Orange Mothers

Greatest Hits (I Eat Records)

Ethan Azarian must be an ancestor of Hans Christian Andersen, or perhaps a seventh cousin, twice removed, of Jacob & Wilheim Grimm. Azarian writes songs of the fantastic and surreal, twisted up with just the right amount of dysfunction. His Orange Mothers have become an Austin institution since their migration South from Vermont in the Eighties. Azarian’s tunes of heaven and love, spaceships and jellyfish keep Austin weird all on their own. Orange Mothers’ Greatest Hits is a book of fairy tales, each one specifically relegated to a particular place and time: youth, family outings, carnival rides. Sampling the Mothers’ five LPs – from 1991’s Money Store as the Hollywood Indians (“Young Girl”) to 2002’s delicate Traditional Love (“Roller Coaster Girl,” “Promised Land”) – Greatest Hits spins it storied pop. Opening with the seminal “Heaven,” Azarian dashes through alien invasions and hand-holding straight through to what’s possibly the definitive Mothers song yet: “Family Affair Pt. 1.” Ethan Azarian, Jeff Johnston, Tim Audy, and James Welch are family. And it’s about time the family tree pulled all the folklore and fantasy into one leather-bound, dust-ridden tome.

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This article appears in December 30 • 2005.

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