ORC

The Golden Years (1994 - 1999)
ORC was born in 1994 when Jason was recording “Pedestal Song” and Jimmy stopped by the studio for a visit. Jason reworked the lyrics, threw Jimmy a mic, and they both recorded the vocals. After that session Jimmy was given lyrics to sing on other songs. Eventually Jimmy was contributing his own lyrics and recording his own instrument parts.

It was a couple years later when they actually named their project. The name came from a computer game they had both played called Warcraft. It had humans versus orcs. A project called Human sounded silly so they went with ORC. Originally the name was written O.R.C. but they could not decide on what it would stand for so they dropped the periods and left it ORC.

ORC music can best be described as experimental. It is rarely just drums, guitar, and vocals. They have used a violin, a wrench, backwards recordings, and various other instruments and sounds. Their recording methods are just as experimental. They have used a 4-track cassette recorder, a computer, a stand-alone sequencer, and various other hardware to compose their music.

Their first album took over five years to record. They finally finished Purging the Great Abyss and released it on March 2, 1999. It was the first album released on CD from the studio.

Sessions
Even though they have only released two albums to date there is a lot of unused material in the ORC vault. Various releases have been considered but not finalized. There will definitely be more ORC material released in the future.

ORC has held two Christmas jam sessions. The first was on December 25, 1997. This was a videotaped session with Jason on electric guitar, drum machine, and keyboard and Jimmy on bass guitar. They played nine songs consisting of five ORC songs, "Contact" by Mune Mud, "A Dreamworld" by NueroMud, and two R.E.M. covers ("Man on the Moon" and "Radio Free Europe"). The second Christmas jam was on December 25, 2002. Jason and Jimmy stole away from the family Christmas party to record a short 5-song set of Christmas songs. Jason played the piano and Jimmy sang. Neither session has been released.

Soon after the March 1999 release of their debut album, they entered the newly constructed Metal XOR D Studio to begin recording their second album. There were seven sessions from May 22, 1999, to February 12, 2000. Due to hectic schedules and other changes, the sessions ended and the album was never completed.

Resurgence (2007 - 2009)
In late 2007, Metal XOR Studio negotiated a deal with Attic Works Studio to do a joint recording effort involving Jason and Jimmy recording new material from the two studios. This project was to be the new ORC album. Starting in January 2008, the Metal XOR blog posted weekly updates on the progress of the new ORC album. On February 25, in the week 8 post, it was announced that the project was taking longer than expected and the weekly updates were being discontinued. The album itself was put on hold and has yet to be continued.

On November 29, 2007, ORC held a photo shoot to create publicity stills and possibly an album cover. The shoot took place on the first floor of Attic Works Studio.

On Saturday, September 20, 2008, Jimmy and Jason were goofing around on a Voice Over IP program and inadvertently recorded a few new songs. The songs were put on a CD and released as the EP Thru the Vent on September 23, 2008.

On April 9, 2009, ORC assembled at Attic Works Studio for a vocal recording session for a new song called "Forerunner." This was the first song for their experimental distribution website. They were going to post new songs as they were finished for immediate download. After posting the first two online singles, the second being "Memories of Highgate", the project was put on hold.

Videos
Music videos began early in ORC's history. Although none of the early videos have ever been publicly released, they do still exist.

The first video shot was on March 27, 1994, for a NueroMorgue song called "Two-Tone Rhythm Kill" from Devis Tortura released in 1993. Jimmy provided vocals for the verses in the song. This could have been the first ORC song had it not already been listed as NueroMorgue.

Not necessarily a music video per se, but there is video footage of Jimmy and Jason recording vocals to "Pedestal Song" on April 23, 1994. This is considered by some to be the first ORC song.

On June 11, 994, ORC shot a video of them recording an unreleased song called "Willy's Spring Theme." The song was based on a phrase Willy Wonka said in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

On July 23, 1994, an actual music video was shot for the silly unreleased song called "5 Oz of Milk."

An equally silly video was shot on October 1, 1994, using the Brady Bunch's song "We'll Always Be Friends." It involved Jason, Jimmy, and a couple of cats.

"Pickle Breath" was their next music video. It was filmed on November 24, 1994, and done to some music that wasn't theirs.

"Jake Song" was a piano piece played by Jason and sung by Jason and Jimmy. It was recorded on January 14, 1995, and involved Jimmy's dog, Jake.

Their recording of the song "Placid" was videotaped on March 11, 1995. Footage from that day was used in the "Placid" video that was produced on November 11, 2009.

Discography

 * ﻿Purging the Great Abyss - March 2, 1999
 * Thru the Vent - September 23, 2008