Echo Orbiter is a Philadelphia-based indie rock band founded by brothers Justin Emerle and Colin Emerle, described by Philadelphia Weekly as being "Widely considered two of the most inventive songwriters on the Philadelphia scene."[1]
Echo Orbiter formed in 1996 in Westville, New Jersey when brothers Justin Emerle and Colin Emerle began performing with drummer Jeremiah Steffen.[2] Still in high school, the band entered Miner St. Studios in Philadelphia to record their first album, A Moment In Life That’s Right.[3][4] Engineered by Brian McTear, the album was “a consistent incorporation of pleasingly-textured pop tunes.”[5] with what one writer called a resemblance to “Guided by Voices when they made albums that didn’t suck.”[6]
Soon after the release of their first album, the appearance of the track “Spring is Here” on a compilation of Philadelphia’s newly emerging indie bands helped EO gain a spot at the Philadelphia PopFest in 1998 and 1999, and a headlining spot at the PopFest in 2000.[7][8] The band received widespread coverage after “group members pummeled a giant cardboard robot head, obliterated a couple of guitars and violently dismantled their drum kit,” while destroying the venue’s stage equipment in a "Who-like" manner at the 1999 PopFest.[9]
In 2001, the band was in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, touring with the Starlight Mints, when the September 11 attacks abruptly ended the tour. Following the broken tour, along with the theft of their instruments, EO discontinued playing live shows altogether, last performing in Providence, Rhode Island, on September 18, 2001, and not returning until nine years later to the day.[4]
Although no longer performing live, brothers Justin and Colin continued to record prolifically.[16] During this period the band recorded music for Eventide Production’s short-film Mortality and Get-Kinetic’s short-film 4.50 [17][18] and appeared on over a dozen compilations by various record labels,[19] including their “life affirming” cover of Medicine's “Never Click” on Never Lose That Feeling released in the United Kingdom and Japan on Claire Records and on Club AC30 in the United States.[20][21]
During this time EO also recorded 6 albums, 3 EP's, 5 singles, and 9 full-length compilation albums to accompany the albums and EP's,[4][22] “clocking up 15 years at the coalface of indiedom”[21] with a prolific "collection of superb three-minute pop bursts...."[16]
In 2010, Echo Orbiter released their ninth Studio album, Euphonicmontage.[23] The album’s experimental nature mixed a range of influences from writer Ayn RandtoThe Flaming Lips.[15] The album was recorded to reflect the same Cubist style of Picasso’s paintings in music form and was described as “an innovative landmark in the world of indie rock.”[24] In 2010 EO also appeared on Sick of the Radio’s New Wave Moons: R. Stevie Moore Tribute along with Ariel Pink and XTC’s Dave Gregory,[25][26] and represented the United States on Indiecater Record's Fast Forward compilation for the FIFA World CupinSouth Africa.[27][28]
Working along with Green Light Go Publicity to promote Euphonicmontage,[29] Echo Orbiter played their first show in 9 years at Johnny Brenda’s in Philadelphia with Joe Jack TalcumofThe Dead Milkmen on September 18, 2010, 9 years to the day of their last show, and were highlighted as a Cover Story in the Music Issue of the Philadelphia City Paper.[4][30] They followed up the year with More Batteries, an EP recorded entirely on a hacked iPhone.[31]
