Orchid | |
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 Jayson Green (front) and Jeffrey Salane (back) performing inBloomington, Indiana in 2000. | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S. |
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Orchid is an Americanscreamo band fromAmherst, Massachusetts. Originally active from 1997 until 2002, they released several EPs and splits as well as three studio albums. The band consists of lead vocalist Jayson Green, drummer Jeffrey Salane, guitarist Will Killingsworth, guitarist Brad Wallace and bassist Geoff Garlock.
Orchid released three full-length albums during their initial run and played their final show on the same day as the release of their final album. The band reunited for a tour in 2024, their first shows in 22 years.
The band was formed while Jayson Green, Will Killingsworth, and Brad Wallace were studying atHampshire College, and Jeff Salane was attending theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst in early 1998.[1]
Orchid released three albums:Chaos Is Me in 1999,Dance Tonight! Revolution Tomorrow in 2000 andGatefold in 2002. The band played their final show of their original run on July 9, 2002, the release date ofGatefold.[2]
In 2005, a compilation album titledTotality was released posthumously. It comprised 24 tracks, featuring out-of-press and hard-to-find B-side and split EP materials that were previously only available on vinyl.[3]
Jayson Green later formed ahardcore punk supergroup named Violent Bullshit, with members ofBlack Army Jacket andthe Fiery Furnaces.[4] Jayson Green, Will Killingsworth, and Geoff Garlock currently play together in the band Ritual Mess.[5]
Green provided vocals on "Pow Pow", the lead single toLCD Soundsystem's 2010 albumThis Is Happening.[6]
The band received numerous offers to reunite, the most lucrative coming fromRoadburn Festival in the Netherlands, but Green did not tell his bandmates as the band had been uninterested in coming back. After an interview with Machine Music[7] Green, Killingsworth and Wallace, the band began the process of reuniting.[8] In December 2023, Orchid announced a reunion and tour in 2024.[9] The band's first show in 22 years took place on May 5, 2024, at The Drake inAmherst, Massachusetts.[10] For their reunion shows, original bassist Brad Wallace rejoined the band as an additional guitarist.[8]
Orchid's musical style (which primarily has been described ashardcore punk andscreamo) is highlydissonant, fast, and chaotic.[11][3] It combines the melodic and poetic approach ofpost-hardcore[12] andemo[13] with the extremity ofpowerviolence (a fusion sometimes termedemoviolence) andgrindcore.[13] Italian site "Emotional Breakdown" gave a positive review of Orchid's compilation albumTotality, saying: "[Orchid] are the concentrated essence of the most poignant music you can imagine: the vocal cords that are pulled until they tear, the music sounds dark and desperate. They possess all these characteristics as the undisputed masters they have taught many proselytes, in all of their cynical splendor."[14]
Orchid is regarded as a prominent and quintessential band in screamo.[3] Lars Gotrich ofNPR music credited Orchid (alongside bandsPg 99,Circle Takes the Square andMajority Rule) as being prominent influences on emotional post-hardcore.[12] Green said, "we just called ourselves a hardcore band."[8]
Canadian post-hardcore bandSilverstein covered "Destination: Blood" on their albumShort Songs.[15] A tribute album,Epilogue of a Car Crash!, was released in 2013 on Dog Knights Productions.[16] Piet Onthel covered "Weekend At The Fire Academy" on their demo in 2018.[17] Letters of Marque covered "Lights Out" onSpring Roots & Lullabies, a charity compilation forTrans Lifeline released in 2023.[18]
[...]there's a renewed interest in the emotional post-hardcore that bands likepg. 99, Orchid,Circle Takes the Square andMajority Rule pioneered, mostly by an audience that was far too young to hear it the first time around.
Another interesting sub-subgenre was this strange crossover of first-generationemo andgrind. Bands like Reversal of Man or Orchid may not have stood the test of time, but it was a pretty cool sound at the time and one that was pretty uniquely American
Italian: "[Orchid] trovate concentrata tutta l'essenza della musica più straziante che possiate immaginare: corde vocali tirato allo spasimo fino a strapparsi, suoni cupi e disperati. Ovvero tutte quelle caratteristiche che loro, da maestri indiscussi, hanno insegnato a tanti proseliti e che qui troviamo in tutto il loro cinico splendore."
