The term “Southern Rock” brings to mind certain things: soulful guitars, blues-based riffs, and ugly dudes with long hair. Wild Sweet Orange is from Birmingham, Alabama, in the middle of the deep south, and they play rock music, but they have none of the above. What they do have is a heavily pop-infused sound, a hint of country twang, and a frontman with a fantastic rock n’ roll name: Preston Lovinggood.
Lovinggood sings, and writes most of the songs. He’s joined by bassist Garret Kelley, drummer Chip Kilpatrick, and guitarists Matt Parsons and Taylor Shaw. They formed Wild Sweet Orange after Lovinggood dropped out of college, getting the name from a brand of tea. Since then they’ve released an EP, The Whale and a full-length album, We Have Cause for Concern. The future is bright for Wild Sweet Orange. They have a very mainstream sound, and it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if they hit it big.
“Either/Or”
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A great intro riff leads into a song that sounds vaguely like Howie Day interpreting Hootie and the Blowfish. And I mean that as a compliment. I really don’t understand all the Hootie haters out there. At their best they churned out catchy, though mindless, pop songs. And at their worst they were simply mediocre. So why all the hate?
“An Atlas to Follow”
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This sounds like a Coldplay B-side, if they embraced their deeply-buried country influences. Sort of a “Honky Tonk Woman” thing. If Wild Sweet Orange doesn’t work out at least Lovinggood has a future as a Chris Martin impersonator.
Videos
Official Video for “Wrestle with God”
“Ten Dead Dogs”, Live on Letterman
Links
Official Site
MySpace
Buy We Have Cause to Be Uneasy
