_OC's servant lights their ciggies_Hand-wringing idiots, cease and desist! Stop crying out for a world without record companies! For millions of bands this is _already_ a world without record companies. And it sucks for them! It sucks to be shit! Stop kissing Radiohead’s collective ass for releasing a poor quality download, charging $40 for their CD, and then signing a deal with a record company anyway (yeah, real men of the people!).You want a vital band _truly_ working outside the system? Then, here ya go -- English psychedelic rockers, Orange Can. At the turn of the century, they released a couple of albums of “sumptuous, beautiful music” (Time Out). This was before the music industry chewed them up and spat them out. And when I say Orange Can were chewed up and spat out, I mean they got hooked on prescription drugs, developed mental health issues, and fucked things up royally. Appropriately enough, though, they were signed to Regal Records. Radiohead? Total lightweights in comparison. Check that name, again: Orange Can. Evocative, isn’t it? Poetic, even. Wrong and wrong! It sounds like a soft drink marketed for dullards, by dullards! How can anyone expect to sell a record with a name like Orange Can? They can’t and they don’t! Now, that’s a hardcore fuck-the-system stance, right there.Then there’s the music. Radiohead’s songs are made on the very latest recording equipment. Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke nerd it up good style on all manner of futuristic Japanese gear. Then, as soon as the music is released, it’ll be remixed by the ponciest remixers imaginable. Well, that’s just for fairies!Try recording with 60s equipment, in your own flat, with your brother. Ever tried to “create” anything with your brother? I can’t even look at mine without wanting to ram his head through a wall. Orange Can are James and Jason Aslett – brothers. Does Thom work with his brother, Andy, from the defunct band Unbelievable Truth? No, he doesn’t. Why? ‘Cos Thom is a L-I-G-H-T-W-E-I-G-H-T.Now, take the style of music. Radiohead write little la-di-da pop songs with bleeps and bloops stuck on. On third album Exit Chasing, Orange Can make the type of balls-out music for your motorcycling uncle, before he swapped his Harley for a Nissan Micra because “the wife didn’t think it was safe anymore, what with us having kids now.” What the hell am I talking about? I’m talking about swampy, psychedelic, funky, sexy songs, with the odd electrifyingly melodic guitar stomper thrown in for good measure. All joined together in one big gang bang of a jam.Songs that are not _about_ drugs, but sound like they’re _on_ drugs. Songs on drugs, eh? Now, where would you get that these days. Not on a Radiohead album, that’s for sure. They’re singing about kissing girls now! Radiohead have reached puberty, everybody! Don’t expect to get near the bathroom any time soon because Thom Yorke is playing with his— Okay! Back to the music, again! What do Orange Can sing about? Haven’t got a clue, mate. Exit Chasing is like listening to somebody tripping on LSD while chewing a big bag of toffees. Sample lyrics (I think) from 10 minute opus, Fortified: “I’m freezing, man, it’s so cold. Does this place ever get warm?”, “King of freakies, hello!”, and some stuff about unicorns.But what a song! Or should I say 15 songs stuck together. Fortified is a drunk meandering his way home after night on the tiles, traveling o’er hills and dales before eventually arriving back where he started, and just collapsing in a heap on the ground. Hardcore!Apes and Right-hand Man are rollicking mod work-outs born and bred in London. Music to watch Cockney cops chase Cockney gangsters down a Cockney street in a bad (is there any other kind?) Guy Richie film by.So Bright 2 is a brooding, moody mental patient refusing to take his medicine...before throwing the water cooler through the window and escaping to freedom! It's that exciting! Sick of being told what to do by your boss, a demanding spouse, your mom and dad, Bono? Then sing its key line, “I don’t have to swallow/what is in your cup”, and sing it loud. By God, I needed to hear it after this week. A week where I wanted to strangle a colleague but somehow restrained myself. After hearing this song I have now resolved to go ahead and strangle him. That is the power of Orange Can’s music, my friends! The power to strangle people and to hell with the consequences!Back to the music, once more. Eyes Wide is another cracker. A gorgeous, mellow Pink Floyd-style song which was on my lips when I awoke this morning. Christ, I love when that happens.So, is Exit Chasing an unqualified success, or what?Well, if you measure success in terms of MySpace friends (341), records sold (guestimate: 534), or gigs lined up in 2008 (0), then Exit Chasing is not a success. Although, if you see success as releasing innovative music that challenges the very notion of what a song can be, Exit Chasing is also unsuccessful. But if you measure success, admittedly rather narrowly, as releasing the best Orange Can album ever, I’m afraid Exit Chasing also falls short of the mark (sophomore album Home Burns just shades it.) However…if success to you is to the make the best album possibly with drug problems and mental health issues on an old eight-track with your brother, then Exit Chasing is the finest album of the century so far. All in all, Orange Can are the kind of band that give heart attacks to record execs. With that fervent wish in mind, let’s hope the boys are signed up again soon.. . .PS. Don’t order this album directly from Orange Can’s website, it won’t arrive - trust me. Nor should you download it from iTunes. Fuck-ups that they are, Orange Can encoded it at 128kps. Best order the CD from some place like "cdbaby":http://cdbaby.com/cd/orangecan PPS: Over the jump, the magnificent 'Apes'. PPPS: Thanks to Marigold and Young Galaxy for the turn on.
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