Wall of Orange
Dallas, TX | Established. Jan 01, 2016 | SELF
Music
Press
Staff Rating: Crank this to 9.5 of 11
*Editor's Pick
Genre:
Atmospheric rock
Sounds Like:
The Verve, Band of Horses, Eyes On The Shore
Wall of Orange's sound truly fills the room. Their aura exudes spacious floating concepts coupled with some very thought provoking lyrics. Their self-titled debut consists of eight inspiring tracks that infuse a ton of positive energy. The album is the brainchild of Dallas Texas native, Gary Parks, who has an infectious full voice. A voice that reminds us very much of Kevin Cronin from REO Speedwagon. While not as nasally Parks does possess a very heartwarming vibe that we found quite daydream inducing. The album contains the perfect blend of acoustics that become the backbone to house elements of atmospheric with hints of shoegaze.
If we could only download two tracks which would they be?
That is a tough one indeed. All tracks are so goddam consistent in sticking with the spacious vibe. "View From a Broken Couch" definitely feels like a lost track of an REO Speedwagon album. The lyrics echo “play another record that you love” and just has this heartfelt nostalgic feel to it. "New Medicine" is another one of our favorites. The track gets a bit more psychedelic than others and you can feel the spacious Verve influence. Darker tones to this one, but meandering blissful fun indeed.
If you enjoy Wall Of Orange, what other album would we recommend you grab?
Take a gander at Eyes On the Shore and their album A Golden Blue. A bit more of a coastal vibe, but just as spacious and calming. Both have very charismatic lead singers and should accompany one another in your music library.
What adult beverage do we recommend accompany this album?
We recommend the refreshing Scotch Cobbler, soothing and just the right blend of strength and comfort.
Recipe:
2 ounces scotch whiskey
1/4 ounce orange curacao or Cointreau
2 dashes simple syrup
What are our final final thoughts?
Your music collection needs this album. Wall of Orange possess a freshness often lacking in today’s rock music. Parks has quite the vision and its one that will take you on quite the calming journey. While the music feels boundless, Wall of Orange stay within their comfort zone and deliver a very cohesive album with eight very well thought out tracks. Well deserving of an Editor’s Pick and some space in your music library. - 12/5/2016 - Rotation11
Do you remember when music sounded lush? What exactly do I mean by that you may ask? I came of age at the tail end of the last gasp of the musical hegemony that was vinyl. It was still king and was the primary format in which music was released. It was a time when stereos were full systems. Amplifiers, equalizers, receivers, turn table, cassette/CD player, sub-woofers, tweeters (Not the users of Twitter for those confused), three foot tall floor speakers, etc. These HIFI stereos were monsters! A high end system could easily take up a good portion of an angst laden teenager’s bedroom. And the mere volume of sound that these systems could push out…I mean seriously, if it was cranked up to the upper registers of their limits, at times you could hear the music from blocks (plural) away. It was not unusual back 20 or 25 years ago a kid home alone, blasting his favorite rock artist, would lead to a knock on the door by Johnny Law. This was invariably due to a noise complaint from a cantankerous old WW II Vet living three or four blocks away.
Wall of Orange from Dallas, TX reminds me through their self titled release that sometimes I wish I still had my old sound system that I ditched years ago because it was such a pain in the ass to set up every time that I moved. Honestly, Wall of Orange’s self titled debut release reminds me of a day when the music was expansive, huge sounding, rich & plush. The sound can be best described as nods to Shoegaze vocals, Psyche-Pop electronica, combined with luxuriant fuzzed out alternative guitar. The album is expertly layered, with beautifully nuanced soundscapes.
The group was born as a collection of songs via Gary Parks, an indie movie and commercial music producer and former member of Dallas space rock legends The Tomorrowpeople. After an extensive demo process, recording for the eight songs that would become the debut album began in the Spring of 2016. Parks enlisted longtime musical friends Danny Rix on bass guitar and Matt Hunt on drums and recording began at Pure Evil Studios. With the addition of guitarist Jay Spence and multi-instrumentalist/backing vocalist Aaron Long, the line-up was completed and rehearsals began for a regional tour in the Fall of 2016.
The initial track that introduced me to the group is opening track “Sweetest Blue”. With deep, distorted synthesizer and guitar transitioning to the spacious vocals of Parks this track definitely at times has the familiar echoes and flavors of perhaps The Jesus Mary Chain, Smashing Pumpkins or My Bloody Valentine, but with a deeper bottom end, and a fuller contemporary sound. Other strong tracks include the driving bass line, trance-like synth tome of “Small Hour Crimes”. There is the beautifully composed and delicate, acoustic guitar-centric love song “Little Destroyer”. Combining the best of all elements from the entire album is the dynamic and gloriously optimistic “New Medicine”, this song is a keeper folks.
For an initial release, Wall of Orange has created a barrage of a magnificent sound, taking the best of Shoegaze, Synth-Pop, distorted guitar, and Alternative Rock, marking a truly unique new standard to be admired. In a word, this album is dazzling. - Brody Ramone's Dirty Glitter
"Wall Of Orange "Sweetest Blue" reminds me very much of Nothing's Guilty of Everything album in regards to its shoegaze tendencies and overall warming feel, which basically means its absolutely stunning.
The first release from Wall of Orange's self-titled debut album, "Sweetest Blue" proves every bit as sweet as what it's title suggests. "Sweetest Blue" is dreamy shoegaze a'la My Bloody Valentine, encompassing all the best bits of shoegaze and a melody to boot." - 1ForThePeople
Wall of Orange, “Sweetest Blue”
Orange seems to be a popular color in local music. First there was simply The Orange, and now Wall of Orange has taken a shining to the same hue. I can’t say I know much about the band, but I can say that “Sweetest Blue” is an intriguing song. Some might say it’s unusually dark for pop music, and it could equally be argued that the band is unusually pop centered for such dark moody music. Either way, score one for both the colors orange and blue. - Ghost of Blind Lemon
"I’m a sucker for anything that remotely reminds me of Lagwagon. Wall of Orange has an anthemic shoegaze rumble with Joey Cape-y vox. Lovely." - Glo-Fi Must Die
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
Wall of Orange was born in Dallas, Texas in 2015 as a collection of songs written by Gary Parks, an indie film and commercial music composer and member of Dallas space rock legends The Tomorrowpeople. Heavily influenced by Shoegaze and Neo-Psychedelic giants of the ‘90s such as The Verve, My Bloody Valentine and early Smashing Pumpkins, Parks set about looking for a sound that would encompass both his love for layered, dreamy soundscapes and the pop
sensibilities he had honed during his years in the TV and Film Industry.
After an extensive demo process, recording for eight songs that would become the debut album began in the Spring of 2016. Parks enlisted longtime musical friends Danny Rix on bass guitar and Matt hunt on drums and recording at Pure Evil studios continued into the summer, with
final mixing taking place during July and early August. While final polish was taking place on the mixes, video production for the first single, “Sweetest Blue” began. Mastering for the record was done by Carl Saff in Chicago and on August 24th the album and video were released.
With the addition of guitarist Jay Spence and keyboardist Aaron Long, the line up was completed and rehearsals began in the Fall of 2016 for the band's first tour. With the help of US and UK
radio airplay including KXT 91.7, which has been recognized as the public Triple-A FM music station with the largest national audience, as well as a very active social media presence, Wall of Orange continues to gain a following worldwide. Video production for the second single from the album, "Small Hour Crimes" is currently underway with a planned release of December 2016. A vinyl release of the debut album is planned for February 2016.
The name Wall of Orange was born of the enduring musical vision of Gary Parks and his tendency to "hear colors". As Parks is a relentless workaholic and passionate artist, writing for the bands second album has already begun and is shaping up to be bigger, longer and more epic than the first. Stay tuned.
Band Members
Links
