Pistolero
Costa Mesa, California, United States | SELF
Music
Press
Forgive the crass anatomical reference, but it’s nice to hear an Orange County band with some balls. In an area flooded with so many folksy, sensitive types producing finely honed but ultimately innocuous pop, the deliberately old-school heavy metal of Costa Mesa quintet Pistolero sounds practically cutting-edge.
Instead of approaching vintage ’70s and ’80s hard-rock fundamentals with smirky tongues in cheeks (see Probot, the Darkness), Pistolero offer up unironic, unapologetic metal that borrows from some of the genre’s best. On “Hail to the King,” lead singer Donnie Deschenes shrieks, “I wanna go where eagles dare”—a shout-out to the Misfits, Iron Maiden or both. (It’s also a pleasant reminder that heavy-metal songs once had discernible vocals.) “Metal Gold” goes a little further down the time line, with hints of “Seek & Destroy.” Pistolero may not be much more than an homage to the days when rock bands weren’t ashamed to be hell-bent for leather, but it’s a good one.
Active since 2003, Pistolero have been relatively quiet on the local scene recently, but that’s changing: They have a monthlong residency at Detroit Bar, sharing the Monday-night spot with the fellow hard rockers of Fullerton five-piece Sederra.
Pistolero guitarist Parker Macy has caught attention and acclaim for his decidedly different solo project, Parker Macy Blues; he just released a new record under that moniker, Hope for the Revolution. These gigs give fans a chance to check out the usually acoustic Macy cut loose as Deschenes instructs on “Stumpgrinder” to “run those fuckers down.” Sounds like fun.
The band sum it up pretty well on “Just Let It Happen”: “Don’t pretend like you don’t like it,” Deschenes (kinda) sings, “’cause you’re asking for more.”
- OCWEEKLY
Discography
Pistolero Demo EP 2010
Full Album can be heard on our Myspace page for free
www.myspace.com/pistolero
Photos
Bio
In early 2003 Donnie Deschenes, Jeremy Munoz, Thom Cooper, Aaron Luckett and Sean Newman started a garage rock band with little intention of doing anything but party and play loud music. Somewhere in the middle of their madness was a method which soon became recognized by local underground rockers in orange county.
In May of 2004 the infamous "Detroit Bar" in Costa Mesa booked them as thier monday night resident band. They turned out to have a bigger draw than the Detroit Bar had ever anticipated making it one of the busiest residencies to date. Pistolero continued that year with a couple of appearances at The House of Blues Anaheim and a record breaking night at La Cave in Costa Mesa.
For the next couple of years the band seemed relatively quiet. No shows no news and no posts.
It seemed like out of nowhere in 2007 they emerged with a new heavier tighter sound. Booking shows From Alex's Bar(LBC) to Annies' Social Club(SF) with names like: The Bronx, Death by Stereo, Fu Manchu and Valient Thorr.
In 2010 Pistolero is nominated for "Best Metal" Band in The OC Music Awards(w/o ever releasing an album).
The Band is currently seeking management and label support for thier debut album due out summer of 2010
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