When _____ Reigned Supreme: When Orange Juice Reigned Supreme

Since I am playing the Illuminati Wristband/Prices that only a non broke rock fan Sxsw week under official IOC protest.(And for final clarification, peeps know that IOC stand for Ian Olympic Comittee.) However u should look for me at day parties. But as some might know, the BIG news is that fucking Portishead reunited to perform a new song or two the other night in da UK. bombness.
Onto this weeks band Orange Juice.

Who they were: Ok after Punk Rock took over the UK, Scotland decided "We need to rock out too." Two bands stood at the top. Orange Juice and Josef K. You can't really mention one without the other, but today we're doing Orange Juice cuz I feel like it.
So, as the legend goes Orange Juice essentially created indie pop and said fuck it before even releasing an album. While this may or man not be true, their power and influence has stayed consistent over the years.

The Lineup:
lineup 1
Edwyn Collins – guitar, vocals, songwriting
James Kirk – guitar, vocals, songwriting(not captaining starships sadly)
David McClymont – bass
Steven Daly – drums
lineup 2
Edwyn Collins – guitar, vocals, songwriting
Malcolm Ross – guitar, vocals, songwriting
Zeke Manyika – drums, vocals, songwriting
Stephen Skinner – guitar
David McClymont-bass

When they ruled the world: That's tough to say. Orange Juice deserves mad respect for one main reason in my opinion. They just kept moving. They never settled on anything. The only thing certain about all of their recordings is that with a wink and a nudge the band channeled this Motown 60's crooner style to go with their angular guitars and stuff.
The first release You Can't Hide You Love Forever, is an interesting album of weird rhythms , bridges and the same scratchy tone you hear on every PIL record. But what it really sounds like is if the Smiths' ever made a post punk album. Edwyn Collins and Morrissey both have this smug baritone delivery of lyrics about love, books, but Edwyn never seems to lose hope.(i.e. he never wanted a double decker bus to kill two people cuz it's more romantic sounding.)
Basically, It's an excellent complement to your copy of Chairs Missing by Wire, Entertainment by Gang of Four and Real Life by Magazine.
But, really it's the second lineup of Orange Juice that is really interesting. First change, African drumming. Second Change, more gloss, more irony, more horns. Third Change, Malcolm Ross(of Josef K fame) joined adding abit more fury to the overall playing. It was this second lineup that recorded the album Rip It Up, and it's easily the band's definitive statement.
During this phase of post punk all of the bands started moving into this danceteria style sound that was less punk and way more new wave.(The best examples of this sound are either Knife Slits Water by A Certain Ratio or I Love A Man In Uniform by Gang Of Four.) It's tough to explain the sound of Rip It Up sheerly because each song sounds totally different.(Even using three different lead vocalists) There's the funky African romp, "A Millon Pleading Faces." Absurd Lounge Crooning in the form of "Flesh Of My Flesh." and of course top ten UK hit Rip It Up, which is a slow burning funky mix that stands among the great songs of 82. SImply put, Rip It Up is a MUST HAVE post punk album

Here's another way to describe this era of Orange Juice, They are the funkier wittier, better, version of ABC(the band that Look Of Love and Poison Arrow) or the Style Council(the semi great/semi crap lounge pop band of the Jam's Paul Weller.)

So What Happened: Ego. Being slightly too far ahead of their time. If they could have kept the second lineup together for one more album maybe Orange Juice perhaps could've been bigger than the Cure or the Smiths.(Even though those bands weren't half as chipper as.
Malcolm Ross did go on to be in Aztec Camera, and of course Edwyn Collins(gotta love any dude with Collins as his name) ended up with two GIGANTIC soundtrack hits, the most famous of which was Never Known A Girl Like U Before from Empire Records.(back when Liv Tyler was actually hot.) Sadly he's pretty sick now, but a comeback could yet happen.

But, what did it all mean.
Belle and Sebastian, early Primal Scream, Camera Obscura,Franz Ferdinand, any slightly jangly/winsome/indie band from Scotland, has ripped off or been influenced by Orange Juice.(Not even Josef K can say that.)

Availability: I'll admit it, I picked something that is a bitch to find. Unlike the brilliant, newer Josef K release that gives you every great song they put out, Domino TOTALLY fucked up the Orange Juice comp. It's called the Glasgow School and if you already know about the band it's sweet, because it gives you the original version of the first album and early singles.
BUT, you get nothing from the second album or even the ill fated third album. And frankly speaking the bigger, harder, stronger, more studio cash version of Orange Juice is WAY better than the "raw indie pop" version seen on Glasgow School.
So that means you have to find the original albums in either expensive out of print import versions or try and find it somewhere on the information superhighway.(which is possible, that's how I have my copies of the records.)

Three Vids this week just cause they kept moving so fast and I was amazed to find some clips.

Falling and Laughing(from the first album)