Tangerine (band)

Sisters Marika and Miro Justad played as a duo called The Neons at the SoundOff battle of bands competition for young people, hosted through the Museum of Pop Culture.[1] Toby Kuhn, who was in the SoundOff audience, partnered with Marika to create a duo, The Sutures;[1][4] Miro also played with their band after she entered high school.[1] The group split as Kuhn attended, then left, college,[4] while Marika met and performed[5] with Ryan Baker as they both were students at the University of Washington.[6] When The Sutures reunited, Baker joined the lineup, and the band regrouped under the name Tangerine in January 2013.[5]

Over the course of that year, the quartet released their first two EPs, Pale Summer and Radical Blossom.[4] Both EPs received positive buzz from The Guardian,[7] the print edition of NME,[8] and MTV.[9] The band also garnered attention, including "a shout-out from Governor Inslee",[5] for the early single "Hanford Rivera", which addresses toxic waste leakage into the Columbia River from the Hanford Site.[10] Between 2013 and 2014, Tangerine performed at the national level as part of South by Southwest,[11] as well as regional Pacific Northwest festivals like Bumbershoot and the Capitol Hill Block Party.[12][1]

In 2014, Tangerine's song "The Runner" was featured in two episodes of season 4 of the television comedy Awkward.[13] In October of that year, the band's third EP Behemoth!, its first studio recording[4], was released. A review in Northwest Asian Weekly favorably compared the "sweet vocals" and "edgy chords" of Behemoth! to The Velvet Underground and Television's Marquee Moon album.[12]

In February 2016, a fourth Tangerine EP, Sugar Teeth, arrived. The EP's first and second tracks, "Tender" and "Sunset", premiered on Noisey[14] and Stereogum,[15] respectively.

In June 2017, the Justad sisters and Kuhn announced a move from Seattle to Los Angeles, aiming to record a debut record as Tangerine and interact with more diverse music audiences.[1] Two months later, the band shared the single "Sly Moon", a track created with help from Michael Shuman of Queens of the Stone Age and Zach Dawes of Mini Mansions.[16] After a fall tour with Bleachers,[16] this was followed by a Billboard-exclusive release of the single "Fever Dream" in November 2017.[16]

In October 2018, Tangerine shared their singles "Local Mall"[17] and "Cherry Red"[18] with accompanying music videos. Marika Justad revealed that the group's EP White Dove, which arrived the same month, would transition from Tangerine's previous rock direction to a more melodic sound with pop elements.[17]

The name "Tangerine" came from the song of the same name on Led Zeppelin's album Led Zeppelin III.[12] The members of Tangerine have described the group's style as "dark pop + rock n roll".[16]

Marika Justad has cited Courtney Love, Mazzy Star, and Karen O as stylistic influences, as well as Lou Reed and The Beach Boys for their ability to maintain "that bittersweet light/dark balancing act" in their songwriting.[19] Miro Justad and Kuhn have claimed inspiration, particularly for beats, from Miriam Makeba, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, and Antônio Carlos Jobim.[12]

• Tangerine on Bandcamp