Thursday night Orbit Music was ringing with live rock music. The promotional gig may have been small compared to Saturday night at Benchwarmers or Halloween at the State, but the band named The New Orange played their set well and jumped around the stage with all their usual energy. They pointed curious shoppers towards their display, Hotter, Newer Sounds by The New Orange, on sale now.

The New Orange, one of the relatively few South Bend or Notre Dame bands in the area, is beginning to appear on the music scene at house parties, at Cheers and at other spots around town. Vocalist Higgs Boson, guitarist Mneumonic, and bassist ElCordobes (technically known as Beau Bratton, Michael Anderson and Andrew Mitchell) began the year in a drummer-less slump, but drummer Brian Zampell auditioned for the band after seeing their advertisements around campus. With the advent of the Zampire, the band got back on track.

In addition to playing local engagements, the band has toured other cities, going as far as Philadelphia. The group hopes to start playing more often in Chicago and expanding their territory.

The New Orange categorizes their sound in the category of garage rock, a recently expanding musical movement best known for newer bands like The Hives and The Strokes and older bands like The Kinks. While most garage rock bands have certain traits in common, the genre encompasses a lot of different sounds and attitudes. Garage rock is characteristically straightforward, without synthesizers or other intrusive sounds. While the music is often unsophisticated in terms of chords and structures, the simple style can showcase interesting instrumentals and lyrics.

The New Orange sometimes takes the simplicity of garage rock too seriously. Some tunes lack both instrumentation and lyrical intelligence. Their music can descend into a mere grating noise. This may be intentional, though, a result of their slightly twisted senses of humor. "You and I, we're gonna learn the alphabet, yeah, Sesame Street," whines the vocal in track five of Hotter, Newer Sounds. Whether it's humor or just lack of inspiration, some of the lyrics seem to be written by a 3-year-old.

However, at their best Anderson and Mitchell's compositions have a lot of energy, with some unique lyrics and good guitar riffs.

With such a varying sound, even the band has trouble defining their music. "I can't really describe their sound, but it's why I got into them," said Zampell. "It gives me the ability to do whatever I want on the drums."

"It's high-brow music," said Anderson in a more abstract description.

"That's a lie," Bratton said. "It's music for the masses."

"For the high-brow masses," said Anderson.

While the musicians have a sense of humor about themselves and their lifestyle, they work hard and take their music seriously. The group practices every day in the basement of their house near campus.

Hotter, Newer Sounds was recorded at Home Buddies Studio, also in the basement of their house.

Like all starting bands, The New Orange struggles with space and equipment constraints. Making a band well known takes good recordings, but high quality recording requires more resources than many starting bands can come up with.

"You can tell the studio is really small on our recordings," said Anderson. "We need a bigger space."

"We're as loud as our equipment allows us to be," said Mitchell. "And that's not very loud. In fact, it's quite pleasant."

The band is looking for more than just a bigger space to succeed. They are currently searching for a manager to help them books gigs, make T-shirts and take care of other small but important tasks involved with band life.

The band also is at odds about getting producer as well.

"I don't want a producer coming in and getting his dirty little hands all over our sound," said Mitchell.

"I really think we need a producer," said Bratton.

The band members come from all parts of the country. Zampell lives in Boston, Mass.; Mitchell comes from Butte, Mont.; Anderson comes from Napa Valley, Calif.; and Bratton is a native of Osh Kosh, Wis.

In addition to their different hometowns, the band members' musical educations have little in common either. Zampell has a history drumming for bagpipe bands and Mitchell actually began his musical career playing saxophone.

Made of both current and former students, the three original members have played locally under the name The New Orange for about six months. Before that they played under different names, including Chapped and Frighteningly Obtuse Triangle.

Like most bands featured on VH1's Behind the Music, the band also seems to have had a tumultuous history. They claim to have broken up periodically over various disagreements.

"We've kicked each other out of the band several times," said Mitchell. "We kicked Mneumonic out for a year because he had too many bootleg Dave Matthews Band CDs."

Nevertheless, all the members currently seem devoted to improving their sound and furthering the career of The New Orange. The band has discussed the possibility of moving to San Diego. They would enjoy both the improved weather and the music scene of the area. The band did, however, note some advantages of South Bend for a starting band.

"This is a good location for a band because it's a central location. You're close to Chicago, Detroit and Indianapolis," said Mitchell. "It's good for touring."

Leaving the area soon would also means saying goodbye to Zampire, who is a junior in the engineering program.

"This is a lesson for all you kids," said Mitchell. "This rock and roll thing gets you nowhere. Stay in school."

Whether or not The New Orange moves on to greener pastures, they'll continue to be seen for a while around town. Their Web site, www.theneworange.com, offers a glimpse into the minds behind the music. It also offers a free download of track five off Hotter, Newer Sounds.

Contact C. Spencer Beggs @ beggs.3@nd.edu

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