In 1995, Ignatius Reilly started cutting their musical chops in Scott Ruthrauff's garage with no one but angry neighbors and the Oakland PD to cheer them on. Four months later, that garage mysteriously burned down and the band stumbled out of the wreckage into the hearts and minds of Oakland's alternative scene.

With a play list of 30+ original songs, and a few interesting interpretations of popular classics, the band was soon in demand throughout the East Bay and San Francisco, They played Bakersfield, CA once… Lord they can’t go back there again!

Lyrically and musically, Ignatius Reilly never disappoints. Constantly experimenting with thoughts, words and beats, they wrap up punk, funk, country, and rock-a-billy in a big bow and deliver it first-class every time. Songs are split pretty evenly down the middle -- some are about something and others are about nothing.

No matter which side they fall, every one of their damn songs has words. Big words. Bad sentences. Whole paragraphs of things you wish you had the guts to say. Ignatius Reilly can do that better and faster and louder than most who've come before.

The boys claim early Spice Girls (before they sold out), The Pixies, "Hooked On..." series, PJ Harvey, Led Zeppelin, and Bachman-Turner Overdrive as musical influences. Literary inspiration comes from Nancy Friday, Breakfast at Tiffany's and the US Postal Service Zip Code Directory. Named after the iconoclastic main character in John Kennedy O'Toole's classic novel, Confederacy of Dunces, you could most assuredly say that Ignatius Reilly moves to the beat of their own drummer (his name is Matt Williams).
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