If you like: TV on the Radio, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Strokes
The Orwells formed in 2009 while they were still attending high school. Two of them are cousins : Mario Cuomo (vocals) and Dominic Corso (guitar)… and two of them are brothers: Grant (bass) and Henry Brinner (drums). The four of them teamed up with their friend Matt O’Keefe (guitar), and formed a band. At that time, The Orwells were not only busy recording music, but also busy with their studies and skating.
They signed to L.A.-based blogger Justin Gage’s Autumn Tone record label in 2011, after they sent him a link to their video, hoping for a web feature. It was their single “Mallrats” that was picked up by bloggers, which led to the release of their 2012 debut album, Remember When. That propelled their music career forward, prompting them to graduate high school early, and hit the road – touring nonstop for the majority of 2013. They only took a brief break that summer to record the Other Voices EP with Dave Sitek from TV on the Radio.
Eventually they were signed to Atlantic Records, so they began working on new material. In 2014, they toured North America with The Arctic Monkeys, and even appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman a couple of times. Check out the video below of their second appearance, performing “The Rightous One”.
They released Disgraceland in 2014, which reached number 69 on the Billboard album chart. Inspired by films and books, Cuomo pushed himself to write more mature lyrics, while the rest of the band focused on adding some sonic muscle to their new songs, and the outcome was Terrible Human Beings, released in early 2017. The video below is for the song “They Put a Body in the Bayou” from Terrible Human Beings – and it’s one of the songs you’ll hear on 106.3 Radio Lafayette!
