2008 Woodie Awards
Back to 'Rock City'
Jordan Eggers
Issue date: 5/2/08 Section: Entertainment
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Go Kart Mozart is back in Concord after a 60-day, 30-state tour that included 19,435 driving miles, two accidents and purchase of a new van and trailer.
And its new self-produced, self-recorded album, "Oh Yeah," out since Aug. 10, is selling quickly.
"We're almost sold out," said 23 year old DVC student and drummer Anna Kremenliev. "I'm amazed at how receptive people are to it."
Even with the tour and debut album, Go Kart Mozart is still a small indie band.
"We don't discriminate either," Kremenliev added. "We've played at an anarchist co-op house and a gay bar on this tour
Tour life, exciting nonetheless, became a monotonous routine of waking up relatively early, driving a few hundred miles, arriving in a new city, walking around the town to see the sights, loading in equipment at the venue, playing a show, watching other bands, hanging out at the venue until getting kicked out, finding a truck stop, sleeping in the van, waking up and doing it all over again.
Bassist and 22-year old DVC student Shane Delea enjoyed the time off work, and the opportunity to see family who had moved out of state, but found it very hard to live with as many as five other people in a van.
Vince Lay, 26, who serves double duty as GKM vocalist and guitarist, shared Delea's sentiment regarding the stresses of the road. However, despite it all, he hoped the tour would never end.
Through this experience the band has seen Niagara Falls, Elvis Presley's home, Lincoln Memorial, and met many strangers who became "best friends forever," but Kremenliev said the favorite moment was when their van was totaled in Indiana.
With all three band members (plus the driver and two friends) bundled up against each other in the tow truck, they drove to the nearest biggest city. After just about a quarter mile from where they'd crashed, they found a dealership consisting of only six cars, and there in Muncie they found a van that was almost exactly like their old one.
Talk about random.
"At that moment I knew we had just found our new van and that despite a horrible accident, we were not going to miss a single show!" Kremenliev said.
The band is currently at work on new songs for their next album. They plan to play a few local venues beginning this month and throughout the summer before heading back out on tour again this fall.
For performance dates and more info, visit their MySpace page at www.myspace.com/gokartmozartmusic.
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