The Juxe: Discography - Oranger

Oranger was an indie-rock/pop/neo-psychedelia group out of San Francisco, from around 1997 to 2006. Great hooks, great harmonies, and some interesting and off-kilter melodic elements made them one of my favorite bands of the time.

The closest thing they had to a “hit” was this cover of Mr. Sandman, as featured in the video game, Stubbs the Zombie.

It’s a fine cover, and people who played that game tend to love it, but it’s nowhere near their best work.

Below are some favorites of mine from their full discography.

Eggtooth from Doorway to Norway (1998)

The earworm organ part and trading off on lead vocal made this the first track on their debut album to really grab me.

Suddenly Upsidedown from The Quiet Vibration Land (2000)

The album title comes from a Who song, it was recorded on a tape machine once owned by the Beach Boys, and it features a number of Beatle-esque touches. This album definitely showed their influences throughout. This song has a bit of an ELO influence and features a flanged guitar sound, bopping beat, and some great harmonies.

The Writer (H.F.) from Shutdown the Sun (2003)

Hard to pick a favorite from this album. I went with this song to mix it up a little. There is something of a southern twang to it with some nice pedal steel guitar thrown in. And, again, great harmonies. I think it’s about a guy who kills himself? That’s either really obvious, or I just made it up. I’m not sure.

Circle Gets the Square from From the Ashes of Electric Elves (2003)

Packaged with the previous album was a 34 track collection of b-sides, live songs, and other unreleased material, including this song, one of my all-time favorites. The cascading vocalizing at 1:25 just always gets me.

Sukiyaki from New Comes and Goes (2005)

For their final album, they ditched some of their sunnier psychedelic influences for a crunchier power-pop sound with some Weezer and Pavement influences. And, while I’m usually a little bummed when a band I like changes up their sound, in this case they went from one genre I like to another, and they nailed it. This is perhaps their most solid album top to bottom.

Here is Sukiyaki, a great 2 minutes indie pop song with driving piano and drums.