LUNCH RECORDS and STREAMS

Those who survive the highs and lows of a rock career know the secret: 
The ability to create, record, and make music available for people to hear only requires time, knowledge, and creativity. Oh yeah, and a strong will.

Orbit, the trio you know from Boston, is newly expanded with the addition of bassist Linda Bean (ex-PermaFrost) and guitarist Fred Archambault. Praised for their bass driven guitar pop rock, Orbit are still focused on making music. And after all they’ve been through, their third full-length album, XLR8R is aptly named - Orbit is gaining speed.

In 1994, when guitarist/lead singer Jeff Robbins and drummer Paul Buckley formed Orbit, they agreed the most important part of being in the band and being a musician was the music. So, they made the music they wanted to hear - music that throbbed and kicked sex back into song. And it was well received. Orbit released La Mano on their own label Lunch Records and just as the majors were catching on. The band soon found themselves with a new home at A&M Records. In 1997, A&M released Libido Speedway which spawned the Modern Rock Top 10 single "Medicine" and earned the band a spot on that year's Lollapalooza tour.

When A&M was dismantled under the Polygram/Universal merger in 1999, Orbit had just finished their second full-length album (tentatively titled Guide To Better Living). The band was surprised to learn that Polyversal-Unigram- InterGeffen&M was keeping the unreleased album, without any plans for release. After getting over the shock of losing what they'd spent six months writing and recording, Jeff and Paul realized that although they didn’t have the cash to make another studio album, they did have the means to keep making and recording music. They joined the tech age.

They wrote some new songs and began recording in Cambridge, MA the old fashioned way, laying down the drums and bass on 2-inch analog 24-track tape. All of the overdubs were done in a friend's digital tape based project studio in Nashville. The tracks were digitally transferred into the Mac and sent to the band's former bass player and producer extraordinare, Wally Gagel (Folk Implosion, Eels, Old 97s). In Los Angeles, Wally mixed all of the songs for full-length release "XLR8R."

Orbit went on hiatus in late 2001, playing their final shows at the club that started it all for them - TT the Bears Place in Cambridge, MA. Two sold-out shows at TT's and then a final performance at The Burlington Memorial Auditorium in Burlington, VT as part of the city's First Night Extravaganza.

 

After a few one-off reunion shows, in 2010, Universal Music released “The Lost Album,” the 1998 session  (known to fans as "Guide To Better Living") that got shelved in the great alt-purge. Select shows in at Austin's SXSW as well as in Chicago, Portland, Los Angeles and Boston followed.

 

A decade on, welcome more found sounds with the release of "Vapor Trails" - a new collection of previously unreleased tracks from the band’s under-heralded heyday, brings the ‘90s back in all their ragged glory, while sounding utterly fresh and contemporary.  

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“Vapor Trails” puts Orbit firmly back on track. Nostalgia for the Nineties is real. Even more rewarding is the classic 90s sound you haven’t heard before. 

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In late 2023, Orbit starting playing selected live shows and continues with a series of 30th Anniversary shows in 2024.

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