Palebear Archives

October, 2005

Oranger
Crones

I heard some tracks from Oranger the other day, and I was wondering where I’d heard their name and songs before. A quick look online showed that not only were they the support band for Pavement in the late nineties, but also a stint opening for Elliott Smith in Europe.

Which is pretty amazing, because I don’t get the feel of either of those artists in Oranger’s music. Well, maybe they’re similar to Malkmus in the way the singing is a bit offhand, and the hooks could be a bit like Heatmmiser at times. They play some pretty fast and furious indie pop that is extremely hooky. Deliciously hooky. I’d say that they often remind me of the Austin band Subset in their repeating guitar lines and the setup of the choruses with the drums coming in.

Their song Crones is a great track that really does sound like a Subset track, maybe geared more toward Fountains of Wayne in fullness though. This is off their 2005 album called New Comes And Goes.

Continue reading “Oranger - Crones” …

by Tyranosaur | Comments Off

The Postal Service
Such Great Heights

I caught a lot of flack for dissing The Postal Service early on, being a long time DCFC fan myself. I just thought that it sounded like Gibbard’s voice added to an unknown “X” electronica band. However, with the recent blowup of DCFC (signing to Atlantic, touring with Coldplay, and becoming an OC-teenybopper fave of the month), I think I’ve softened my stance a bit on Postal Service, and consequently gotten a bit harsher on DCFC. And hey, let’s not forget about All Star Quarterback…

Anyhow, the world seems to love anything Gibbard touches right now. We’ve talked previously about “Such Great Heights” being used in movies as well as being covered by Iron and Wine (whose cover was consequently used in a movie itself). The advertising junkies can’t seem to get enough of the song - the latest pandering corpo-behemoth being Kaiser Permanente. “Such Great Heights” appears on The Postal Service’s full length album “Give Up”.

Continue reading “Postal Service - Kaiser Permanente Commercial” …

by Bryan | 6 Comments

Sea Ray
Revelry

I have the unfortunate habit of getting into a band right when they are either on a bit of a hiatus or right after they have broken up (like Masters of The Hemisphere, godamnit). When I went to the Sea Ray website it looked like they’d called it quits last year. Too bad, because I really liked that track Revelry off of their album Stars At Noon that I think was released back in 2003. Dreamy, melodic rock punctuated by cello and Farfisa(?) organ and propelled with driving force by excellent drums. The band started up in 1997 and there were six members: Anne Brewster (cello), Colin Brooks (drums), I-Huei Go (bass), Jeff Sheinkopf (keyboards), Jordan Warner (vocals, guitar), and Greg Zinman (guitar). I think I’ve actually heard this band’s name before bandied about at some show before, though I’d never heard their music until now. They’ve shared the stage with a HUGE number of indie luminaries.

Continue reading “Sea Ray - Revelry” …

by Tyranosaur | Comments Off

The Cardigans
Lovefool

Car commercials have always been interesting in their choice of music whether older or newer. Got a bit of a blast from the past the other day while watching TV when they started playing a song from The Cardigans during a 2006 Nissan Altima commercial. It was pretty much your typical car commercial, but I guess the song fit in all right. They played a good chunk of the actual song straight through the entire commercial.

Continue reading “The Cardigans - Nissan Altima Commercial” …

by Palebear | 1 Comment