Shooting Pigeons' sound is often compared to Joy Division, Pink Floyd and The Ramones. They recently released their EP 'City Of Peace'. Here's what we made of it...
When I asked Altrincham band Shooting Pigeons who inspired them, and they mentioned names like Dustin Hoffman, Dalai Lama, Craig David, and Albert Hoffman I literally had no idea what to expect, and was anticipating something really quite marvellous. I was half-hoping for four Buddhist guys who write UK Garage music, can count like Rain Man, and love acid. The band I then listened to weren't so close to that description to be honest, but nonetheless turned out to be quite brilliant.
My favourite track of the EP was 'Hindsight' by far. I was really blown away by this one to be honest, it's rare to find relatively new, unsigned bands who can write songs as professionally as this. My first thought at 0:30 was how much the band sounded like 'Editors'. Once Jack Corcoran's vocals came in, I was equally impressed, and he reminded me of Franz Ferdinand singer Alex Kapranos. The contrast between the chorus and the verse worked brilliantly; with a much more punchy chorus than the relatively laid back verse.
The opening track, called 'Billiken' also began with a guitar centred intro, unexpectedly breaking into a very different verse in a similar style to 'Hindsight'. Look out for an appearance from the oh-so-risky guitar whammy bar in this one, featuring at 1:07, which was remarkably pulled off quite well, along with a well composed solo around 1:50, with some very nice phrasing. We also hear the band's Albert Hoffman influence at parts with use of delayed vocals!
'Dirty Poor' is track three from the City Of Peace EP, and has a very Flourescent-Adolescent-Arctic Monkeys-like vibe to it, particularly in terms of guitar work in the intro, and the stop time guitar before the chorus at 1:15. Lots of funky chords are used in this one, supported by distorted, rumbling bass lines and some very tight, fitting drums from Mr Max McGuire.
For the title track of the EP, 'City Of Peace', the tempo and energy levels are brought right down, and this sudden contrast really grabs your attention. Opening with just one guitar, nicely coated in reverb to fill the spaces, this track is also one to look out for. The drums, bass and vocals remain gentle and soft right until 2:45, at which point my favourite moment of the EP explodes on to the scene with heavily distorted guitars, and the rest of the band slowly blasting out the song. This only lasts around twenty-five seconds, after which, the tone from the start of the piece is adopted again by the band, which is much less drum-heavy. At 5:53 the atmosphere's brought up again in a similar section to 2:45, this time lasting longer, and vocals joining in the second time, echoing the lyrics 'It's the kind of place I'd like to stay', obviously referring to the 'City Of Peace'.
I'd recommend this band to anyone, and definitely wouldn't turn down an opportunity to see them live. I see lots of potential in this EP, and look forward to future releases. In answer to our ridiculous question ''If you could befriend either a llama or a cat, which would you choose and why?'', Shooting Pigeons replied ''As we're all professional animal breeders, we'd mate the cat and the llama and befriend the mutated offspring which would of course be called a Callama!''. Excellent answer guys, get back to me if you should ever find yourself in a situation involving Callamas!
For fans of:
- Franz Ferdinand
- Joy Division
- Arctic Monkeys
- Editors
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