Houston Calls
Rock band
Houston Calls was an American rock band, based in Rockaway, New Jersey, United States. They formed in 2003 and were signed to Rushmore Records (a subsidiary of Drive-Thru Records). On June 9, 2009, they announced their official breakup.
History
Formation (2002–2004)
Shortly after the New Jersey ska punk group Face First disbanded in 2002, singer/guitarist Tom "Chitty" Keiger, bassist Jarrett Selzer, trumpeter Rich "Okie" Okamoto and drummer Tommie Clayton decided to reunite to play a poppier, more synthesized form of modern punk rock. Therefore, Okamoto switched from trumpet to keyboard, and Kenny Ryan, formerly of Hidden in Plain View, joined as a second guitarist. The name "Houston Calls", according to the band, is a combination of chapter titles from the Apollo 13 DVD. Other choices included "Zoltar Madness" (from Big), "Giant Green Insanity" (from The Toxic Avenger), and "Deeds in NY" (from Mr. Deeds).
They released a 2-song demo CD in 2003 at the Skate and Surf festival (Asbury Park), even though they did not play at the event. It included the tracks "One More Won't Hurt" and "A Line in the Sand." "One More Won't Hurt" and "A Line in the Sand" were both Face First's final songs, and were re released without the horn parts for the demo CD. While they began performing live in June 2003, they soon released their 4 Song Sampler, produced by Hidden in Plain View's Rob Freeman, to help spread the word. After only one national tour Clayton and the band parted ways and he later joined the band Spoiler NYC. Through mutual friends, Josh Grigsby was introduced to the band and became their drummer on May 15, 2004.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1544952. VIAF identifies the subject as 129393920. The Library of Congress control number is no2008086806. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2003, 2009, 2002 and 2004.
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This entry incorporates text from “Houston Calls” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.