Wild Sweet Orange

Although Wild Sweet Orange flaunt the country influences that one might expect for a band from Birmingham, AL, the bandmates also list David Lynch alongside Emmylou Harris as pillars of their group's sound. The noisily experimental tendencies of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-era Wilco and the navel-gazing angst of a generation of Bright Eyes disciples all are also revealed in Wild Sweet Orange's nervy (but entirely accessible) music. The core members of the band -- primary songwriter Preston Lovinggood, bassist Garret Kelly, and drummer Chip Kilpatrick -- grew up together in the suburbs of Birmingham, having played together in bands since elementary school. After Lovinggood dropped out of college, the trio added guitarists Matt Parsons and Taylor Shaw to form Wild Sweet Orange, apparently swiping the name from a brand of tea. (Shaw and Kilpatrick also maintained a more traditional side project, the Great Book of John, as an outlet for Shaw's songwriting and vocals.) Managers Tim Dwyer and Ken Glanton signed Wild Sweet Orange to their newly created Earfood Records label in 2005; the label's first release was Wild Sweet Orange's House of Regret EP in early 2006. The band's full-length debut, We Have Cause to Be Uneasy, was released in the fall of the same year and featured production from Spoon's Mike McCarthy. ~ Stewart Mason