Formed in 1993 by guitarists Scott Patalano and Brad Rigney, bassist Ruben Layman, drummer Todd Demma and Forgione (ex-Funeral Party, Twelve Tone Failure), Mistle Thrush took their name from a bird that eats the poisonous-to-most berries of the mistletoe plant.
Generally identified as goth—although the term, as The Phoenix's Brett Milano later put it, "never quite suited them"[5]—quickly found a home at Washington, D.C.'s Bedazzled Records, who released the band's debut 7" in 1994.
In May 1995 they advanced as far as the semi-finals of the 17th annual WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble;[6] by the time they put out their full-length debut (1995's Silt), Rigney had been replaced by former teenage Boston hardcore semi-star Matthew Kattman (ex-Funny Wagon, Kingpin).
[7] The album landed them on the Boston Herald's "Local Best of 1997" list, with music critic Tristram Lozaw declaring it to be "[s]ilky smart pop with sublime sonics".
Jim Sullivan noted in the Boston Globe that Forgione "shines during her featured numbers" and that she "belt[s] out... [the] songs in a manner far from her work with... Mistle Thrush.