Friday, May 8, 2020

California pop pioneers The Orange Peels come back with first new music in two years; “Thank You,” is first single from planned double-album.

Band’s upcoming two-record set to be preceded by comprehensive vinyl reissue of 1997 “Square” debut, including two discs of unreleased material.

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The Orange Peels (L-R): Gabriel Coan, Jill Pries, Allen Clapp. Photo Credit: Allen Clapp / Anthony Musiala / Khoi Huynh.

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“It definitely pulls out all the stops as spiraling orch-pop,” says Brooklyn Vegan in its premiere coverage of “Thank You,” the first new music by The Orange Peels in two years. The song is taken from the band’s upcoming double-album (working title Celebrate the Moments of Your Life) which is scheduled for release this fall. Leader Allen Clapp says the song “could be the most openhearted thing the band has ever recorded.” Listen w/ lyrics at the link above or choose your destination at the link below.



Prior to the release of its two-record return, The Orange Peels will share the re-issue of its 1997 debut album Square. The deluxe package, variously known as Square³, Square Cubed, or Square x 3, will arrive via the Minty Fresh label on June 26th, and includes a freshly re-mastered version of the original album on 180g vinyl plus two CDs including bonus tracks, alternate mixes, and four-track demos. 40 tracks tell the story of how the band evolved from Allen Clapp and His Orchestra into The Orange Peels.

See below for more info and read about the project’s crowd funding journey at Kickstarter here.

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About | The Orange Peels | “Thank You”

“It’s the kind of song you might write if you thought you were dying.”

That’s how singer Allen Clapp described the track to his friends in the late days of 2019. After 15 days of fever, the mantra was on repeat in his head: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Sick for a month with pneumonia, and not sure about his chances of recovery, things were looking pretty dodgy.

Then he was hit by the news that his father was not long for this world, and that his mom had a new cancer diagnosis. When it rains...

The early days of 2020 rolled in, and the world was changing. Clapp’s dad lost his battle with cancer. Clapp and his wife Jill (bass) had invited their bandmate Gabriel Coan (drums) out for a recording session to try to bring some joy to the situation. As the three were in the studio, the murmurings of a pandemic started becoming real. It was unavoidable. Schools were closing, new orders were being issued by the hour.

The band brought everything they had to the session. And “Thank You” is first fruits. It could be their “Hey Jude.” It could be their most open-hearted song to date. A song of gratitude for life and love that started in a fever finally took on its full meaning, as well as full musical realization.

The session was supposed to be a “clean-up” session for an album project that was 90% finished. Instead, the band ended up composing an entire new album’s worth of material. Nobody wanted to say it, but finally it became obvious: They were working on a Double Album expected in fall of 2020.

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About | The Orange Peels | Square³ aka Square Cubed aka Square x 3

Becoming The Orange Peels:

Allen Clapp explains: It’s 1995. The musical landscape is littered with bands drowning in self-loathing, feigned rage, and a decidedly non-literal definition of irony. The timing couldn’t be worse to embark on recording sessions for a collection of earnest, melodic pop songs.

But it’s exactly what happened. Little did I know that the project would have me and my bandmates jumping between three different record labels and two producers, or that it would wind up being released under a band name I couldn’t have imagined.

Everything that happened in the next two years would redefine my concept of making music and what it meant to be in a band. It’s how and why we became The Orange Peels.

So why are we here in the early light of 2019, revisiting this album that came out in 1997? Three reasons.

Square Cubed?

First, the album never came out on vinyl, and we’ve always talked about the idea of eventually releasing it as a 12” LP. We sequenced the original release in two halves, and have always thought of it as having a Side A and a Side B (with “Spaghetti-O Western” as the end of the first side, and “She is Like a Rose” kicking off the second).

Second, there are two unreleased versions of the album that tell the story of how we got where we were going and how we became a band in the process (there’s a whole version of the record recorded on a 4-track, and there’s a whole version of the album we recorded and mixed in California and finished in 1996).

Third, we want to re-master the original tapes and collect all this stuff to make the ultimate edition of our debut album. Ultimately, it would be great to put all of this on vinyl and release it as a triple album—and if there’s enough interest, that could still happen—but realistically, we’re hoping to release a re-mastered version of the original album on heavy, 180-gram vinyl with a double CD holding all the bonus materials.

Ok, we know it’s not really Square³—it’s really more like Square x 3. Poetic license invoked.

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Thank You” by The Orange Peels is out now. Members of The Orange Peels are available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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The Orange Peels | Links


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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact


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