Date: Fri 18-Oct-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Quick Words:

Cycomotogoat-Treadmill

Full Text:

(NHS 1986 Alumni in bands Cycomotogoat & Treadmill Trackstar, 10/18/96)

These NHS Alumni Like Their Sounds In The Spotlight

(with cuts/album covers)

BY SHANNON HICKS

Newtown's Class of 1986 celebrated its tenth anniversary of graduation in

June. A few members of the tribe have continued to follow a dream that has

taken them closer to the spotlight in the music industry. Gabe Dorman, a

singer-songwriter now in New York City, has already released a pair of albums

and has performed along the East Coast.

Three more musicians from the Class of `86 - Dave Ares, Tom Costagliola and

Angelo Gianni - have also continued playing, setting their kinds of standards,

and all are finally getting some serious recognition and nods of approval from

music land's bigwigs...

Treadmill Trackstar has never been a band to sit in place. For the past two

years, Angelo Gianni and his band, Treadmill Trackstar, has been working...

and working... and working, unquestionably earning its reputation as "the

hardest-working act in town," a label attached by the South Columbia

newspaper, The State .

The foursome (with Gianni on guitar and lead vocals, cellist Heidi Brown,

drummer Tony Lee, and Chris Grigg on bass) released debut album Excessive Use

of the Passive Voice on independent label Raging Rose Records in October 1994,

then embarked on a self-described two-year "constant continuous pressure tour"

in January 1995.

Shows have mostly been headliners for Treadmill Trackstar, but the band has

also played supportive stints, opening for Hootie and The Blowfish, Matthew

Sweet, Edwin McCain and Cravin' Melon, among others.

The band, billed as "alternative" but difficult, as most alternative bands

are, to pigeonhole, is a four-piece band that combines alternative rock with

classical cello. Rumor has it Brown's cello playing will be emphasized on the

band's next release.

Since its January 1995 departure, the Columbia, SC-based band has performed

over 350 shows, putting over 85,000 miles onto a number of vehicles. Excessive

Use... has sold over 4,000 copies throughout the Southeast.

The latest news is that in August, it was announced Treadmill Trackstar had

reached a definitive moment any band aims for: a recording contact. On August

15, a press conference led by Hootie and The Blowfish manager Rusty Harmon and

Breaking Records general manager John Caldwell officially announced Treadmill

Trackstar and a second band, the Liverpool-based Treehouse, would be the first

bands signed to Breaking Records.

Breaking Records was founded by members of Hootie and The Blowfish and Fishco

Management in January 1996 as a subsidiary of Atlantic Records (Hootie's

label). BR management has repeatedly stated it wanted bands that possessed the

same work ethic that took Hootie to the top for its own roster. Where better

to look first than in Hootie's back yard, where Treadmill Trackstar has become

an important band in its own right?

Distribution of Breaking Records albums will be through WEA. Treadmill

Trackstar's debut on the newly-formed label will be in the spring of 1997.

The band has a home page on the Web. The address is

http://members.aol.com/ragingrose/Treadmill/TREADMILL.html

Angelo himself - who at one time was the only member of Treadmill Trackstar,

until Brown quit her day job, Lee relocated from L.A. to Columbia and Grigg

answered an ad from his home in Charlotte, when all four devoted themselves to

music as a full-time occupation - takes responsibility for updating the Web

page.

In This Band's Case, The

Name Means Absolutely Nothing!

The first line in the press release accompanying Cycomotogoat's second album,

Braille , reads as follows:

(si `ko)(mo `to)(got)(menz)(ab `se-loot"le)(nuth `ing).

The name may mean nothing, but the music is what is important, and

Cycomotogoat - with Dave Ares and Tom Costagliola - has already released its

second full-length album. Braille came out over the summer on the W.A.R.?

label, the same label The Samples record for.

Being signed to W.A.R.? Records, a Boulder-based label, gives Cycomotogoat a

fresh start after an unhappy relationship with a different label. With or

without "industry" support, however, the band has always been able to continue

forward.

By late 1990, the band had released its first EP, Is There A Doctor in the

Fish? , on its De-Es-El Records label. By April 1994 Alkaline was released by

Sector 2. But lacking visible record company support after a full summer of

touring, Cycomotogoat severed ties with Sector 2.

The recording of Braille was done without financial backing of a record

company. But like the sessions that resulted in the first EP and then the

group's first album, the band pressed on, undaunted.

Around the same time of Braille 's release a few months ago, the band was

gearing up for six dates on this year's H.O.R.D.E. tour, all southern-based

performances. This year's was the fourth straight H.O.R.D.E. festival the band

was invited to play in.

Following the H.O.R.D.E. dates, Cycomotogoat will spend most of the fall on

the road as well. Following dates in New York City, the band was off to shows

in Colorado (home of its new record label), then back to the South.

When not touring, Tom, Crugie (vocals, guitar), Dave Ares (bass, vocals) and

Rob Clores (keyboards) work out of a self-made studio in Hoboken, NJ. The

foursome took an abandoned gas station and turned it into an apartment house,

complete with a multi-track studio. The band spent the better part of a year

putting Braille together, working with producer John Siket (Sonic Youth, Dave

Mathews Band, Helmet, Phish).