Catch 22 - Keasbey Nights (1998)

Keasbey Nights is the debut album by the East Brunswick, New Jersey ska punk band Catch 22, released on March 24, 1998 by Victory Records. It is the only album by the band's original lineup, as singer/songwriter/guitarist Tomas Kalnoky, bassist Josh Ansley, and horn player James Egan all left the group later that year. Kalnoky re-recorded the entire album in 2006 with his new band Streetlight Manifesto in response to Victory's plan to re-release it. The album's title references Keasbey, New Jersey, an unincorporated area within the Woodbridge Township of Middlesex County.

Personnel

* Josh Ansley - bass guitar, vocals
* Sean Bonner - construction
* Alan Douches - mastering
* Jamie Egan - co-production, trombone, flute, French horn, tin whistle, vocals
* Ryan Eldred - saxophone, vocals
* Grace Falconer - assistant Engineer
* Chris Greer - drum kit
* Kevin Gunther - trumpet, Vocals
* Hillary Johnson - co-production, mixing, recording
* Tomas Kalnoky - concept, guitars, music, photography, vocals, lyrics
* Augusto F. Menezes - photography

Streetlight Manifesto version
Keasbey Nights
Studio album by Streetlight Manifesto
Released March 7, 2006
Recorded 2004, June-September 2005
Genre Ska punk
Length 46:57
Label Victory
Professional reviews

* Allmusic 4/5 stars link

Streetlight Manifesto chronology
Everything Goes Numb
(2003) Keasbey Nights
(2006) Somewhere in the Between
(2007)
Tomas Kalnoky chronology
Everything Goes Numb
(2003) Keasbey Nights
(2006) Somewhere in the Between
(2007)

In 2004 Kalnoky decided to re-record Keasbey Nights with his new band Streetlight Manifesto. The decision was prompted by Victory Records' plan to re-release the album with additional content. The Streetlight Manifesto version was originally scheduled to be released in late 2004, but was continually delayed until being released on March 7, 2006.

The re-recorded version includes several musical and lyrical changes from the original. "Dear Sergio" includes an extra verse that Kalnoky had added when he recorded the song with the Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution on A Call to Arms (2001). A horn and improvised bass line based on Pachelbel's Canon was added to "On & On & On". The muted trumpet solo in "This One Goes Out To..." was replaced with a tenor saxophone, and different instruments were also used during the solo section of "Kristina She Don't Know I Exist". Most notably, Kalnoky replaced the shout-outs during the extended ending of "1234, 1234" with a text-to-speech transcription of an interview in which he explains his motivations for re-recording the album:

We wanted to get it right for once. Plus it helps me sleep at night knowing blood, sweat, and tears were put into a record as opposed to making people pay thirteen bucks for a record and they only get flashy new cover art. This release is a preemptive strike, I guess. Whatever you want to call it, it'll piss people off, and that, at the end of the day, is all that really matters.

If there's one thing I can't stand it's when a CD is re-released untouched sonically, with a new cover and maybe a live video, and kids are duped into buying this new edition of something they already have. I was upset when I was told the guys were going to do this for Keasbey, so I offered to re-record it because I've always thought it sounded like pure garbage sound-wise. Plus the budgets we get are laughable, particularly for a band with seven musicians to record. So we used some of our own money and took our time with this one. I'll tell you right now, we have no intent on hiding our intentions. We wanted to prevent the re-release of Keasbey untouched as well as get the record to sound how it should have sounded originally. For that we sacrificed months of our time and our money, and now we feel what we have is worth paying for. Although, truth be told, I don't care if a single record is sold, as it is indeed old music, and kids have a right to know what it is and to decide whether or not they'll pay for it. Do I think it's worth thirteen dollars? Yes, very much so, but that's my opinion. What other people decide, that's their own opinion. We're going to keep doing what we do whether or not a single record is sold.[1]

The liner notes for the album include a message: "There is absolutely no way of explaining the existence of the record you now hold in your hands without somehow offending, infuriating, confusing or alienating certain parties, so we won't even try. Please enjoy this for what it is."[1]

Personnel

* Jim Conti - tenor saxophone
* Jamie Egan - trumpet, backing vocals
* Tomas Kalnoky - guitar, mixing, music, recording, vocals, lyrics
* Chris Paszik - bass guitar, backing vocals
* Dan Ross - alto saxophone, baritone saxophone
* Mike Soprano - trombone
* Chris Thatcher - drum kit
* Colin Bell, Kenny Holland, Christopher Knowles, and Jeff Smith - gang vocals
* Jay Franco - mastering
* Rob Thatcher - hand percussion, gang vocals

Catch 22
Keasbey Nights (1998)


Track listing
All songs written by Tomas Kalnoky.

1. "Dear Sergio" – 2:31
2. "Sick and Sad" – 2:21
3. "Keasbey Nights" – 3:02
4. "Day in, Day Out" – 3:22
5. "Walking Away" – 4:06
6. "Giving Up, Giving In" – 2:48
7. "On & On & On" – 3:14
8. "Riding the Fourth Wave" – 1:50
9. "This One Goes Out To…" – 2:35
10. "Supernothing" (originally performed by Gimp) – 2:49
11. "9mm and a Three Piece Suit" – 1:56
12. "Kristina She Don't Know I Exist" – 5:10
13. "As the Footsteps Die Out Forever" – 3:11
14. "1234, 1234" – 7:09

http://www.mediafire.com/?tkmxkumtjnn

Catch 22

Catch 22 is an American ska punk band from East Brunswick, New Jersey. The band was formed by guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Tomas Kalnoky and drummer Chris Greer who recruited trumpeter Kevin Gunther, who was working in a local record store. Bassist Josh Ansley, saxophonist Ryan Eldred, and trombonist Jamie Egan, who also was the group's high school band director, rounded out the original lineup.

Biography

Catch 22 released a self-produced demo tape, Rules of the Game, in 1996. All 2000 copies of the tape quickly sold out. The band mailed several copies to labels they were interested in working with including Gainesville, Florida's Toybox Records (who had previously released a 7" by Less Than Jake). Toybox was owned and operated by Sean Bonner, who had recently moved to Chicago, Illinois to work at Victory Records. Sean brought the tape to the Victory office and suggested the band be signed.

The band then signed to Victory and produced their first studio album, 1998's Keasbey Nights. Ansley left and was replaced by Pat Calpin. Kalnoky left the band shortly thereafter, deciding to continue his education rather than tour. Catch 22 continued on with Pat Calpin moving to guitar, Pat "Mingus" Kays on bass, and Jeff Davidson on vocals. The band tested out their new lineup with disaster on the 1999 EP Washed Up!. Egan left to continue teaching. Alone in a Crowd followed in 2000 with Mike Soprano on trombone. During this time, the band riding on Keasbey Nights success, began touring heavily on a national scale, appearing with Mustard Plug, Reel Big Fish, and other third-wave ska, hardcore, and punk acts. Davidson and Soprano left the band in 2001 to pursue other projects, and for a while the band actively courted new vocalists, even putting an advertisement on their website. The group also recruited Ian McKenzie, formerly of Long Island, New York ska band Edna's Goldfish on trombone/vocals.

After a fruitless search, the band decided to continue on as it was, with Ryan Eldred and Kevin Gunther sharing vocal duties. Washed Up and Through the Ringer, an expansion of the Washed Up! EP, was released in 2001, featuring two new songs, three rarities from the Alone In A Crowd era, and a handful of live tracks recorded in October, 2000 at Club Laga in Pittsburgh and Euclid Tavern in Ohio. The band released its third full-length album, Dinosaur Sounds in 2003, roughly the same time as Streetlight Manifesto, a band founded by former Catch 22 frontman Tomas Kalnoky, and featuring Josh Ansley, Jamie Egan, and Jim Conti as well as former members of the NJ ska band One Cool Guy, released their debut, Everything Goes Numb. Both albums featured supposed veiled attacks on each other, suggesting to many fans that there was some sort of disagreement or heat between Catch 22 and Streetlight Manifesto. While there was a disagreement, the two parties have since reconciled their differences. Given that Catch 22's Kevin Gunther is in charge of Streetlight Manifesto's tour booking, and members of both bands have said in conversations with fans that there is no "beef" between the two, it is safe to assume that any disagreement is firmly behind them.

In 2004, Catch 22 released Live, a combination CD and DVD recording of a show performed at The Downtown in Farmingdale, New York, earlier that year.

In 2006 they released their fourth studio album, Permanent Revolution.

Several bands who opened for Catch 22 in the past have gone on to find fame on the mainstream, including Sum 41, Bowling for Soup, Taking Back Sunday and AFI.

Members
Current

* Pat Calpin - Guitar (Formerly Bass Guitar)
* Ryan Eldred - Tenor Saxophone/Vocals/Song Writer
* Chris Greer - Drums
* Kevin Gunther - Trumpet/Vocals
* Pat "Mingus" Kays - Bass Guitar
* Ian McKenzie - Trombone

Former

* Josh Ansley - Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals
* Tomas Kalnoky - Guitar/Vocals/Song Writer
* Jamie Egan - Trombone/Flute/French Horn/Irish Tin Whistle/Backing Vocals
* Jeff Davidson - Vocals/Song Writer
* Matt Hill - Trumpet
* Mike Soprano - Trombone

Discography
Albums

* Keasbey Nights (1998)
* Alone in a Crowd (2000)
* Washed Up and Through the Ringer (2001)
* Dinosaur Sounds (2003)
* Permanent Revolution (2006)

Live Records

* Live (2004)

EPs

* Rules of the Game (1996)
* Washed Up! (1999)