Track One A.B.

Track One A.B. was a power pop band in New York City that disbanded near the end of the 1990s.

History

Track One A.B. formed as a rock band in the late 1980s with Chris Celauro on vocals and guitar, Dean Midulla on bass, and Joe Fallacara on drums. The trio were former Hauppauge High School schoolmates. They recorded various demos before Fallacara left and was replaced by another Hauppauge alumnus Rich Ramirez, who Celauro had played with in high school. The band released a few self-funded EPs which resulted in some college radio airplay and gigs with the likes of The Spin Doctors, which eventually attracted the attention of Live manager Steve Smith and MCA Records and Island Records, but they wound up signing with indie label Royalty Records. During this time, Christian Carpenter had joined to add extra percussion and vocals only to have Ramirez abruptly leave on the dawn of the recording session for their first full-length album. This put Fallacara back on the drum seat. Track One A.B. quickly recorded a version of Ticket To Ride for the 1995s album Beatlejuice: A Big Apple Tribute to the Beatles.^[1]

Track One A.B. album

Jim Sabella, who had worked with Marcy Playground of "Sex and Candy" fame, produced Track One A.B.'s 1996 self-titled album, which despite its limited distribution, received exposure in several seasons of MTV's The Real World and the single "Rooftops and Puddles" reached the Top 40 on the Gavin Radio Up & Coming chart. "My Beloved Machine" from the album was added as a featured song to 1997 Sundance Film Festival audience award winner Just Write with Jeremy Piven and Sherilyn Fenn. At this point, the band had regularly packed venerable venues like Webster Hall, The Village Gate, and the Mercury Lounge in their home base of NYC and were now sporadically touring the east coast.

Reverie

In early 1997, Track One A.B. laid down tracks for a collaborative version of "Candy" with Deborah Frost and husband Albert Bouchard of Blue Öyster Cult and The Brain Surgeons for Royalty Records' Iggy Pop tribute. However, the album began to shape itself to the heavier songs that the likes of Joan Jett and Sugar Ray were contributing, so Track One A.B. aborted its recording session. The band then flew out to L.A. and recorded an EP's worth of demos, but they were never released. After these missteps, they eventually engaged producer Eric Horvitz, and produced Track One A.B.'s Reverie album, which was finally released in 1998 (via Royalty's new distribution deal with Wasabi/BMG). The album was highlighted by the title track, which was remixed for radio by Jim Sabella. The album also featured a version of David Bowie's "Golden Years" with vocalist Mark DiCarlo of Fuzzbubble. Sadly, the band had lost the momentum it had been building, as the record industry was having a difficult time marketing gimmick-free rock bands, so Track One A.B. wound up calling it quits by the end of the decade.

Singer Chris Celauro has most recently worked with Long Island's Troop 47, as well as singer-songwriter Paul Wenzel in a creative/management role.

References