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A musical cross between the southwestern melodrama of Calexico and the florid homegrown psychedelia of the Olivia Tremor Control and their many offshoots, Houston sextet Spain Colored Orange mix elaborate, carnivalesque arrangements with smart pop songwriting.
The group began in 2000 as the solo acoustic project of singer, songwriter, guitarist, and keyboardist Gilbert Alfaro. According to a 2005 interview in The Houston Chronicle, Alfaro took the name from an elementary-school map-coloring project, which his grandmother still had pinned to her wall when he started the band. Recording tapes of his solo material, Alfaro played them for his friends, many of whom asked to join his group. By 2005, the final lineup of Spain Colored Orange consisted of Alfaro, trumpeter Eric Jackson, keyboardist Justin Peak, bassist Steven Burnett, and drummer James Diederich. Signing to the Chicago-based indie label Lucid Records, Spain Colored Orange released the EP Hopelessly Incapable of Standing in the Way in 2005. The full-length Sneaky Like a Villain, produced by Dave Fridmann protégé Bill Racine, followed in early 2008. ~ Stewart Mason