Thick Pigeon

One of the forgotten links in the story of Manchester, England's Factory label, Thick Pigeon was an arty duo from New York that consisted of Stanton Miranda (bass, vocals) and Carter Burwell (percussion, effects, vocals). Prior to forming the group, Miranda was a background member in the New York music scene, having played with Kim Gordon in CKM and with Rhys Chatham's Arsenal. A series of three 1982 singles -- two for Crepuscule and one for Operation Twilight -- predated their debut album. Miranda and Burwell recorded the album, Too Crazy Cowboys, for Factory in 1983, with key assistance from New Order's Gillian Gilbert and Stephen Morris. After the album's late-1984 release, Burwell went into a successful career as a soundtrack composer, starting with the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple. Though they never used the Thick Pigeon name again, Miranda and Burwell worked together on a 1991 album for Crepuscule, which was released under the name Miranda Dali. Miranda continued to record sporadically (including a version of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" for the Joy Division tribute A Means to an End), but she also became involved with Hollywood as an actor, with roles in The Silence of the Lambs, Souvenir, Married to the Mob, and Something Wild. In 2003, the LTM label reissued Too Crazy Cowboys with several bonus tracks appended. ~ Andy Kellman