The Orwells were an American rock band from Elmhurst, a suburb west of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The members included Mario Cuomo, Dominic Corso, Matt O'Keefe, Grant Brinner, and Henry Brinner. Their debut albumRemember When was released in August 2012. Their first EP, Other Voices, was released in June 2013, followed by Who Needs You in September 2013. The group disbanded as a result of accusations of sexual misconduct by members.
History
''Remember When''
The Orwells formed when all the members attended York High School in Elmhurst, Illinois. The band was discovered in late 2011 by Aquarium Drunkard blogger Justin Gage, who signed them to his Autumn Tone label imprint. They graduated high school early in 2013 to pursue their musical career. The Orwells were named as one of the overlooked artists of 2012 in MTV's annual list. Their single "Mallrats " was also reviewed by music website Pitchfork. They performed at Lollapalooza in August 2013. On November 5, 2013, The Orwells appeared on Later... with Jools Holland. On November 22, 2013, Arctic Monkeys announced that The Orwells would be their support at nine American concerts in January and February 2014.
''Disgraceland''
On March 24, 2014, The Orwells announced their new studio albumDisgraceland through social media outlets. The album was released on June 3, 2014, and includes singles such as “Who Needs You” and “Dirty Sheets”. The song "Who Needs You" was featured on the August 6, 2013, episode of NPR's All Songs Considered. Co-host Bob Boilen said "You can't say The Orwells without saying 'young'" and called the song his summer anthem. The Orwells performed on Late Show with David Letterman January 15, 2014. Their performance was enthusiastically received, so much that Letterman and others called for an encore. The band did not respond, partly because guitarist Matt O'Keefe had broken all of his strings and physically could not play. After waiting for the Orwells, the house band reprised the Orwells' song and Paul Shaffer parodied the way that Mario Cuomo had lain on his back, thrashing. On September 25, 2014, the band was featured on an episode of Adam Devine's House Party, performing their single "Who Needs You". On December 7, 2014, the prospering note "Who Needs You" was found in an Apple Inc. commercial for the iPad Air 2, "Change is in the Air." This track was also to be later found in a Rockstar Gamesvideo game, "Grand Theft Auto V" on one of the in-game Rock N' Roll stations.
On September 10, 2018, Consequence of Sound published a series of allegations made by nine women who accused members of the band of serious instances of sexual abuse: "“The Orwells’ abuse was not only a well-known scene secret, but it was something that happened to so many women WITHIN the scene. Girlfriends of band members, friends of girlfriends of band members, to the women that are in the front row every show, etc.,”... “People were SO close to the abuse. They saw what happened to their friends and knew these awful dudes lived nearby. I think they didn’t want to start even more trouble.”" Such allegations had been raised on Reddit and Twitter against Cuomo and the Brinner brothers. The range of allegations include rape, sexual relations with underage girls, and sending unsolicited nude photos. The Orwells issued a statement to Paste magazine denying allegations. On August 29, 2018, the Orwells announced that they had disbanded. This came in the wake of some members of the band being accused of sexual misconduct.
Post-split
On June 15, 2019, Mario Cuomo released the self-titled fourth studio album by The Orwells onto his YouTube channel.
Musical influence
Several band members have expressed a love for the Supremes in interviews. The lead singer, Mario Cuomo, is heavily influenced by six distinctly different performers; Iggy Pop, Jay Reatard, Julian Casablancas, Cole Alexander and Jared Swilley of the Black Lips, Pelle Almqvist of the Hives, and Tyler, the Creator—particularly Tyler's talk about skipping class, disobeying parents, and going to record. Mario is quoted saying that, "It like spoke to me even more than any other music I was listening to. I think if it wasn’t for him, I probably wouldn’t have had the balls to drop out or even be in a band."
