OCG was founded in 1997 by a group of Union High School musicians. The group’s members were Stuart Kamratz, Keith Eberle, Nick Afflitto, Peter Sibilia, Mark Fonseca Rendeiro, Dave Paiva, and Mike Struening. Later that same year, Chris Paszik joined the band along with technician Jeff “Johnny Benitez” Pereira. With the break up of New Jersey ska band the Royalties, Dan Ross was added to the line up. The band played a fusion of ska punk, jazz, ska-core, and what many refer to as ska-rap. OCG followed up the success of their 7 inch record “7 Inches of OCG” in early 1998, with the release “From Downtown”, both released on the Pinball Records label. Hits such as “Bill Kozby You”, “Xample”, “Be With You”, and “Skank Away” were popular with high school teenagers, often belonging to the straight edge movement. Despite many of OCG’s songs’ lyrically supporting the idea of having fun without the use of drugs or alcohol, only a few of the band’s members were in fact straight edge. The group broke up in September 2000 at the height of their popularity. The band had appeared on various compilations and toured the eastern United States with the rock band Midtown. While popular in New Jersey, Long Island, eastern Pennsylvania, and Florida, the band remained largely unknown, despite the rising popularity of the third wave ska movement. Many of the bands OCG played alongside went onto future mainstream success, including the aforementioned Midtown, Catch 22, and New Found Glory. Several other bands went onto moderate success, including Inspector 7, the Pilfers, King Django, Edna’s Goldfish, Professor Plum, Taxicab Samurais, and Foil. In 2001, some of OCG’s former members collaborated with former Catch 22 frontman Tomas Kalnoky on the studio, post-ska project Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution, recording the album “A Call to Arms”. Following its release, an even smaller group under the direction of Kalnoky formed the band Streetlight Manifesto and recorded the album Everything Goes Numb. Today the band remains in relatively loose contact, with members still based in the New Jersey area. Some members remain in the music business, working behind the scenes for New Found Glory and Taking Back Sunday. Rendeiro has relocated to Amsterdam where he is one of the pioneers of podcasting and podjournalism via his program Bicyclemark’s Communique. Although remaining in contact, a reunion is highly unlikely. Rumors have circled that local New Jersey promoters, most notably Heath Miller of Excess DB, have offered in excess of $10,000 for OCG to play a one-off reunion show to also be recorded. Nothing has come of this. |
