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MAGNET Exclusive: Premiere Of The Orange Peels’ “Trespassing”

If you’re in a band and think getting a killer review in MAGNET is gonna help you make it to that “next level” people are always talking about, we really do hate to piss on your parade. It usually doesn’t work that way. Just ask Allen Clapp. We’ve been championing the California singer, songwriter, producer, label owner and all-around great guy since Allen Clapp And His Orchestra knocked us on our asses (gently) with 1994’s One Hundred Percent Chance Of Rain. (Kids, that was so long ago that Cobain had only been dead two weeks when the LP came out; sorry, Kurt, you missed out.) Soon, Clapp dismantled his electric-lite Orchestra (OK, truth be told, the band was mostly just Clapp, so breaking up wasn’t hard to do) and launched his next zesty project, the Orange Peels.

Starting with 1997’s Square, the revolving-cast Peels have released a string of great albums (we’re partial to 2009’s 2020, a cool-band-stickered textbook example of perfect present-day power pop) that have uniformly received very positive review from MAGNET and our rock-nerd peers. But 21 years into its recording career, the band remains (sigh) a cult fave. We’d like to say all that’s gonna change with Trespassing, Clapp and Co.’s ambitious seventh album (out tomorrow on Minty Fresh), but history tells us that’s probably not going to happen. But for those of us in the know, Christmas came way early this year, with Clapp exercising all of his musical muscles on these nine tracks, mixing the acoustic with the electric, the analog with the digital. This isn’t man vs. machine—it’s man and machine joining forces to create the kind of modern-yet-timeless pop ‘n’ roll that keeps its feet on the ground but keeps reaching for the stars.

Says Clapp of his latest mini masterpiece, “It’s the sound of a band confronting the significance of making music in the current social and political climate. What does it mean to make art in tumultuous, polarized times? The band wrestles with all these questions, turning the gaze inward to see where it all might have gone wrong, and outward to ask the big questions about our place in the universe. It’s a welcome exploration for the times that finds both despair and hope at the end of its many rainbows.”

We’re proud to premiere Trespassing today on magnetmagazine.com. Check it out now. It’s never to late to hop aboard the Orange Peels Express.

As a bonus, check out the feature we did on the Orange Peels five years ago while you get caught (up in) Trespassing.

The Orange Peels: The Lunar Truth