandolin, ukulele and string players. Look for it on The Bus Stop Label under the name of The Incredible Vickers Brothers. And John Moremen has collected all his solo recordings -- including a new release, "Vertical" -- and has released them all on the iTunes Music Store.
By all means, purchase some! >>>


• • • • •
News Archive >>>