Orbit is an American,
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...
,
-based rock band. Formed in 1994, the band went on hiatus in late 2001. Their initial releases were on drummer Buckley's own Lunch Records label before the band moved to major label
A&M Records
A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...
in the summer of 1995. The three members of the original trio (Robbins, Buckley, Brookner) signed the deal with A&M.
Career
In 1997, Orbit released their debut album ''Libido Speedway'', which produced the modern rock hit, "Medicine", a spot on the
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza (Lolla) is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991 but several years later made Chicago the permanent location for the annual music festival. Mus ...
tour and a
Boston Music Award
Founded in 1987, the Boston Music Awards are a set of music awards given annually that showcase talent in the Boston, Massachusetts, area.
Past shows have featured such notable talent as Aerosmith, Paula Cole, Esperanza Spalding, Boston, Ruby ...
for debut album of the year.
The band completed recording their second major label album, ''Guide To Better Living'' in 1998, but it was never released by A&M due to the
Polygram-Seagrams merger. The band then moved back to Lunch Records for the remainder of their releases. They also had the song, "XLR8R", included on the soundtrack of the
PlayStation 2 game, ''
FreQuency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from '' angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is ...
'', and the song "Colored Water" in the 1996
Winona Ryder
Winona Laura Horowitz (born October 29, 1971), professionally known as Winona Ryder, is an American actress. Originally playing quirky roles, she rose to prominence for her more diverse performances in various genres in the 1990s. She has recei ...
and
Lukas Haas
Lukas Daniel Haas (born April 16, 1976) is an American actor and musician. His acting career has spanned four decades, during which he has appeared in more than 50 feature films and a number of television shows and stage productions.
Early life
...
film, ''
Boys''.
On December 31, 2001, Orbit played their final show before going on hiatus at the
Burlington Memorial Auditorium, as part of First Night Celebrations in
Burlington,
Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the ...
.
Orbit played two reunion shows on December 28 and 29, 2007, at the
Paradise Rock Club in Boston, with Boston indie rock group
The Sheila Divine.
In January 2011, A&M released ''Guide to Better Living'' re-titled as ''The Lost Album'', which sparked the band to play a series of shows in Boston, Chicago and at
SXSW
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, ...
. On June 30, 2012, Orbit performed at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston, as part of a tribute to the closing of Boston Alternative rock radio station
WFNX (101.7FM). On July 23, 2015, Orbit performed as part of the final week of shows before the closing the
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most ...
rock club,
TT the Bear's Place.
On October 9, 2020, Orbit released the album ''Vapor Trails'' - a collection of unreleased recordings on Lunch Records.
Members
*
Jeff Lowe Robbins, lead singer and guitarist
* Paul Buckley, drummer
*
Mark Brookner, bassist (1994–1995)
*
Wally Gagel
Wally Gagel is an American, multi platinum, award-winning record producer, audio engineer, mixer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. His current work with Blondfire, Zella Day, Best Coast, Hunter Hunted, The Mowglis and Redlight King has garne ...
, bassist (1996–1998)
* Linda Bean, bassist (1999–2001)
*
Fred Archambault, guitarist (2000-2001)
Original band members Jeff Robbins and Paul Buckley were the only constant band members during Orbit's active years. Fred Archambault and Linda Bean joined before the release of ''Tonedeaf''. Since the band went on hiatus, Robbins and Bean formed the band WELL and Paul Buckley drums for Dear Leader, and runs
independent record label
An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...
, Lunch Records.
Discography
Studio albums
* ''
Libido Speedway'' (1997, A&M Records)
* ''Guide to Better Living'' (1999, A&M Records) not released until 2011, under the title ''The Lost Album'' (2011, A&M Records)
* ''XLR8R'' (2001, Lunch Records)
* ''Vapor Trails '' (2020, Lunch Records)
EPs
* ''La Mano'' (1995, Lunch Records)
* ''Medicine'' (1997, A&M Records)
* ''I Wanna Make You'' (1998, Lunch Records)
* ''Tonedeaf'' (2000, Lunch Records)
Singles
* "Motorama" (1994)
* "Purge" (1995)
* "Come Inside" (1996)
* "Medicine" (1997) #29
Mainstream Rock
Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada.
Format background
Mainstream rock stations represent the middle ground between classic rock and active rock ...
Tracks, #32
Modern Rock
Modern rock is an umbrella term used to describe rock music that is found on college rock radio stations. Some radio stations use this term to distinguish themselves from classic rock, which is based in 1960s–1980s rock music.
Radio format
Mod ...
Tracks (''Billboard'')
* "Bicycle Song" (1997)
* "Fade Away" (2000)
* "See The Light" (2020)
* "More I Bother" (2020)
* "One In Your Eyes" (Coming July 30, 2021)
Videos
* "Come Inside" (1995) Directed by
Spencer Tunick
Spencer Tunick (born January 1, 1967) is an American photographer best known for organizing large-scale nude shoots. Since 1994, he has photographed over 75 human installations around the world.
Life and career
Spencer Tunick was born in Middle ...
* "Medicine" (1997) Directed by Gavin Bowdin
* "I Wanna Make You" (1999) Directed by Mike Gioscia and
Kurt St. Thomas[Archived a]
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
References
External links
*
Lunch Records band page*
Allmusic entry for Orbitbr>
WELL homepageJeff Robbin's soundtrack workJeff Robbin's Lullabot (non-musical)
American power pop groups
American musical trios
Alternative rock groups from Massachusetts
Musical groups from Boston
Musical groups established in 1994
Musical groups disestablished in 2001
{{US-rock-band-stub