Californian alt-country band American Catapult are an act willing to do things their own way, including doing a tour without booking any dates in advance. Formed in 2003 by Mike Bock (lead guitar), Terry Overlin (bass), Tom Townsend (lead singer, guitar) and Shawn Winters (drums, vocals), American Catapult features four veteran musicians with impressive chops as both musicians and songwriters and an eagerness to be heard. AmCat recorded a self-distributed album in 2004, Home of the Brave, which showcased their passionate but down-to-earth roots rock, and it was followed with a 2005 EP, Excess Falling. But AmCat had trouble finding venues interested in their music in Southern California, so they set out on what they called "The Tour of the Brave," in which the roamed the California coast for several days and stopped wherever they could find a crowd willing to hear them play, with locations ranging from a Laundromat to a highway rest stop to an airfield, with a small camera crew recording the adventure for posterity. The stunt helped boost interest in AmCat, and after initially releasing their second full-length album Trees Of Mystery themselves, they signed a deal with the respected independent label Cooking Vinyl, who reissued the set in 2007. American Catapult continues to tour, though usually with shows booked well in advance. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide (Billboard.com)
American Catapult is a band that truly has the soul of the American landscape running through their veins. Not only does the Southern California quartet play songs which attempt to capture the experience of being young, free, and in the midst of wide open spaces (both geographically and emotionally), but the band has literally brought their music to a wide range of settings which dot the horizons of many who live in the lower forty-eight. The band has professed to having played everywhere from abandoned airfields and rest stops to the local coin laundry. "We have found over time this incredible difficulty in finding decent places to play out," says vocalist/guitarist Tom Townsend, in a press release. "It became our mission to get out of our little rehearsal space and find an audience, any audience even if that meant playing during the spin cycle at a local Laundromat full of strangers."
Based on the results displayed on Trees of Mystery , the members of American Catapult have presented these strange and ordinary locales with a straight-ahead, uncomplicated sound that draws from the earthy guitar jangles, country overtones and pop sensibilities of early R.E.M., Son Volt, and even the early-to-mid '90s vibe of such radio friendly bands as Gin Blossoms and Toad the Wet Sprocket. The band is secure and strong in their sound, displaying an understanding of what a professional rock and roll album should sound like.
(popmatters.com) View American Catapult's EPK
You can still get the 2007 release TREES of MYSTERY at a number of online outlets and record stores nationwide & in Canada, with much thanks to Cooking Vinyl USA.
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