Like many great partnerships, Xavier Sanchez and Thom Valles despised each other when they first met during their Freshman year of highschool in El Paso. Thanks to a perceptive teacher who forced them to work together, we now have the thrash punk duo Cheeky Orange, albeit many years later. Valle’s vocals have a hypnotic, psychedelic quality that suddenly erupt into primal screams and raise neckhairs in the best way possible. Distorted, staccatto guitar riffs interweave through pulsating drums to draw listeners in. The tempestuous instrumentation sways like a metronome and evokes equal parts Sabbath and At The Drive In. Cheeky Orange seems to have absorbed elements from the El Paso post-hardcore scene as well as Austin’s deep psychedelic roots, but their violent and mesmerizing sound is uniquely infectious and unto itself. Having recorded their first demos on an a basic 8 track recorder, expect them to release an official debut in the next year, and definitely catch their live shows that they’ll be playing regularly in Austin.