Faraquet began as a side project featuring Smart Went Crazy members Devin Ocampo and Jeff Boswell along with Devin’s high school friend, Chad Molter, who had recently relocated to D.C. from Los Angeles.
When SWC fell apart, Faraquet stepped up as a full-time band and started playing more shows, releasing a couple of singles as well as appearing on a split CD with Akarso, a band from Milwaukee.
After seeing Faraquet a few times around town, Fugazi invited them to do some shows on a tour through the south. Shortly after returning from that trip, the band recorded with J. Robbins at Inner Ear Studio and released “The View from This Tower” in November of 2000. After a few more brief tours, Faraquet decided to call it quits in 2001.
In 2003 Devin and Chad reunited to form Medications with Chad moving from drums to his native instrument, bass.
In the summer of 2007 the members of Faraquet announced plans to re-issue the songs they had recorded for various singles and split releases onto a compilation CD/LP/MP3. This album, “Anthology 1997-98”, was released in July 2008. Working on this project rekindled the band’s interest in playing songs, so they reunited briefly for a Brazilian tour and a show in Washington, D.C.
On May 30th the Brooklyn band SAVAK will release their 7th record entitled “SQUAWK!” which also happens to be the 10 year anniversary of their first show. The core trio of the band that has been intact since the start is Sohrab Habibion (Obits, Edsel) and Michael Jaworski (The Cops) on vocals, guitars and shared songwriting duties, and Matt Schulz (Holy Fuck, Enon) on drums. The band performs live with bassist Matt Hunter (Silver Jews, New Radiant Storm King).
On SQUAWK! you’ll find a band comfortable in its stride, making music for the electric guitar, influenced by recordings from the ‘60s to the present, while branching out in ways not previously heard on earlier SAVAK LPs. The band expands their time tested, melodic, post-punk formula adding cinematic Morricone vibes, Velvet’s groove and Ronson glam. Which all makes perfect sense as SAVAK continues to push boundaries and grow while embarking on their 10th year as a band.
