The Pigeons

Emerging from the Bronx in New York, experimental indie pop outfit Pigeons crafts a hazy strain of lo-fi psych-folk shaped by French pop traditions and often threaded with flutes, drum machines, and guitar feedback, even as later efforts reveal more focused musicianship and tighter songcraft. Across the years the ensemble’s roster has fluctuated, drawing in contributors from noted experimental outfits such as No-Neck Blues Band and Pelt, while the constant core has remained guitarist and vocalist Wednesday Knudsen and multi-instrumentalist Clark Griffin, both longtime participants in the experimental collective the Sea Donkeys.

The group first surfaced in the mid-2000s through limited cassette and lathe-cut vinyl editions issued on Clark Griffin’s Moran Tape Label. Its debut album, Virgin Spectacle, appeared in 2008 on engineer Jason Meagher’s Black Dirt Records and included Carter Thornton of Enos Slaughter among its members. Pigeons next aligned with Minneapolis-based imprint Soft Abuse for the 2009 7" EP Lunettes. The year 2010 opened with the LP Si Faustine on Olde English Spelling Bee together with a Chocolate Bobka–issued tape from the blog’s Curatorial Club series; after Thornton’s departure the duo format yielded two further 7"s—Visions of the Valley on Soft Abuse and Hearts on Olde English Spelling Bee—plus the full-length Liasons, also on Soft Abuse, all within that same year.

In 2011 the lineup expanded once more to incorporate Meagher and drummer Ben Bogan, with Nathan Bowles of Black Twig Pickers, Spiral Joy Band, and Pelt joining for select live appearances. Japanese label Sixteen Tambourines put out the limited cassette No Shore in July of that year. Toward year’s end Soft Abuse released the full-length They Sweetheartstammers, whose denser, more psychedelic tone marked a shift from prior work. Following this album the group’s rhythm section joined Steve Gunn’s backing band while Knudsen and Griffin relocated from the Bronx to upstate New York. Knudsen contributed to the debut album by experimental folk supergroup Black Dirt Oak, which features Bowles and Gunn alongside members of Suntanama, No-Neck Blues Band, and additional ensembles. Rob Smith of Rhyton then became Pigeons’ new drummer, and the resulting trio tracked their fifth LP, The Bower, in 2014 at Meagher’s Black Dirt Studio; MIE Music issued the album in spring 2015, with the 7" single “Buoy” following on Soft Abuse later that summer.