solo-project season!
It has come to our attention here at Orange Peels HQ that both Mr. Clapp and Mr. Moremen are releasing solo albums within the next few weeks! Exciting times. . . they're even celebrating the occasion with a special San Francsico show on Friday, Dec. 2.

In the mid 1990s, Allen Clapp and his Orchestra surprised the world with "One Hundred Percent Chance of Rain," a swift pop confection and bona-fide indie hit album he recorded for a total of $12 in the bedrooms, VW vans and churches of Redwood City, Cailfornia. Transforming expectations yet again, the Allen Clapp of 2011 leads listeners into virgin forests and blazing, new-world sunsets with "Mixed Greens" -- an adventure in soundscapes and song-craft sparking with luminous energy.

Clapp somehow navigates 70s Nashville, slick Eurodisco and quirky, Rundgren-esque soft-rock with a Brill-Building songwriting prowess that unifies his vision for the future of pop. It's as if Clapp is saying to the world: "If a guy in his garage can do this, maybe anything is possible."

Mixed Greens will be released digitally by Minty Fresh on Dec. 6. It will also be available on CD through Mystery Lawn Music and Minty Fresh, on Cassette through Modern Country and early 2012 on vinyl through Minty Fresh and Mystery Lawn. Allen and band will be playing San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento in December with Tracy Shedd, Desario and others. Preview the new tracks and pre-order Mixed Greens on iTunes.

As a solo artist, John Moremen's work has traditionally fallen into the power-pop category, but "Flotation Device" (2011, Mystery Lawn Music) finds the man coloring way outside the lines. Eschewing the distraction of lyrics and vocals on this collection of tunes, the arrangements become more evocative and mysterious -- allowing Moremen to paint pointillistic impressions of moments in time and imaginary landscapes.

On "Flotation Device," Moremen is like a jazz great playing in a fictional rock band made up entirely of himself. Performing all the instrumental parts on this album, Moremen freely navigates between drums, bass and guitar while never losing site of the end goal: songs that move, shake and rattle with palpable energy. Call it 21st century mood music; call it a West-Coast guitar freakout; call it what you will — John Moremen is entirely at home in the grooves of this album, and whether you're from the left coast or right, it places you square in the mindset of this gifted San Francisco composer.

It's available right now on CD (Mystery Lawn Music) and Digitally on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and more!

Aether tide coming may 17
We've been working on our fifth album at Mystery Lawn studio, creating new sounds with old technology and vice-versa. Aether Tide is the first result. Recorded in an afternoon with stereo ribbon microphones, tube tape machines-as-guitar-amps, a 1930s Altec speaker cabinet and various synths and mellotrons, the song comes at you from a different space-time. You figure it out. Lyrically exploring the resurgence and rebirth of Aether Theory vs. 20th Century quantum physics, it's a near cosmic marriage of music and lyrics propelled by ambient drums and interweaving guitar melodies. Buy it. See it.

new Orange peels ink
New reviews of 2020 are appearing in unlooked for places. We were recently made aware of a spectacular write-up in the book "Music: What Happened?" by esteemed songwriter and music writer Scott Miller. Thoughtful and flattering, Miller gives the lowdown on his favorite songs by year from Rock's heyday to the present. Our song 2020 made his list for 2009. We also garnered year-end list attention from Magnet music critics plus a live review for our Halloween show with the Apples in Stereo.

living the smart life
Samsung kicked off its recent Galaxy-S Smartphone campaign in South and Central America with our spritely spring single The Real You. I like the idea of a major international corporation deciding that this song we cooked up in the garage in 48 hours is just the thing they need to launch a high-tech handheld communications and computing device. It's kind of subversive . . . It's certainly not logical (and it's not even the first time: sonic concoctions from Mystery Lawn studio have been featured in campaigns for Target, Armani shops, and Coca Cola). Here is the video. And here's to a happy 2011!

2020 on 180-gram Vinyl goes national today
We are happy to announce that as of today, Nov. 23, 2010, the limited-pressing 180-gram vinyl edition of 2020 goes national! It's available at Aural Exploits, Amazon, CD Universe, Criminal Records, Insound, Parasol, Luna Music, and Jigsaw Records, to name but a few. Look for it in the bins of your favorite record store on black Friday!

In other recent news, we are in the studio, experimenting with stereo ribbon microphones, old tube tape machines, ancient Altec speakers and getting sounds from the future. And thanks to all who came out Halloween night for our show with the Apples in Stereo. The evening is captured in words in Magnet.

APples and oranges
No, it's not a direct comparison between dissimilar items, it's more like Syd Barrett's vision of a perfect popsong circa 1967. Don your best Halloween garb for the Orange Peels and the Apples in Stereo on Oct. 31! The citrus meets the sweet at 9 p.m. at San Jose's Blank Club.

We're also celebrating at OP HQ because we just found out Minty Fresh and distributor ADA will be getting a limited quantity of heavy duty 180-gram vinyl of our latest, 2020, into cooler record shops near you. Street date is Nov. 22, and preorders are already up on Amazon.