American Catapult

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.