The Screaming Pigeons, circa 2004.Press Release
"Full denim outfits. Big rock poses. Stadium-sized riffs and similar sized egos. Admittedly, this band may have at least one of these things (the poses... and maybe the riffs), but no, this isn’t the newest, trendiest ‘the’ band on the block; this is the story of three brothers from the isolated suburbs of the north-east of Melbourne, Australia, coming together in the name of rock (and more importantly, fun); Simon, Andre and Matthew Fazio, otherwise known as The Screaming Pigeons.
Combining their favourite elements of the raw rock stylings of their favorite groups (whilst leaving behind the pretentiousness and the self-consciousness), The Screaming Pigeons are the perfect antithesis to the run-of-the-mill contrived retro-rock bands; a band you can dance and groove to sometimes, and rock out to others, and not have to worry about losing your indie cred.
The Pigeons draw much influence from heavily groove-orientated rock acts such as Fu Manchu and Kyuss, but also prefer the guitar stylings of groups ranging from the Stooges to KISS and Led Zeppelin, with Andre’s thunderous drumbeats drawing much from his favorite skinsmiths John Bonham and Danny Carey, whilst fourteen-year old Matthew’s unbelievably searing lead-guitar work was fashioned whilst rocking out to AC/DC and The Hellacopters in his room on a borrowed SG. With the group rounded off by older-brother Simon on bass (and the occasional vocal), the Pigeons are defiantly a force to be reckoned with.
The band are currently working on their debut release, entitled 'Molasses of Death', which will be available to the general public hopefully around the end of July."
(Of course, that never happened.)
Our first gig was June, 2004 at the Good Morning Captain (which is now some sort of Jamaican coffee house now?). I always get a bit nostagic walking past. Our set consisted of mostly instrumentals with a Kyuss medley at the end. We went on to play The Tote a few months later. We were pretty petrified about it, considering we had two underaged members (one of whom tried to get in the week before and was knocked back). Matt, who was 15 at the time, was pretty excited about it all. Eventually, due to growing tensions within the band (probably about who had the best hair), we stopped playing together a couple of years later... only to be reunited next Saturday at the Tote!
There wasn't much recorded of the band, but here's an early unfinished demo of a song. I don't even think I'm on it; Andre probably doubled up on bass and drums.
