Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution

Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution, or BOTAR, is a musical collective including influences from ska, punk, classical, and eastern European music, entirely in an acoustic format. It is composed of former Catch 22 members Tomas Kalnoky and Jamie Egan, in addition to Nick Afflitto, Marcy Ciuffreda, Rachel Goldstein, Layton Hayes, John Paul Jones, Achilles Kalnoky, Paul Lowndes, Chris Paszik, Mark Rendeiro, Dan Ross, Pete Sibilia, Shane Thomson, and Natalia Ushak. They self-released their first recording, an EP entitled A Call to Arms, in late 2001. Among its five songs was a new arrangement of the Catch 22 song “Dear Sergio”, originally written by Tomas Kalnoky, which included a new verse and a minor renaming to “Hey Sergio:”. They quickly...