gobhi is Bill, Zach, Matt and Scott
From what we can remember, this is how gobhi came to be:
Winter 1996, Zach comes out to Bill’s college town to sit in with “The Kensingtons” Bill’s college band, only to find out that Ray, the drummer, is extremely ill and can not perform. With Zach in Minnesota and Bill in New York, a long distance song writing relationship ensues. Bill and Zach invest in decent answering machines.
New Years Eve Day 1998, Bill and Zach begin to write “Broken Platter”, and Zach has a hand at lyric writing. Note, Bill is now living in North Carolina and Zach is still in Minnesota. Needless to say, the answering machines are getting well used.
Spring 1998, Zach starts first college band “Terminal Moraine” whose line-up is made exclusively of geology majors. Zach is sick with mono for the first show and covers the Kensingtons songs “Doce”, “Old Milwaukee”, “Mr. Booger”, as well as Quiet Riot’s “Come on feel the noise”. This show is available on CD.
Summer 1998, Zach decides to start a band after college with Bill instead of going to grad school.
Summer 1999, Bill moves back to New York, and he and Zach go back to camp for a final summer. They buy a PA and that Fall, move to Hunter, NY –Deep in the Catskill mountains. We can now say for certain, that this town is the furthest point from any respectable rock music scene. Nevertheless, within a month a bass player (Alvis Brigis) and drummer (Tim Mulley) formerly of Linus joined, and gobhi was officially born.
November 1999, Gobhi’s first show is at The Joyous Lake (Woodstock, NY). This hopping Wednesday night gig featured our first fan (Bighead Shane) blowing fire and a rendition of The Digital Undergrounds “Humpty Dance”.
December 1999, Gobhi goes to SOS Recording to track 11 songs. Sadly, we become the only Y2K casualty that we know of. The world did not end as was widely speculated, but all 11 tracks were lost. Personnel changes and a general lack of funds hindered the completion of this recording until almost a year later. Titled “The New Hip Thing”, it was a disappointment for the band and was never released.
February 2000, Gobhi performs at the American Latvian Youth Associations annual conference. The band, now featuring a 6’5” speed metal drummer, is upstaged by a Latvian Dating Game following their set. Bill sleeps in his truck in sub zero temperatures.
May 2000, Gobhi, now with a former Colorado state jazz drumming finalist, plays a memorable show to five people in New Lebanon, NY, a town with an ordinance banning dancing.
August 2000, now with a jam band drummer, and Zach’s brother Cale (who commutes from New Hampshire) on bass. Gobhi plays two days in a billiard hall parking lot, next to a dumpster, in Saratoga, NY for Travers Weekend. The energetic crowd jumps off the dumpster, strips clothing, and does what can only be described as jumping jacks. Gobhi discusses making an exercise video. This show is available on VHS.
Over the next year Gobhi continues to gig and gets two songs on local air play. WEQX spins “By Now” in its weekly local band showcase. Local Clear Channel plays “Thin” on their local band feature “Big Break”.
February 2001, Gobhi does a battle of the bands promoted by a local radio station at Northern Lights (Clifton Park, NY). Bill overhears the local DJ making fun of the band names on the radio earlier that day, and reminds him of this while on stage. Tragically, this tactic failed to win over the DJ and Gobhi loses to a Dave Mathews cover band from Newburgh, NY – who goes onto win the entire contest. This show is also available on VHS.
August 2001, Gobhi plays at the East Greenbush Public Library to promote literacy. This can be best summarized by a quote from the young adult librarian “Although the turn out was not as high as we had both hoped…” and “One young patron has been after me for a CD, so you must have made some impression!” I think we’ve made it.
August 2001, The rehearsal space Gobhi rents from is robbed, and along with 25 other bands, Bill and Zach lose all of their equipment. With Gobhi forced into a break, Zach moves to Boston.
February 2002, Zach gets a call asking Gobhi to go out to Detroit to perform on The Mitch Albom Show in April. Gobhi reforms with first drummer (Tim Mulley) and new pal Kevin Brandow (Petra) on bass.
March 2002, Gobhi records a 5 song EP in the drummers basement. Features “Out There”, “As Good As Gone” and “Song”. We are assisted by Pat Balogna of Sand Creek Records and Kevin Brandow.
April 2002, Gobhi does a gig at The Wired Frog in Detroit and then two days on the Mitch Albom Show. The cast accuses Zach of being twelve years old, and Bills childhood nickname of “wolfboy” is revealed.
May 2002, Zach moves back to Albany, NY. Gobhi gigs, and Zach’s car dies in front of the venue. Welcome back!
January 2003, Gobhi records with Jeff Ohler from BeeHive Pro. at Bill’s house. Bassist Matt Bombard and drummer Mike Iula join Bill and Zach to record a five track self titled EP including “Vamp”, “Not The One”, “Untitled”, “Around” and “Espial”. Edited at SOS studio. It is still unmixed/unmastered.
February 2003, after 12 drummers and 9 bassists, Gobhi finally gets a solid line up with Scott Smith on drums and Matt Bombard on bass.
June 2003, Zach moves to Boston, again. He’s finally getting that "graduate degree". Matt joins The Sixfifteens, and Scott plays too loud for an acoustic country-esque type band.
November 2004, gobhi
(Matt, Scott, Bill & Zach) records five songs with Oliver Hoen,
who's schooling is constantly questioned with the exclamation "You
went to school for this ?!?, don't you know how to fix it ?."
He did however suggest the patent pending Blanket Booth.
©2004 Gobhi. All rights reserved.