Mike Drake, Matt Harris, and Jim Lindsay knew each other from playing together in Overwhelming Colorfast and Stick Figures, previous bands.
[1] In 1999, Patrick Main was added to the lineup and the band began recording their second album, The Quiet Vibrationland, taking its name from a lyric from The Who's rock opera Tommy".
In 2003, Oranger released the double album Shutdown the Sun/From the Ashes of Electric Elves on San Francisco indie label Jackpine Social Club.
Oranger's last album, New Comes and Goes, was released in 2005 on Los Angeles indie Eenie Meenie Records.
Also in 2005, the band's cover of the 1954 hit song "Mr. Sandman" was featured in the Xbox video game Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel Without a Pulse" and in the television show "Vampire Diaries".