Today's Hotness: Adrian Orange, Elevator Drops, Padded Mailers

>> We finally had a few hours to ourselves today which we used to go through recent promos that have collected on our desk. There was a lot of interesting stuff, and a lot of stuff that came close to getting us excited but came up short, like a certain promising power pop record hamstrung by mundane lyrics. One record, however, and one track in particular, that made us pause and take notice was from the forthcoming post-rocksteady set from Adrian Orange and Her Band. Adrian Orange is a dude from Portland, Ore. (who played in another project called Thanksgiving and co-founded Marriage Records, no less), so it's anybody's guess who the "her" of "Her Band" is. But nonetheless, the band's forthcoming K Records release is unlike any other that we've heard from the label. Orange and a loose collective concoct a perfect late summer sound that is far from unusual, but wholly engaging. Check out the groove-heavy track "You're My Home." Adrian Orange and Her Band's self-titled set will be released by K on Sept. 11.

Adrian Orange and Her Band -- "Your Home" -- Adrian Orange and Her Band
[right click and save as]
[pre-order Adrian Orange and Her Band from Newbury Comics here]

>> It's been a while since we checked in on the status of the perpetually delayed comeback record from Boston strung-out-robot indie rock trio The Elevator Drops. The band's fourth full-length OK Commuter (if you include the odds 'n' sods collection Epidose I) has been mysteriously delayed since its original Feb. 14, 2007 release date passed. Anyhow, a July blog post at the band's MySpace dojo reported that OK Commuter was attached to San Francisco-based On/Off Records and is -- if the blog post can be believed -- expected to drop sometime this month. A quick trip to On/Off shows that the digital-only label only sells singles, which is curious. But on the upside the label is currently offering a new Elevator Drops single, "Party Song" b/w "Catastrophe." The single is $2, and you order it through Paypal and then in theory they send you downloading instructions -- so far we've paid, but we're presuming no one is working Labor Day to send out the downloading directions as we haven't received them yet. Oh well. The Elevator Drops are still offering the tooth-achingly sweet rocker "Shake It" from OK Commuter for free download at its MySpace. We've been listening to it for months, and we'll save you the trip by re-posting it here.

The Elevator Drops -- "Shake It" -- OK Commuter
[right click and save as]
[watch the On/Off web site here to see when OK Commuter finally gets released]

>> Here are some ridiculously incremental updates for two of our favorite bands: venerable label Troubleman Unlimited reported last week that it expected the new Meneguar record "in about 10 days;" We can only imagine pre-orders will be taken shortly thereafter (we just checked, and the ever trusty Newbury Comics is taking pre-orders NOW). The Brooklyn quartet's sophomore set Strangers In Our House streets Sept. 25. In a few days Meneguar commences what we believe is its first European and UK tour [full dates here], which leads us to our second ridiculously incremental update, this one for Birmingham, England's own noise rock monsters Johnny Foreigner. A message board posting we saw somewhere in the last few weeks said the band may have a six-song EP in the offing. It sure would be nice if Troubleman would give that thing US distribution, no? Anyway, Meneguar and Johnny Foreigner have two dates together in England, Sept. 26 and Oct. 4, and we expect the people lucky enough to see these shows will see one of the best bills of the year.

>> Are you 1) in a Boston area indie band about to do a big mailing or 2) do you operate a Boston-area indie label and are you about to do a big mailing? Clicky Clicky HQ has scads of used padded mailers that we've been saving in the hope that someone else could re-use them. These are not pristine, but you should be able to tear off the mailing labels and postage that got them to Clicky Clicky HQ and put on your own labels and postage. Anyway, if you are interested in the padded envelopes, hit our email link over to the right. We'd be happy to bring a big shopping bag full of mailers to your Boston/Cambridge-area residence. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, ya'll.

>> Our work project is still ongoing, so things will be quiet again here until next weekend.