In the world of blanket indie genres, the past decade's psych-pop movement may hold the standard for consistency, as nary a band under its wings has proven to be a dud. Influences ranging from the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson to Tropicalia founders Os Mutantes have established the foundation for a style of music that is undeniably catchy in all its forms, yet littered with enough Moog overlays, synthesizer distortions and experimental noise to deter the radio stations.
While Oranger may not strictly fit this bill, they bear enough of its characteristics and have the musical skill to back their inclusion with its best names. Their 2004 release Shutdown the Sun was a diamond in the rough, and with the loss of their San Francisco counterparts Beulah, their role in the music scene only stands to grow.
Guitarist and lead singer Mike Drake took the time to speak with recess on the day of his fourth album release, New Comes and Goes. Oranger also plays with the Posies on Sept. 25 at the Local 506.
On touring with the Posies:
"It's great; it's like touring with Van Halen. Although Ken [Stringfellow, former Posies singer/guitarist] is in REM now. We actually opened for REM for a few of their shows in Ireland."
On their current sound and Beulah:
"It's rock, catchy stuff, indie rock. A little bit less '60s than we had previously had it. We're friends with [Beulah]. I think they're broken up, now, but it's hard to tell with all the members they have that come in and out. They might get back together sometime, I don't know. They're kinda like Pavement if Pavement were a marine troupe."
On New Comes and Goes:
"I think everyone is really stoked about the album. We geared it more towards being playable live. Our older records were baroque and elaborate. We would use harpsichord and trumpet in a Sgt. Pepper-y sort of way. When we got to touring, we'd find that it was impossible to play live. In many ways New Comes and Goes is more similar to our first album, Doorway to Norway. We infused a lot of what we had been listening at the time into it, less '60s music and more '70s rock. In particular, we got absorbed in Roxy music, which is what you'll hear a lot of traces of in the track 'Garden Party for the Murder.' We listened a ton to Wire's first album Pink Flag, and Magazine as well.
"Shutdown the Sun was a little twangier, strummier, milkier and more delicate than the other albums we'd done. It was a transition album between our earlier work and what we have now."
On their recording of the single "Catfish," which appeared on the Dimension Mix compilation dedicated to Bruce Haack's psychedelic children's songs Dimension 5 Recordings for Children:
"We were big Bruce Haack fans beforehand, and we were all too happy to do it. Actually, they were surprised that we even had a recording of the song before they asked us to join in, since most of his stuff is impossible to find nowadays. They just asked us to pick a song out of the remaining available ones, and since we sort of got into the [Dimension Mix] a little late, a lot of the good ones were taken. Beck had the best one, 'Funky Lil' Song,' but what would you expect? He's Beck. He probably got first pick. Anyways, with 'Catfish' we took one we felt was less weird and more of a children's song, that could be narrated. As far as what was different from our version and the original, we had more of a rock band sound in general. Also, we used a live drummer and not that Casio [drum machine]. Although, we did have an interlude in the middle where we brought it back, sort of like a tribute to the old song."
On self-recorded material:
"We tried that, got enough stuff to record our albums in our homes, but for [New Comes and Goes] we told ourselves to shell out some cash to go to a real studio, because we had tried to record the whole thing in our house and would nit-pick too much until the song was just thrashed to pieces. With the professional studio we had a set time to record our stuff and then we had to be done. So it was a good thing in sense. "
On where they see themselves going in the future:
"Well, I hope that we all get to have our own Lear jets instead of just sharing the one, it's a real bummer."
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