Kapital Ink Magazine

Smashing Orange 1991 (Elephant Stone) Most welcomed reissue of overlooked nineties band’s formative works. Rob Montejo was Anton BEFORE there was Anton (right down to the prickery) – but that was then, this is now, and one thing’s certain is that, in the post-Jonestown universe, Smashing Orange’s music sounds more vital than ever. Like for the Jonestown, the Orange – who hailed from Delaware for Christ sakes – were heavily influenced by the Brit “Shoegazer” onslaught and like Anton, Rob wrote modern-day anthems laced with sexual anticipation and inner-heat that cascaded hypnotically over you like your lover’s flowing locks brushing across your naked body. “Only Complete in You,” “Any Further, It’s All Over,” “Sidewinder” and especially the IMMORTAL “My Deranged Heart” are all mantra excursions worthy of leading you to the mountain. On top of that, what I like about ‘em is, they do the whole “making the guitar talk” thing: Zep, Neil Young, the Stones, etc. Like the Jonestown, this would’ve been “classic rock” if the gutter culture hadn’t taken over. As it is, it’s a worthy reminder that there are always a few deviant souls out there who stand outside of history. Gotta love ‘em. —Joe S. Harrington (April 2006)

Smashing Orange 1991 (Elephant Stone) Upon hearing American shoegaze group Smashing Orange, one would assume Anglophonic mimicry and they'd be half-wrong. They embody the best elements of My Bloody Valentine, early Ride, Lush, and Slowdive, the only difference is their liberal infusion of American psychedelic rock (Red Crayola, 13th Floor Elevators, Golden Dawn). Naturally the vocals are buried in the mix, which is at once formulaic and ethereal (especially Sara Montejo's vocals). Rick Hodgson and Rob Montejo's guitars take center stage, swirling and smashing about, and Stephen Wagner's bass slips fuzzily underneath. Frankly, I find this retrospective more original and fresh now than in the early '90s, a cut above the aforementioned leading lights of the English shoegaze circuit. Mysteriously concise songs melodically wrapped in static gauze: Smashing Orange. —Joshua Gabriel (December 2005)

Smashing Orange 1991 (Elephant Stone) 1991 strikes me as an appropriate title in at least two ways: this compilation pulls together all the tracks recorded by Smashing Orange in that year (released on two United Kingdom mini albums), and these 12 songs ply the heady water's of 1991's other hippest guitar craze: shoegaze. Like their British cousins, Delaware's Smashing Orange delighted in layering their songs with droning washes of pedaled guitars. However, their American heritage of rock 'n' roll colors these songs with a distinctive garage rawk, made all the more so by mixing the vocals and rhythm section to the fore rather than burying them beneath the guitar haze as many of the Brit bands tended to do. This all makes for some very satisfying listening to a peculiarly American take on the sound. Why Smashing Orange aren't better known among their early nineties cohort is the sad story of crashing too soon on the rocks of major labledom (MCA in this case). Prime mover Rob Montejo went on to create Love American Style in the mid-nineties, and has more recently delivered some solo work. But his shining hour came 14 years ago, and at last we can hear it in all its glory. —Michael Meade (August 2005)

Smashing Orange 1991 (Elephant Stone) US shoegazers' early-'90s output As an antidote to the wealth of angular, '80s-inspired sounds around at the moment, there has benn a parallel increase in bands playing this kind of grandiose, majestic music, from the homegrown Engineers to their electronic European counterparts M83. Despite hailing from Delaware, Smashing Orange felt more at home in Britain's so-called Scene That Celebrates itself. Surprisingly, the music—more garage-rock influenced than that of their British counterparts—has stood the test of time. —Nathaniel Cramp (August 2005)

Smashing Orange 1991 (Elephant Stone) Dopo la ristampa dedicata a Reverb (BU #84), Elephant Stone ritorna sui fondali shoegazing per dissotterrare un’altra band che allo stesso modo della formazione di Cheltenham meritasse. Nel ’91, negli Stati Uniti, i segnali che in materia venivano dall’altra parte dell’oceano germogliavano floridi e l’anno dopo succosi sarebbero stati I dischi di Drop Nineteens, Lilys, Medicine, Swirlies, Belltower. Smashing Orange arrivarono prima e pubblicarono per la britannica Native due mini eccellenti, ‘Smashing Orange’ e ‘Above Ming Gardens’, e due 7” editi in patria, raccolti in questo antologico “1991”. Probabilmente la prima band Americana a meritare d’affiancarsi senza complessi d’inferiorità con le affini formazioni britanniche, gli Smashing Orange di Rob Montejo sfidavano temerari Catherine Wheel (My Deranged Heart, Collide), My Bloody Valentine (Strange Young Girls, Only Complete In You), Ride (Any Further, It’s All Over), Chapterhouse (Sidewinder). Inevitabilmente, per la brevità ella stagione, nei due album che seguirono, “The Glass Bead Game” e “No Return In The End”, si spostarono progressivamente su ruvidezze di amtrice tardo sixties che ne oscurarono il fulgore degli esordi. (7/8) —Paolo Bertoni (July 2005)

Smashing Orange 1991 (Elephant Stone) Ohio’s Elephant Stone Records has carved out for themselves a unique niche with its roster of modern shoegaze/psychedelic bands. The label has also fulfilled a great need in the music world by re-releasing formerly hard-to-find gems of the same subgenre as its current releases. Hot on the heels of Reverb’s Swirl, Elephant Stone now offers 1991, a retrospective of the legendary American shoegaze band Smashing Orange. It would not be a stretch to say that Smashing Orange was a pioneer of the shoegaze genre in North America, as the band perfected an intense and druggy blend of shoegaze at a time when the rest of their countrymen were endeared to MC Hammer and Milli Vanilli. Even just a cursory listen of 1991, which compiles songs from a variety of releases that were never widely available in USA, shows a visionary band whose intentional rawness is matched by the band’s ability to explode into impressive sonics that the early European pioneers of shoegaze would be proud to call their kin. Smashing Orange’s success lies in a variety of elements that combine to give the listener a proper baptism into the waves of early shoegaze. All of the elements are here: gorgeous washes of droning guitars that overtake the simple and catchy melodies, echoing delay, layered vocals (male/female, of course!), fluid and unobtrusive basslines, and unintelligible lyrics. This is not to say that the songs on 1991 are a dime a dozen, though. Rather, the band is able to craft their own sound with their aggressive approach to guitar playing and singing, and the band frequently combines driving rock with the shoegaze ideal to spectacular effects. For instance, “Just Before I Come (Believe Me)” features lead singer (and principal songwriter) Rob Montejo belting his vocals over layers of distorted guitar, chunky drums, and overall rock mayhem (while retaining the slightly dissonant chord structures and feedback of shoegaze). Likewise, “Felt Like Nothing”, with its quick rock tempo, melody grounded in classic 60’s rock, passionate vocals, and wah-wah guitar solo, showcases Smashing Orange’s affinity for rock. In fact, the wah-wah guitar makes its appearance on a number of tracks, helping to give the music a distinctly early 90’s feel to it (which, for this almost 30 year old writer, offers a strong sense of high school nostalgia…this is not a bad thing). On the opener, “My Deranged Heart” (one of the great song titles in music), the wah-wah supports a slow burning pop jam that teeters on the edge of exploding into a full-on psychedelic freak-out. The mark of a truly great piece of music is found in how strongly the emotions in the song are felt long after the recording is first heard, and according to this criteria, 1991, and “My Deranged Heart”, pass the test with flying colours. Another highlight on 1991 is the slow, druggy, eerie “Strange Young Girls”, with its effected guitars, disjointed vocals by Sara Montejo, and inharmonious tunings. The song is a masterful blend of the hazy mood brought by fellow early 90’s visionaries Slowdive mixed with a melody that, on the choruses, sounds like it could be lifted from a Loveless-era My Bloody Valentine song. “Strange Young Girls” is beautiful and weird, and being perhaps the highlight of this impressive band’s catalogue, is worth the price of 1991 alone. However, with other songs like the slick “Cherry Rider”, with its pulsating drums and moaning guitars, the violent noise pop of “Collide”, which combines roaring and overwhelming sonics with a catchy song melody, and the dreampop of “Whenever”, with its Edge like guitar lines and My Bloody Valentine like whirring background sounds, 1991 wins the listener over with its consistent quality and shows Smashing Orange to be a talented and versatile group of musicians. All in all, Elephant Stone has done it again, somehow finding an amazing band that up until now, no one has thought to revisit. With strong and catchy songs, and an approach to music making that is bold and innovative for its time, 1991 is sure to please listeners in 2005 just as much as these songs pleased European listeners in 1991. And, while the production values of many of the songs do sound somewhat dated, these only add to the charm of 1991 After all, Smashing Orange DID record in the early 1990’s, in a subgenre that was just beginning to feel its way into the music world…that the band would combine this new sound with older sounds of rock is interesting to listen to, and hints to some of the music that was to be made later on (most notably the Brit-Rock of bands like Oasis in the mid-90’s). And, the distinctly ‘90’s of 1991 sound takes nothing away from the passion that is still plainly evident in Smashing Orange’s music. Indeed, the songs still sound pure, fresh, and exciting. This freshness and even newness that characterizes 1991 may be the best thing that it has going for it! 1991 will please old and new shoegazers alike, as well as anyone interested in rock set to an innovative groove. (4/5) —Brent Diaz (July 2005)

Smashing Orange 1991 (Elephant Stone) Ah, 1991. The memories...I was in law school. A man named Bush was president. And a legion of bands inspired by The Jesus And Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine mixed solid psych-pop songs with oodles of guitars, effects and feedback to make a lovely racket. Smashing Orange were skilled in shoegazing. This disc compiles a bunch of the band's recordings from ‘91. The band justified its existence with the astounding "Sugar", where they find a great melodic lead guitar line and ride it for all its worth. The Reid brothers would have been proud to come up with a track this rocking and catchy, sounding like a hazier and louder House Of Love. The song has about three separate hooks, and it could have just settled for that memorable guitar line. Right after that is a track that's pure rocking fury. "Cherry Rider" has an intensity to it that is reminiscent of Swervedriver, though Smashing Orange sounds a bit more ethereal. Guitarists Rob Montejo and Rick Hodgson match each other note for note, playing with a great deal of conviction. Like a lot of great shoegazing music, a groove gets laid down from time to time, and drummer Tim Supplee and bass player Stephen Wagner are up to the task on "Any Further, It's All Over", which nods slightly towards Madchester. Very slightly. While not every one of these 12 tracks is a gem, there are plenty on here. Fans of the shoegazer style will want to check this out. —Mike Bennett (July 2005)

Smashing Orange 1991 (Elephant Stone) Smashing Orange were an American band that fell under the spell of England’s shoegazing boom in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Although they never hit the tremendous heights, or had their time in the spotlight, like their English influences (My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Chapterhouse, Slowdive and The Telescopes), they released a slew of singles and EP’s in 1991, collected here for the first time, which is worth tracking down if you’re a diehard fan of shoegazer music. All of the great shoegazing touchstones are present on this retrospective: swarms of guitar effect-pedals, rocking-yet-danceable beats and lyrics which are thankfully obscured by swirls of noise. While Smashing Orange never managed to carve out their own niche, when the band was at their majestic best (“Only Complete With You”, “Not Too Much To See” and “Whenever”) they could stand side by side with the shoegazing greats. After these 1991 recordings the band released a few poorly received full length albums (including one for MCA records) which abandoned most of their shoegazer leanings and concentrated more on a hard-rock 60’s sound. They broke up in the mid 1990’s in the face of public indifference, but the story doesn’t end there. According to lead singer Rob Montejo’s website (www.robmontejo.com) he’s fronting a new band, which has yet to be named that’s “Cool f*ckin' indie rock with a dash of grunge and gaze”. Sign me up. —David Mansdorf (July 2005)

Smashing Orange 1991 (Elephant Stone) The cover photo of ‘1991’ shows Smashing Orange indulging in a spot of full on shoe-gazing live! at the Camden Falcon. This sort of thing was a popular activity in the early nineties. I know because I lived (more or less) at the Falcon at that time. Never saw the Smashies though, I was probably down the Underworld or up the Powerhaus or somewhere that night. Anyway, what we have here is a twelve track retrospective of a band that probably made a lot more sense in 1991’s London (swilling cider with Mikki from Lush, arm-wrestling with that tosser from Revolver, stumbling over Damon Albarn’s inert frame on the dance-floor at Syndrome) than they did in their native Delaware. This would explain why these tracks were only ever released in the UK, but fret not Yanks! thanks to Elephant Stone Records tireless campaign to unearth all things slightlydelic you can now fill yer boots with home-grown blissed out, fuzzed up, ennui laced pop, albeit fourteen years late. Album opener is olde dancefloor (or should that be ‘sway ethereally floor’) fave ‘My Deranged Heart’ which ticks all the right gazey boxes; shimmering tambourine? yep; distant, lackadaisical vocals? yep; pealing, circling chords played through a selection of reverbtastic effects? ho yes. At certain points the guitar starts sounding like a duck trapped in a Hoover as the old wah/fuzz pedals get some heavy-duty use. Ride’s bumper book of lyrical emptiness is rifled for lines like, ‘Summer dreams have died’. Basically if you’ve ever enjoyed swishing your fringe and plucking at your over-stretched jumper to the likes of Chapterhouse, Swervedriver, Ride et al then here’s another one for your collection. Of course all those bands were desperate to be My Bloody Valentine, but all lacked the crazed genius of Kevin Shields and thus all fell pitifully short of MBV’s epic transports of ecstasy. This didn’t stop Smashing Orange from trying, mind, as can be noted in the full-on MBV homage of ‘Only Complete In You’ with its queasily phasing guitar and the sound of 1000 radios broadcasting from 1967 snatched out of the ether. It’s kind of like the MBV you can take home to mother. As is ‘Just Before I Come (Believe Me)‘ complete with ‘Isn’t Anything’ style ooer! bracketed title and er, entire sound. ‘Sidewinder’ does the Kev ‘n’ Bilinda his ‘n’ hers duet thing between Smashing main man Rob Montejo and his kid sister Sara. The spindly-limbed boy/girl dynamic helps kick these songs a notch higher up the interesting-ometer, like ‘Any Further, It’s All Over’ which rattles and squeals frantically behind brother and sister sweetly duetting. Then there’s the sublimely spaced ‘Strange Young Girls’ with poor wee Sara lisping ‘Please kill me’ through an opiated haze. No wonder she wasn’t allowed out of the States when this band of sister-tormenting reprobates hit the UK. ‘Felt Like Nothing’ introduces a snappy slice of garagey crunch to proceedings several millennia before the Dandy Warhols thought to try it; and ‘Sugar’ is fizz pop perfect, guaranteed to keep you up there swinging that fringe straight after Rides’ ‘Chelsea Girls’ has had you shuffling round gleefully. Dipping, swooning, gliding, buzzing, this is the crystallised sound of distant adolescence, perfect for hazy, disconnected days. R.R.R.G: Arching treasure heart (July 2005)

High Bias Magazine

Smashing Orange 1991 (Elephant Stone) Smashing Orange was a minor band in the early 90s alt.rock universe, with a couple of LPs to its credit. 1991, however, argues that the band's best work came before that; the album collects tracks originally released in Great Britain, where the American quintet found a more welcome reception for its Ride/My Bloody Valentine-style psychedelia. This kind of shoegazer dreampop (or whatever pet name you have for it) can be languid to the point of tedium, but not in Smashing Orange's hands. "Felt Like Nothing," "Cherry Rider" and "Any Further, It's All Over" boast an aggression and drive that recall 60s garage rock more than the dreamy waves employed by so many of the band's contemporaries. It also helps that leader Rob Montejo's songwriting favors substance over sound. There's nothing new here, but fans of Swervedriver, early Brian Jonestown Massacre and the angrier side of Spacemen 3 will definitely see colors. —Michael Toland (June 2005)

Smashing Orange 1991 (Elephant Stone) If you don't listen to another record this year, you'd be a fool to pass up on this one. Sadly, during Smashing Orange's short-lived existence, many did, which probably contributed to their almost instant demise. '1991' is a collection of the band's two singles and two EPs that were recorded in - yes, you guessed - 1991, and despite the fact that these records are almost a decade-and-a-half old, they still sound fresh and invigorating, standing the test of time admirably particularly alongside the new generation of ethereal noisemongers like Amusement Parks On Fire and Mainline. Initially the brainchild of New York based singer/guitarist Rob Montejo, the Smashing Orange story is littered with traumas and setbacks, none more so than the fact that their only visit to the UK was marred due to Montejo's younger sister and co-vocalist Sara being refused entry into the country on account of not being able to obtain a work permit because she was still at school. Still, the 12 songs here are a joy to behold and merely illustrate what a great loss Smashing Orange were. The stoned tremor of 'My Deranged Heart' and perplexing feedback waltz of 'Just Before I Come (Believe Me)' echo the wretched torment of some of Jason Pierce's more recent works, while 'Any Further, It's All Over' is the most incongruous "love" song ever written using tremelo and wah-wah, more by way of the fact that it's narrators are brother and sister, yet when Sara Montejo coos "just follow my footsteps across the sand" it does things to the hairs on the back of one's neck usually reserved for...exactly. As well as the more errant, pre-post-rocking elements of their repertoire, Smashing Orange also had a pop sensibility that would probably have been sneered at by most of their contemporaries back then but the sing-along-a-buzzsaw genius of 'Sugar' and twisted melon(choly) salad of 'Not Very Much To See' undoubtedly paved the way for people like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Ambulance Ltd to take that final radio-friendly step in recent years. Sadly, as so often happens, the real innovators tend to get forgotten about. Well not any longer it seems. '1991' is razorsharp dream pop at its best, and rather than queueing alongside the rest of the bores for 'X&Y', stay one step ahead and purchase this instead. You know it makes sense. (4 1/2 Stars) —Dom Gourlay (May 2005)

Smashing Orange 1991 (Elephant Stone) While most American groups during the early nineties were caught up in the craze of Alternative rock and the eventual arrival of Grunge to the forefront of pop culture, Smashing Orange were more transfixed on what was happening on the other side of the pond: the evolution of the sound later deemed "shoegaze". Setting out to emulate the sounds of Lush and Ride the group released several singles and EPs in 1991, receving press accolades in the UK but failing to make a large impact stateside. Compiled here for the first time they don't make a cohesive album but they have aged well, with shades of Mazzy Star, garage rock and emo (before it was called such) peeking out in between guitar washes and the trudging rhythm section. It's an interesting document on the American interpretation of shoegaze and that alone should warrant inquiry with those keen on the style, and diehard fans will be pleased to have all of the early singles finally reissued and remastered on one disc. But listeners expecting to find a treasure trove of groundbreaking proportions may be slightly let down at the group's lack of innovation. (3 Stars) —Rob Theakston (May 2005)

Smashing Orange 1991 (Elephant Stone) Back in 1991 (can’t believe it was nearly 15 years ago !) lots of bands with varied sounds got called “indiepop.” Taking the indie rock tag that bands like Sebadoh and Pavement ran with and taking a step in a ...um, friendlier direction. Bands like Velocity Girl, Small Factory, Tsunami, Unrest and yup, even Delaware’s Smashing Orange were all labeled “indie pop.” This bunch definitely had more in common with what was happening in the UK (Lush, Ride, etc.) than any of the ebullient American popsters. They came armed with lots of fx pedals and a handful of terrific songs and they were yet another band that I thought would be long forgotten ‘til Ben from Elephant Stone unearthed these 12 songs, at least 4 of which coming from their ABOVE MING GARDENS ep that I’ve held near and dear all these years. This includes all of their long out-of-print singles and it sounds beautiful. Vocalist/guitarist Rob Montejo definitely had the Mick Jagger pouty-lip thing going on but he was the perfect, detached singer and the rest of the band were superb foils. Don’t let this slip by and if you can ever find their (OOP as well) first full-length (THE GLASS BEAD GAME) pick it up. It’s fine as well but this material on 1991 is their best. —Tim Hinely (May 2005)

Smashing Orange 1991 (Elephant Stone) 1991 get's the prestigious Parasol Five-Star Rating.

Smashing Orange: Destined For A Peel Session? By Steve Lamacq (June 1991) Some bands just seem destined for a crap time, cursed by that Great Lawmaker in the sky. Smashing Orange are one of those groups. Perplexed persons are wandering around the Camden Falcon looking for singer Sara, not realising that—remarkably enough—she was too young to qualify for a UK work permit, and so had to stay in the States. The four members of Smashing Orange who have made the Transatlantic journey, meanwhile, are probably wondering why they bothered: guitarist Rick Hodgson and drummer Tim Supplee have got on the wrong side of the constabulary via several pints of ale, a camera and a Jaguar in Swiss Cottage; a proposed support with Bleach in London mysteriously fell through the day before the gig; and as for technical traumas, heck… "We went through Hell to get this converter for our distortion pedals," growls bassist Steve Wagner. "We went to about 16 electrical stores, and then this shop owner tried to pull the wool over our eyes—he sold us the wrong thing and then refused to refund us. So we caused havoc until he finally gave in…" Our crooked capital is a far cry from the band's home town of Wilmington, Delaware. "You don't hear much about it," muses singer Rob Montejo. "All the bands there are terrible, basically. But it's kinda cool, because it's directly between Washington DC and New York." Here's the crux of the musical matter: which way do Smashing Orange jump? Towards the hardcore/Dischord scene of DC, or the sloppy artpop of NY? Rob is in no doubt about the direction of the Smashing Orange firing range: "Well, we haven't actually played Washington yet," he mumbles, apologetically. Smashing Orange have been compared to Galaxie 500, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth and, less logically, Mudhoney. True, strands (or, as the Oranges would have it, 'flavours') of each band run through their sound, but listening to their eponymously-titled debut album (out now on Native Records), it's difficult to nail the sources down amidst the fuzzed-up waves of lazy pop noise: "All of our songs are in the same flavour, but they all go in their own direction," decides Steve, sagely. One thing that Smashing Orange are clear about is, no matter how closely they resemble bands on vinyl, the live experience has got to be several staircases above the current penchant for "distant, stand-there-and-don't-do-anything" broody performances. Rob rants about the 'magic' and 'surreal bluntness' of gigging. Rick is crashingly more down-to-earth. "When I got my first guitar, I vowed that, whatever project I was in, if people are coming to see us and paying money I'd want them to go away saying, "Damn, they really ARE into it!." You'd better believe them. Smashing.

Smashing Orange By Dave Jennings (June 1991) Though they're in the UK for the first time, Smashing Orange feel right at home. Their eponymous debut mini-album contains a kind of swirling, dreamy guitar pop that sounds very British, and has prompted lots of comparisons with Galaxie 500. When Lush visited the USA last year, Smashing Orange were a natural choice as support in their home territory of New York State. "I thought we'd break through here and then bring it over to America," admits singer/guitarist Rob Montejo. In fact, though, the folks back home have taken to the taste of Orange with some alarcity. So much so that Smashing Orange were recently voted Best Unsigned Band by the readers of College Music Journal, an influential trade magazine distributed across the USA to campus radio stations and specialist indie record shops. The band's following has expanded rapidly, taking in not just the expected indie fans but also, according to Rob, "a lot of older people who were into The Chocolate Watch Band or The Electric Prunes in the Sixties which is great. I love a lot of old psychedelic music myself." Meanwhile, back in Britain, the Sheffield-based Native label heard the band's demos and considered them exciting enough to be released unaltered. Hence the new mini-album. "These are the demo tapes we sent out to all the companies," confirms Rob. "Native just wanted it the way it was—we didn't remix it or anything. If we had known that it wasn't going to be just a demo, we might have spent more time on it, but we still like it. It captures the way we were last year." The record features a sizeable contribution from Rob's photogenic sister Sara, who's just turned 16. She takes lead vocals on a couple of songs and can be heard in the background throughout. Sara's appeared on stage with the band in the States, but missed out on their first trip to Europe." "I like the idea of having the male and female forces in the music, the yin and yang, but recording and live are two different things," explains Montejo. "Sara's never been a permanent member of the band. She is a very young girl, and I don't want to tell her what she should be doing. I want to do this, but I don't know if she does." Maybe Rob didn't want to put some of his latest lines into his kid sister's mouth. Smashing Orange's music has grown noisier and raunchier lately; the current live show is a loud and libidinous affair. They may flirt with baggydom on the mini-album, but on stage it's extremely clear that Smashing Orange aren't about to slip into any kind of tranquillised dance trance." "There's always been a sexual hint there," says Rob. "Now we're more into soulful sexual lyrics and dreamy sexual lyrics! I think a lot of the soul's missing in the new music. I'm sick of all the faraway vocals; the hip thing is to be distant and just stand there. We want to move people! What we're trying to do is to start with basic rock 'n' roll but incorporate weird, trippy elements. Our music's not normal."

Smashing Orange By Clive Gabriel (June 1991) The latest darlings of the Camden Falcon only hit these shores last week. Nominally college drop-outs (we'll gloss over the guitarist's graduation in marketing!), they all work in a record store in Delaware, where, only five days before their first gig, they also found their knock-Mark Gardener-dead-sex-symbol singer. A cruel brilliant sun was agitating my already throbbing hangover as I reached Swiss Cottage to meet the band in their hotel. So there was only one thing to do, find a pub before 3pm and show 'em what Newcastle Brown tastes like. By the time they dragged themselves out of bed I took pity on these four Americans; they looked worse than I did. So much for clean-cut college kids! I let them stick to their familiar Carlsberg but as soon as they spotted my bottle of Newcastle Brown the whole sordid story came out. "Me and Tim got followed by the police last night for over an hour. We'd found this party in like, a church (?), and everyone was walking around with those big bottles of brown stuff. It was our first night in London and we didn't have a clue where we were. When we asked this cop how to walk to Swiss Cottage he just laughed at us. Then when we finally got to our apartment I felt this hand on my shoulder and heard these guys with walkie talkies. I couldn't even see straight. They thought we'd stolen the keys to the apartment and there were these police wagons and officers started to search our jackets. I dunno about you but when you speak in a strong English accent I can't understand a thing you say…" Exhausting the innocents' abroad bemusement over London's laws on licensing, policing and taxis, we now had a vast common ground for discussion. Music, or more importantly, My Bloody Valentine. Working under the huge shadow that Isn't Anything created has become the norm for countless bands from Oxford and Reading but now its influence seems to have reached the US. "Everybody wants to be My Bloody Valentine it seems," Rob relents, predicting my next question - Isn't Anything? "Yeah, we all like that album, but we'd sound like that whether or not there was a Ride, MBV or Swervedriver. When I saw Ride, I saw their equipment and thought, "Oh shit, they've got the same set up as us!" In the huge US college scene, Smashing Orange strive for identity. The big sellers can be rather obvious: Wonderstuff, They Might Be Giants, etc. But comparisons to Galaxie 500 won't have done them any harm. Copies of their first single "My Deranged Heart" have sold well, although recession-bound indie kids need not fork out four quid for the imported seven inch. Native Records have now released a mini-LP which includes the single. The bands biggest live gig to date was their support slot with Lush at the Marquee in New York. Their first date over here at the Falcon created the kind of secret excitement that Ride, Galaxie 500 and Cranes all managed to achieve in the smelliest back room in Camden. With the appaling state of affairs in the US, new bands even need their own lawyers. To add tot his, kids happily playing in bars doing Jesus and Mary Chain songs generates no particular craving for new talent. Smashing Orange was shocked at the immediacy of the reaction they received on these shores. But just the week before, Curve had played their first biggie at ULU in London. An A&R guy from an American company, Interscope, came over in desperation. I discovered this tuned-in chap to be Nigel Harrison, the original bassist from Blondie no less! So, once again the Brits are leading the field. With the present state of play in the US, bands like the Mary Chain would have never risen fromt heir Glasgow basement. So why the name Smashing Orange then? Rob: "I've always liked the word orange and there's just something about the way you English say smm-ashing. It's cool." To me it sounds like the name of a drug, there's definitely some underyling humour. Y'know I Am Kurious Orange was named after a sixties porn film I Am Kurious Yellow. Is it Sex and Drugs Rock 'n Roll? "Totally," they blank me in unison. Rick (guitarist and Sub Pop fiend) leaves us with an interesting observation: "The latest drugs craze in New York is to name drugs after movies. Like, stay away from Godfather III, man!!!" Smashing Orange, ripe and juicey in time for summer. Suck in the sun.