The Orange Peels

Distilled from an elixir of coastal fog and salty ocean air comes a sound that's as refreshing and cool as a San Francisco Bay breeze.

These four Californians are out to revive the West Coast Sound -- a sound that has melody and solid songwriting at its core.

Weened on the musical nectar of Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson, and Ray Davies, The Orange Peels also draw on some of the surfier and spacier sounds of the present.

Formed by Bay Area native Allen Clapp,the band has played up and down the West Coast over the years as Allen Clapp and His Orchestra. Clapp has released a handful of 45s on labels such as the Bus Stop Label, Four Letter Words, and Spain's Elefant Records, and earned critical acclaim and garnered college radio play for his debut full-length release, "One Hundred Percent Chance of Rain."

Released in 1994 on the Bus Stop Label, the album won him praise from the American underground press as well as the Australian alternative press, where a reviewer called his music "the soundtrack to cocktail parties so cool that nobody is capable of hosting them."

The band now features Allen Clapp on vocals, piano guitar and drums, Oed Ronne (The Ocean Blue) on lead guitars, electric sitar and vibes, Jill Pries on bass guitars, Bob Vickers (The Incredible Vickers Bros.) on drums and guitars, John Moremen (Jad Fair, the Roy Loney Band) on guitars, all the itinerant members of the band are represented. Even original Orange Peels lead guitarist Larry Winther took off his reunion-era Mummies bandages for a few minutes to grace the album's lead track with a chickeny guitar solo.

"Wonderfully sugar-coated with a melancholy heart, the record glides past on waves of gently strummed guitars, swooning Mellotron strings, and heavenly vocal harmonies."
--ALL MUSIC

"The Orange Peels stand tall against the tide of musical darkness, raging against the dying of the light with a nice line in clever pop hookery, wielding warm summery harmonies with the most delicate of touches."
--POPMATTERS

"Design, music and fashion are cross-pollinating as never before. Allen Clapp, the lead singer and songwriter for The Orange Peels is doing his bit, recording his band's latest album in a modernistic Eichler home."
--NEW YORK TIMES

"The Orange Peels put a fresh and beguiling spin on the holy pop trinity of the Byrds, the Beach Boys and Burt Bacharach."
--LA WEEKLY

"If you’re hooked by the sweeping catchiness of The Doves or the sunnier songs from early on in Radiohead’s career, you’ll take quite a liking to The Orange Peels. They make songs for paradise . . ."
--Adequacy.net

"The sweet secret of The Orange Peels is that this guitar-bass-drums and occasional-keyboard combo has somehow created sublime Orch-Pop with out any actual orchestra."
--TIME OUT NEW YORK