Huge guitars. Burning horns. Slamming grooves. rock/rap/reggae from one of NYC's best kept secrets.

12 MP3 Songs in this album (51:26) !
Related styles: ROCK: Hard Rock, HIP-HOP/RAP: Rap

People who are interested in Rage Against the Machine Faith No More should consider this download.


Details:
All Terrain Band...

ATB was the brain child of Josef Pelletier. He first started ATB around 1988. The compositions were an eclectic mix of rock, jazz, and rap (this was unheard of at the time). This first incarnation of the group included:
Josef Peletier: bass, vocals
Rolf Sturm: guitar
Pete McDonald: drums
Rob Henke: trumpet, vocals
Jim Leff: trombone
James Coleman: alto sax
This group recorded at Tommy Tedesco studio in Paramus, NJ.
(The tapes probably still exist... somewhere).

The next incarnation of ATB was a bold change of personnel. In 1990 Josef
reformed ATB with:
Josef Peletier: bass, vocals
Rolf Sturm: guitar
Brad Shepik: guitar
Rob Henke: trumpet, vocals
Billy Martin: drums (of MMW)
This group recorded at Marion Recording in Fairview, NJ. The tapes still exist (they are burning!) and someday, perhaps theyâll see the light of day.

The next incarnation of ATB was in 1991. This was the precursor to the last lineup for ATB. This group included:
Josef Peletier: bass, vocals
Rolf Sturm: guitar
Chris Amelar: guitar
Rob Henke: trumpet, vocals
Dave Emanuel: drums
And, yes there are tapes of this version of ATB.... recorded at Marion Recording (these tapes are also burning!).

This brings us to the 1992 and the start of the final version of ATB, the group that you hear on the âStrangled By The Appleâ CD on Water Street Music.
This band included:
Josef Peletier: bass, vocals
Herb Hubel: trombone, vocals
Jody Espina: alto sax
Rolf Sturm: guitar
Chris Amelar: guitar
Dave Emanuel: drums, vocals

This version of ATB played extensively in NYC from 1992 through 1995.
It performed at many, many clubs, including CBGBâs, The Spiral, The China Club, Club USA, Desmonds, The Lionâs Den, Canal Street Club, etc... Herb and Josef turned out to be a great song writing team and produced the lions share of the material for the group. It should be mentioned that during this period, Andy Burns sat in on drums and Rob Henke made several return appearances with ATB as well.

In the early 1990âs ATB was able to catch the ear of a relatively major record
label. It loved the sound of the band, but had no idea what to do with a band that played rock, rap, and reggae (sometimes within one song!). They claimed that it just couldnât be marketed (we constantly heard this from other music industry people as well). So they offered that if ATB wrote 8 more tunes like âLives Of The Real Menâ... âthen we can talkâ.
ATB stood for the âALL Terrain Bandâ, not the âONE Terrain Bandâ. We passed... and so did they. Of course, just after this, all sorts of bands broke with the rock/rap combination (timing... timing)

By 1994 ATB had a lawyer and was getting more serious about the business end of music. Also in 1994, ATB got a song (Lives Of The Real Men) placed in the independent film, âSex Drugs And Democracyâ (http://www.jonathanblank.com/SDD/)

Feeling the burnout that all bands feel after struggling in NYC for years, ATB started writing more âsong orientedâ material. This still didnât produce the kinds of results that the band was looking for and some time during 1996, ATB succumbed to the pressures of living in NYC (strangled by the apple), too many low-to-no pay gigs, too many record companiesâ rejection letters (we sent out tons of demos... lots of silence in return).

Eventually ATB stopped booking as many gigs and broke up. Josef started a new band called âDamaged Maryâ with Rolf (guitar), Nate (drums), Mary (vocals), and Nick (guitar). Right around this time, Herb went walkabout. Then Josef joined the swing band âJet Set Sixâ. Rob Henke, Jody Espina, and Rolf started playing with Joe Gallantâs âIlluminatiâ, Chris started playing in what is now 3D Jazz, everyone parted ways. In 1997, Rolf started Water Street Music and put together âFeed The Meterâ with Jody Espina. In 2007, the acoustic jazz trio âTricycleâ was started (a trio with Rolf, Jody, and Rob Henke).

Through it all, these old ATB recordings still existed. I felt that these tapes represented a great band that the music industry overlooked. I dug up the old DAT tapes, took them to Frank Fagnano and we started to clean them up (try to eliminate the clicks and/or drop outs from the deteriorating tapes). The result is what you hear on âStrangled By The Appleâ. I believe that these tapes represent one of the most original rock bands that NYC ever produced.
(even if I am biased).

Enjoy!... we did.

Rolf Sturm