Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Guitars and Pedals

Hey guys, this is Kirk. So, this last weekend I finally got to catch up on a few things that I have been meaning to do.  First off, I cleaned up and reorganized my pedal board.
It was a mess before, I didn't think to take a before picture.  Now it is all nice and organized.  It makes me happy lol.  And it should make shows go a little smoother since I was able to condense some of my setup.

So after I finished my pedal board, I worked on my Fender Jaguar.  I have been having problems with it causing major feedback and sounding very weak.  So, I figured out that raising the pickups might help.  When I finished that, I plugged it in, turned up the volume and rocked out.  It sounded much better. Hopefully you'll be able to see it a show pretty soon.

My last task was to set the intonation on my Gibson SG (Scott isn't the only one that has an SG).  I had already started messing with it a few months ago, so I knew I couldn't make it any worse, and I wanted to continue learning how to do it by actually doing it.  I know it's not perfect and a professionally could do a much better job, but I'd like to think it's pretty close.  So now that it is all set up, I may put it in my rotation of guitars I play at shows.  We'll see how it sounds at practice.

So that was some of what I did with my weekend.  Also, I should mention that all this was inspired by a website I recently found -  www.tonereport.com.  There is a "Do It Yourself" section that tells you how to improve and do almost anything to a guitar that you could want. Anyway, that's all for now.  Later y'all...

Saturday, April 26, 2014

THE ORANGE BLOG back online!



Hey everyone, we apologize for the lack of updates on THE ORANGE BLOG over the past few months but we've been super busy doing things outside the digital world. After another round of amazing shows around Texas we are headed to California at the end of May to film our first music video for the single, "Mr. Moneymaker"with music video producer and newly relocated Los Angeles transplant Dina De La Roche. We are departing on May 25th and will be sneaking in a very special show at The Silverlake Lounge in L.A. with our old friends Kill The Dance Floor! Our first full length record is finished and being mixed. We are sending it off for mastering in the coming weeks. A tentative record release date is looking like the first week of September. In the meantime we have booked dates  in Austin, Tyler, Ft. Worth, Dallas and of course Los Angeles over the course of the summer before it's release.

      We have discovered a great crew of bands while playing around Texas these past few months you should check out. There is a great band from Tyler called Babe that have an incredibly awesome and original sound. They remind me a bit of Animal Collective but with more guitar sustain.  We played with Babe at Click's in Tyler TX recently and they were nice enough to put my sister and I up for the night after an awesome party that lasted into the wee hours of morning. The drummer Dan let us crash on he and his roommate's couches after we spent the early hours of morning talking and sharing music. One of his roommates looked familiar and then it turned out that he was the old bassist for the band Eisley. That sense of old-school community that some musicians still have is really an awesome thing. It makes playing shows on the road so much more fun and exciting and we really appreciate it.  Not many bands are like that these days.  Babe will be performing with THE ORANGE in Dallas at Double-Wide July 5th. Don't miss them!

      So SXSW 2014 was kind of strange this year to say the least. After THE ORANGE played The Curtain Club early this March, our bass player Jason Jessup and his girlfriend Lisa were in a terrible car accident on the way home. Jason messed up his hand and almost lost all of his gear. It's really a miracle he wasn't seriously injured the car looked so awful. What an terrible way to end such an awesome action packed night. I swear it felt like the room was moving the crowd was so wild. Jason and Lisa were okay but needed rest. The next night we played acoustic at Lola's and opened for the legendary Ian Moore. Originally we were scheduled to play electric but with Jason still at the hospital  that wasn't really an option. We played our acoustic numbers that night and the crowd really seemed to enjoy the set.  After that gig I set off for Austin just to enjoy SXSW.  It was not exactly a planned trip and hotel rooms were probably sparse so I called my old friend William and stayed with him a few days. The night I arrived William and I were walking down 6th Street to East Austin when we saw an arsenal of firetrucks and ambulances race down the access road off 35. We wondered what all the chaos was and then later that night when we got back and flipped on the TV we saw the awful news. Two people killed on the scene and 24 others injured as a DWI offender broke through barricades and ran over SXSW concert goers by Stubb's and The Mohawk. It was unbelievable because William and I were thinking of heading that way right before it happened. We were just incredibly fortunate not to have been involved or even worse.  Over the next few days SXSW goers seemed to try and have a good time but something strange and terrible hung in the air which kept moods somewhat subdued. William introduced me to this awesome band from Philadelphia named Nothing and they had recently signed to Relapse Records. They were incredible. They sound like a mix of My Bloody Valentine and Poison The Well if could imagine that. Other highlights of SXSW was running into Damon Albarn (singer of Gorrilaz, Blur, ect.) and not saying anything! I wasn't sure if it was him or not! and then having a beer at the bar of the Driskal Hotel and William and I listening to a couple of journalists interview the lead guitarist of Gorillaz / bassist of Beady Eye less than 2 feet away. I wanted to say hi, but didn't get a chance these guys were firing questions off at him so fast! Oh well, it was cool to see him there anyway.  Overall we had a good time but next year THE ORANGE will be playing.

   After SXSW I came home and started working on the mixing process for our new record and somehow we all wrote three new songs ("Skin", "Push", "The Drift"). We played all three at both Three Links with Spacecamp and then again at Trees with Team for both bands CD Release parties. Both shows were a lot of fun and filled with surprise attendees that I haven't seen in years. That always makes me feel good.  Overall we feel these three new songs are really the future of THE ORANGE and are written in the best way possible, all members contributing. All three will be featured in our July 5th set at Double-Wide.

    So that's pretty much it from our side of the pond. I think we as a band are just ready to finally release this record and get things rolling later this year. Thanks for being so patient with us and for the absolutely awesome amount of support both fans and friends of the band shower on us. It really helps keep things moving. If you're in the Los Angeles area, come see our debut and maybe you can be in our new music video. The first round at Silverlake Lounge is on us!

-Scott
ORANGE HQ