Stuck in a land of swamp-pop and frat-rock, where indie-pop is considered revolutionary, Wilderness Pangs sticks out like a sore thumb painted purple and emanating radioactive luminescence.
Despite their inherent weirdness and intentional abandonment of the rules, Wilderness Pangs actually consider themselves a pop band. Albeit a pop band from a mysterious forest on an alien planet. The group started as a home-recording project between long-time pals Brandon White and Randy Faucheux in 2003. The early music of Wilderness Pangs was borne out of much personal turmoil. Despite this, the music was never melodramatic or whiny. Far from it, the music was always playful, absurd, and surreal. In many ways, it was music made from pure creative energy.
The Wilderness Pangs project never officially ended, but never fully resumed until mid-2006, when Randy created a MySpace page for the band. Response was overwhelming, and Baton Rougeans craving truly original and weird live music were clamoring for performance. This caused Brandon and Randy to assemble a make-shift band in order to play their debut show on the day of the dark prince, 6/6/06. The original line-up included Jeremy Baptiste on saxophone, laptop, and theremin, and Josh Wascome on drums. Josh left the band after their first show, and Wilderness Pangs continued as a three-piece.
An early show with their friends from Austin, TX, the Weird Weeds, earned them a stellar review from local music writer Alex V. Cook in 225 Magazine.
Subsequent shows saw long-time friend John Vitrano sitting in on more and more songs until he was eventually asked to join the fold full-time. He now handles most drum duties, while Jeremy mans a slew of electronic devices run through his mixing board, and Brandon and Randy handle most stringed-instrument duties.
In late 2006, the band recorded the first new material since its inception in 2003, with recording guru Fred Weaver.
Their first official full-length, The Indivisible Squalor of Wilderness Pangs, was released in February 2007. |
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