For upcoming gigs and streaming music go to:

www.myspace.com/orbmellon

BIOGRAPHY

Orb Mellon is the alter ego and roots music moniker of Mike Malone, founder and guitarist for the seminal 90s indie rock band Dirt Merchants.

Between 1992 and 1997, Dirt Merchants released a handful of critically acclaimed singles on their own label, V-Hold. Their first full length album “Scarified” was released on the fledgling Zero Hour in 1994 and re-released on Sony/Epic in 1995. The Dirt Merchants’ DIY concept EP “Swiss Bank” was released in 1997 shortly before the band decided to call it quits. Their second full length length album “The Speed at Which You Speak” produced in 1996-97 with Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock remains unreleased.

After Dirt Merchants, Mike joined the short lived Chicago based indie supergroup Ultraswiss which included members of Veruca Salt, The Joy Poppers and Nectarine. Mike also contributed slide and electric guitar to 27’s album “Holding On For Brighter Days” (Undergroove, 2005; Relapse, 2007).

As Orb Mellon, Mike mines the raw energy of 20th Century American roots music, particularly whiskey fueled house party delta blues. Influenced by the likes of Son House, Bukka White and Charlie Patton, Orb  performs pure, sonically aggressive blues, free from any quaintness or historicism, prompting one early reviewer to identify Orb Mellon’s work simply as “blues in all its primeval glory.” (Tangled in the Roots, July 2006).

Orb Mellon’s releases reflect his expansive vision of the Blues.  His 2007 debut album “LOVE ABOVE” was produced to preserve the directness and spontaneity inherent in the best early blues recordings. To that end, all but one of the album’s 13 original tracks were recorded in a single day with the majority executed in only one take.  His immediate follow up, the limited edition EP “OM AMB,” was comprised of 3 extended ambient pieces that accompanied multi-media artist Peer Hansen’s solo New York City exhibit “Man Made Lake” in the fall of 2007.  His most recent release, the 2009 concept album “MOAN,” explores the darker side of human relations with a collection of songs about lust, love, loss, and revenge that were specifically written to be sequenced together in a single emotional arc.

RELEASES

MOAN

(V-Hold, 2009 )

Tracks:

Baby Blue

Burn

I'll Never Go

Gonna Find It

I'm Just A Man

Weigh My Heart

Heart Is Blue

The Reaper

Angel

Love You All The Time

Moan

"If Orb Mellon’s Blues is a vision of how the Blues will continue to thrive then I can give nothing but praise." -Blues Matters!

"A great record." -Blues In Britain

"As gritty as it is good, Moan is a fine piece of post-modern blues." -Living Blues

"haunting...subversive" -Blues Revue

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LOVE ABOVE

(V-Hold, 2007)

Tracks:

Love Above

Heavy Water

Rolling River

Crazy Love

Aberdeen

What I'm Going To Do With You

I Think Of You

My Lover

Looking For Trouble

If I Knew

Coochie Coo Blues

Long Way Home

Cellophane Girl

"Masterful...a truly bluesy blues album"- Fairfield County Weekly

"Every track is a winner...a contender for my album of the year"- Blues In Britian

"Intense, emotionally moving performances"- Blues Revue Magazine

"Orb Mellon can play"- Living Blues

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OM AMB

(V-Hold, 2007)

Tracks:

Scratch

Moan

Whistle

Orb Mellon’s music is available online through CDBaby, I Tunes and other digital outlets.