Wild Orchid Children

February 11, 2012 10:43 AM

Behold the psychedelic musings of Seattle's Wild Orchid Children: Ahead Of Us The Secret.

Want more background? Here's an extensive interview which provides just that.

Their website provides a lot of links to live performance videos, as well as a link to the lyrics to their songs.

They also have three live shows available for free download. As well as an album available for purchase.

posted by hippybear (17 comments total)

That first clip is clearly from their debut album "The Wadsworth Constant".
posted by hincandenza at 10:57 AM on February 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

The Wild Orchid Children Are Alexander Supertramp.

No. They are not.


McCandless' story marked an important turning point in my life. I will not have his memory besmirched by ponderous video production and incoherent noize.

p.s. Get off my viaduct.
posted by humboldt32 at 11:06 AM on February 11, 2012

From the second link in the FPP:

And at the end of the story, it goes back to the title of this album that Wild Orchid Children put so much of themselves into. Alexander Supertramp was the moniker that a 24-year-old Christopher McCandless took on as he hiked into the Alaskan wilderness on a self-imposed search for meaning, fed up with normalcy and searching for something more, something beyond a traditional realm of thought. Being a Wild Orchid Child, Huffman says, is along the same lines.

“It’s essentially anybody who embraces this way of living, just capturing this punk rock spirit. It sounds kind of cliché, but it’s the same thing as Ken Kesey with the bus, getting a bunch of people together and dubbing them the Merry Pranksters. It’s any sort of profession of faith in this kind of knowing that human beings have this infinite amount of potential,” Huffman said. “We’re completely uplifted by playing music. Music is a much bigger force and people have totally taken that for granted. We’re hoping to try to bring that back.”

It does help to actually RTFA for context sometimes.
posted by hippybear at 11:08 AM on February 11, 2012

Big nerd glasses + admiral coat + yellow fixie + suede shoes (no socks) + PNW "hip hop" = hipster nuclear fallout!
posted by Brocktoon at 11:11 AM on February 11, 2012

No.
posted by gcbv at 11:11 AM on February 11, 2012

I know. I'm bad about that.

I see their point. I guess I just lack such a sense self-importance. For me the name dies in the bus on the other side of the river.
posted by humboldt32 at 11:17 AM on February 11, 2012

Tough crowd. That YouTube link goes the kind of places I love (though I could do without the two minutes of intro).

I mean, what do you all want from Seattle? Another Pearl Jam?
posted by philip-random at 11:20 AM on February 11, 2012

I saw Wild Orchid Children open at a show a couple of years ago. I was awestruck by the energy on stage, but sadly it was a couple of weeks before their CD was released, and I couldn't even purchase an advance copy in the lobby after their set. I'd kind of forgotten about them until a conversation brought up the concert today and it all came flooding back. I was pleased to see that my memories weren't simply gin-and-tonic infused enthusiasm, but that they really are an interesting mix of psychedelic rock and socially conscious ranting. I'll certainly have to order their CD as soon as I can get another item or two to quality for Super Saver Shipping.

I know they're not everyone's cup of tea, but they certainly are interesting to me.
posted by hippybear at 11:29 AM on February 11, 2012

Big nerd glasses + admiral coat

I was thinking that singer looked awfully familiar
posted by timsteil at 12:08 PM on February 11, 2012

Not bad music, but there's just no reason to ride your bike on the sidewalk for that long on that stretch of Alaskan Way. I mean, sure, it's legal in Seattle, but it's obnoxious unless it's necessary. You are why they hate us, lead singer.
posted by gurple at 12:23 PM on February 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

That sounded pretty good to me, playing in the background. They're a tight band. Okay so it fell through a time warp from 40 years ago, but if they do it okay that's fine, and at least that's ahead of Philly, where people are still stuck in remixing the early- to mid-60s; plenty of blokes walking round where I live, looking like early Dylan album covers.

I'm off to get the live shows.
posted by carter at 12:32 PM on February 11, 2012

In fact I see that many of the live tracks clock in at 5 minutes or less. Come on, that's not how you jam, guys - how do you expect the audience to get lost unless you go on for ten minutes or more?
posted by carter at 12:40 PM on February 11, 2012

The opening number they did at the Spokane show I was at was a 15 minute assault of psychedelic strangeness upon an audience who had never heard from them before. I thought it was pretty ballsy, and by the time it was over I had been won over by their audacity.
posted by hippybear at 1:49 PM on February 11, 2012

Yeah, just listening to that, that's a good track!
posted by carter at 2:17 PM on February 11, 2012

Ten minute psychedelic wig-out done with aplomb and spike? Very much to my taste, thank you. Everything else, up to and including the ponchos, the Dali moustache and the insta-hipsta kit? Doesn't matter, for it is a ten minute psychedelic wig-out done with aplomb and spike. They could be seventy year old grandmothers dressed in cheap print frocks (actually...) and it wouldn't matter.
posted by Devonian at 2:58 PM on February 11, 2012

I mean, what do you all want from Seattle? Another Pearl Jam?

well, i wasn't expecting another santana - they're not bad, but well, they're not santana
posted by pyramid termite at 4:24 PM on February 11, 2012

The video was awesome until just after the music started.
posted by TMezz at 5:40 PM on February 11, 2012