Oranges Band

The earliest recorded output of Baltimore-based, post-punk roadhogs, the Oranges Band, is collected on this anthology. In between moonlighting in the Thumbs and indie stars Spoon, lead vocalist Roman Kuebler has devoted great energy to furthering the cause of his own Oranges Band. Now an active force on the Lookout! roster, the band initially caught the ears of their hometown’s Morphius Records, who released The Five Dollars EP in April 2000 and then — following a hard year of touring by the OB in the U.S. — a second EP, entitled Nine Hundred Miles of Fucking Hell. Both of these hard-to-find releases have been reconstituted onto Two Thousands, a vibrant document of the OB’s energetic attack. While Kuebler’s vocals and phrasing bare more than a passing resemblance to Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto, his band’s music is far more slender than that of the DC pioneers. That said, there is still something muscular about the OB’s straight-ahead brand of rock’n’roll and Two Thousands — complete with a previously unreleased song and re-workings of three old favourites — provides an excellent overview of the band’s past as they prepare to release a new full-length on Lookout! in the new year.