Alamo Race Track

by Andrew Leahey
The quirky pop/rock quartet Alamo Race Track hails from Amsterdam, where bandmates David Corel (bass, vocals), Guy Bours (drums), Len Lucieer (guitar), and Ralph Mulder (vocals, guitar) initially performed as Redivider. The loss of keyboardist Diederik Nomden effectively broke up Redivider in 2001, and the remaining members subsequently regrouped under their new moniker (commonly abbreviated as ART). Impressed with the band's live show, Excelsior Recordings signed Alamo Race Track in 2002. Debut album Birds at Home was released the following year, while a licensing deal with the European label Fargo Records resulted in the album's distribution to France in 2005.
Alamo Race Track experienced their biggest break in 2006, when a lively dressing-room performance of their then-current single, "Black Cat John Brown," wound its away onto the popular video website YouTube. Within weeks, nearly 200,000 people had viewed the clip, thus sparking a wave of Dutch media exposure that carried through to the band's sophomore release. Sharing the same title as its hit single, Black Cat John Brown was released in October 2006 and quickly became a fixture on the Netherlands' alternative music charts. Widespread touring followed, including a stint with the Arctic Monkeys and an appearance at 2007's SXSW festival. When "Black Cat John Brown" was picked for inclusion in the TV series Grey's Anatomy (whose viewership totaled 19 million Americans in 2006), American label Minty Fresh took notice and released the album stateside in July 2007.