The Orbitsuns
See them perform at 10:45 on FEBRUARY 4th at Lager House
Riding their tired old horses across Detroit, their saddlebags stuffed with bourbon, Coney Island hotdogs and worn Johnny Cash cassettes, are the Orbitsuns, the Motor City’s finest purveyors of low down and dirty outlaw country. Summoning the spirits of all of their brethren, the Orbitsuns are as outrageous as Iggy, as blue collar as Seger, as dark as Alice, as revolutionary as the MC5 and as boundary crossing as the Kid. This is country, folks, but not as you know it. Front man Vinnie Dombroski made his name with alt-‐rock giants Sponge in the ‘90s, smashing into the charts with hits like “Plowed” and “Molly (16 Candles)”. Sponge were formed out of the ashes of the hard rock band Loudhouse, and they were signed to Sony Records for their first two albums (Rotting Piñata and Wax Ecstatic) and were the opening band on the first night of the Kiss reunion tour in 1996. That band is still a going concern proving that the singer is as prolific as he is talented. It was 1996 when Dombroski discovered his talent for writing fire n’ brimstone, honky-‐tonk hoe-‐down from Hell cow-‐punk music, and before long he found himself with a gun case full of songs that would shake the dust from the oldest Stetson, but wouldn’t fit comfortably Sponge’s repertoire. The obvious solution was to form a new band entirely, one that could roam from dive bar to social club, avoiding the spit n’ sawdust on the floors to bring the party to everyone from the hipsters to the ignored. The band, completed by Jimmy Paluzzi on drums,Bob Hecker on
bass,Jeremy “Leroy”Bilitz on guitar and Liz Fornal on vocals are one of the hardest working in Detroit, and in this town that’s really saying something. Their debut album Redneck Disco was originally released in 2001, simultaneously introducing the world to a band which had been honing it’s incendiary live show since it’s inception a couple of years before. That album, which was re-‐released in 2008 as Redneck Disco Revisited, featured such slabs of whisky-‐soaked Michigan mayhem as the self-‐explanatory “Long Line of Sinners”, a dirty cover of Johnny Cash’s “Boy Named Sue”, “La De Da” (a song which celebrates the fact that nobody would want to live next door to these reprobates) and “Haul Ass”, the latter being the Orbitsuns’ call to arms.
Bob – Base
Bob Hecker has played with celebrated local bands like Sonic Blues and Larval, and it is he who supplies the Devil’s own bass lines.
Leroy – Guitars
Jeremy “Leroy”Bilitz has been plucking strings since he was 8.
A native to the Detroit Metro area. Leroy has played with the areas finest bands over the past 20yrs. Most notably Whitey Morgan and the 78’s, and of course The Orbitsuns! His contributions have earned him several Detroit Music awards. Leroy can most often be found wrenching on something fast in the garage,
Jimmy – Drums
The rhythm section is completed by Jimmy Paluzzi, an original member of Sponge alongside Dombroski. After leaving Sponge, Paluzzi recorded an album for RCA Records with Hoarse, a hard rock band, and played with the Fags, a power-‐pop group who made a few waves on both sides of the Atlantic.
Liz – Vocals
Liz Fornal was raised on show tunes and obsessed with Patsy Cline by her early 20’s. Liz finally found herself in the middle of the country music scene—the former Honky Tonk Tuesdays at Bart’s in Ferndale, MI—where she also saw the Orbitsuns for the first time. Since then, she has lent her voice to many recordings including songs by Whitey Morgan, Deadstring Brothers, Scott Morgan & the Sights, Bull Halsey & Brandon Calhoon. She has a passion for old country music and also fronts vintage American music group, the Brunswick Brawlers with her pal, Jarrod Champion. She regularly shares the stage with many of her friends in town and will always put a harmony to your melody, especially if it is an old country song.
Vinnie – Vocals / Guitars
Principal song writer Vinnie Dombroski is one of the most celebrated musicians to have emerged from the vibrant Detroit scene in the last thirty years.
Fronting the Platinum selling rock band Sponge from it’s inception Vinnie is a veteran in the music world.
Having enjoyed the major successes that the business can bring and weathering the pitfalls as well he is at home on a major concert stage in front of 50,000 or in a packed cigarette smoke filled Honky Tonk.
