|
|
|
|
Before Catch 22, there was Gimp. Tomas Kalnoky and Chris Greer (of Catch 22 fame) were in a punk band called Gimp, and when Tomas got bored with playing "just punk", he decided to expand Gimp's sound by adding some new members. He asked Kevin Gunther to join as trumpet player when they met in Camelot Records one day. Ryan Eldred and Jamie Egan joined on saxophone and trombone, respectively, and in the fall of 1996, Catch 22 was born.
After selling 2,000 copies of their debut, "Rules of the Game," they went off in search of a record label. In 1997 they were signed to Victory Records, by lucky chance. Kevin says: "We sent our demo out to every small, independant label we could find." As luck would have it, one of those labels was a death-metal label by the name of Toybox Records, headed by Sean Bonner, an employee of Victory. Bonner was listening to the demo at Victory one day, when label owner Tony Brummel heard it through the wall. "Sean was playing our demo and Tony heard it by chance, apparently he liked it, because the next day he contacted us." |
The band recorded "Keasbey Nights" and began touring. Tomas, sick of touring, left the band and went to college instead. While the departure of their lead singer, songwriter and guitarist would kill an ordinary band, Catch 22 persevered.
Pat Calpin, who was the band's bassist at the time, filled the guitar slot; Pat Kays took his place on bass; and Jeff Davidson joined as Catch 22's new vocalist.
In October of 1999, Catch 22 released the four-song EP "Washed Up," proving that they could still rock without Tomas.
Since then, they've experienced a few more personnel changes: trombonist Jamie Egan left Catch 22. The band's new album features Mike Soprano on trombone, but their new, permanent trombone player is Ian McKenzie, of the late, great Edna's Goldfish. This fall, Catch 22 will be embarking on a gigantic tour, with more than half a dozen record release parties to celebrate the completion of their highly-anticipated second full-length release, "Alone in a Crowd". And why? Because they are that damn good.
this bio is taken from |
