From their Atlantic Release TRAGIC: . . Fire in the hole (.au 309K) Failure (.au 351k) . . official home page		New York City: Winter '95 - A deafening roar up in the Forties across the street from the teeming steel-n-concrete environs of Port Authority. Shut in a rehearsal room against the gridlock of humanity -- neon, slush, steam, information, disinformation, static, noise, harmony, and interference -- Orange 9mm are locked-in and electrified. "It was pure energy, total vibe, and a lot of stress," says singer Chaka Malik. "We had to create something that we could stand by. Something we could play every night for a year and still feel psyched up about. I didn't breathe 'til it was mastered." So with that -- press play and get the f**k away. "TRAGIC" is like that - huffed straight from the gut, heart, and amplifier. The scenario for the 'Nines. Tension building. A quiet desperation. The energy that had been busting out onstage in front of pumped-up crowds (on the road with the likes of Helmet, and during last summer's Warped tour) was turned inwards. The only vent: 30 new songs that had taken shape since the band stepped offstage many months before, following the departure of bassist Davide Gentile (whose duties now belong to post-"TRAGIC" member Taylor McLam). "The best thing we could possibly do for ourselves at that point was to just lock ourselves in the rehearsal space, avoid contact with anyone but the three of us, and just be a band, you know?," says Matt. "Not to listen to what others thought we should be doing, and do what we felt we should do - write the record that we wanted to write." Enter Brooklyn-based producer/Barkmarket mainman Dave Sardy (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Slayer), whose first impulse was to utilize Orange 9mm's intended demo tracks as the actual bed-track foundations for "TRAGIC." Broken sticks, rough edges 'n' all - intact. Chaka remembers those sessions well: "We got up early that day and just started playing and laughing and eating a ton of bagels. The whole time, Dave Sardy kept saying, 'OK, we're making records here.' We didn't go back and listen to a thing. We went with first takes and kept rolling." "Chris was jumping around playing the bass and guitar parts and Chaka was right there in the room with us rocking out," says Matt. "Chaka never left that ten-square-foot area until he was done with his vocals at 2AM that morning. It was the best, most intense party I've ever been to. I never knew recording could be like that." Energy. Pure and simple. That's been the Orange 9mm credo since guitarist Chris Traynor crossed paths with Chaka Malik during a show at Connecticut's Tune Inn club. New York Hardcore survivors out for something more, it was only natural the two would hook up. "When Chaka and I first got together, we actually had the worst chemistry," laughs Traynor, who first treaded the boards with Fountainhead and Malik's first band, Burn. "We started jamming and I'd be like, 'Check this out,' and play something. He'd look at me like I was nuts. But what we had in common was we both loved music, and we could see that in each other - so we kept giving in until we reached a middle ground, and then, we expanded on that." The resultant 1993 Don Fury-produced EP documented the then-nascent band's earliest, intensely physical live work. Detroit native Cross signed on later the same year, becoming the band's drummer just prior to the recording sessions for the band's first album, 1994's "DRIVER NOT INCLUDED." Now with "TRAGIC," Orange 9mm steps up the game. "Shootin' for a vibe that was honest and new. Shootin' for the songs to be human," says Chaka. "That's the deal." From the firebrand riffmongery of "Fire in the Hole," to the hip-hop-laced urban-fueled pounding of the title track, to the organic dobro-n-slide jam on "Kiss It Goodbye"... the attack is, most of all, honest - musically, lyrically. No mistaking what's being put across on a track like "Failure." Pure Orange 9mm ethic - turning negative into positive, anger into energy. "'Failure' is a slap in the face," says Malik. "What motivates me is the insanity of my environment," states Chaka, with regards to the twisted vibes that permeate the slowgrind of "Gun To Your Head." Hailing from the Woodside Projects in Queens, the frontman's lyrical perspective is pure New York City; joys and nightmares backed by a roar that could only come out of New York, New York - a place so extreme they had to name it twice. "Seeing beautiful women strung out on drugs along 8th Avenue. Porno. Shit like that affects me. It'll do weird things to a person - straight down to their sexuality," Chaka admits. "There's this insane decadence here that you can grow to romanticize." "It may be alarming, but this is an album everybody can relate to on some level," adds Matt. "It's full of those thoughts where you ask yourself, 'God, that's sick; how could I think that?' It's because you're human and you're alive." And "TRAGIC" is a stone-cold reminder of that.
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