The band was formed while Jayson, Will, and Brad were studying at Hampshire College and Jeff was attending Umass in Amherst, Massachusetts in early 1998. The majority of their discography was released on vinyl records which they often shared with other bands. There were three full-length (by their standards) records released: Chaos is Me, Dance Tonight, Revolution Tomorrow! and the final Self-Titled release, all released on Ebullition Records. Towards the end of their lifespan, the final line-up of Orchid had formed various side-projects with vocalist Jayson Green, bassist Geoff Garlock and drummer Jeff Salane forming the band Panthers and guitarist Will Killingsworth playing in the band Bucket Full of Teeth and working on Dead Air Studios, his recording project based in Amherst, MA where the band recorded their final album (having previously recorded at Godcity with Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou). Orchid played last shows in a number of cities during the summer of 2002, the last of which was at The Advocate in Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA where they played with Sinaloa and the band Wolves, who had former Orchid bassist Brad Wallace playing guitar for them.
Will continues to run his own label called Clean Plate Records, whilst his band Bucket Full of Teeth released several records, including a full-length LP on Level Plane Records before he formed the band Ampere who are still active. Jayson, Geoff and Jeff continue to play in the band Panthers, who have released two full-length albums and an EP. After Wolves finished, Brad joined Transistor Transistor to play guitar, who also recently released an album on Level-Plane.
Recently, Will reprinted a large number of Orchid Chaos Is Me shirts, with the hope of deflating the high prices for which both bootleg and legitimate Orchid shirts are sold on eBay.