Official Bio

Ten Speed Taxi first formed under the name of Sundog in 2007, when drummer Phil Neisser and guitarist/songwriter Dan Caldwell connected with Doug Schatz, a singer songwriter from Nashville. In 2008 bassist Dave Nelson joined the band, and later, after he and Dan each needed to move on for family reasons, bassist Eli Ochshorn joined the group, fretless sound and all.  All along the way the band has developed the original sound that has, as one reviewer put it, “country influence, a hunk of funk, some straight-ahead rock, and other friendly indefinable bits – plus you can dance to it.” Another reviewer described the original tunes as “barroom songs for thoughtful people.” And the Ten Speed Taxi sound was by another reviewer compared to the music of Wilco, the Counting Crows, John Prine, and the Velvet Underground.

Doug Schatz’s band credits include a national tour with the southern alt-rock band Gladys and currently he teaches sculpture at SUNY Potsdam. Schatz grew up in Nashville and recently bought a house in Potsdam.

Phil Neisser has been playing drums for some 35 years: in The Spectators, The Hubtones, The Shpiel, and the Phil Neisser Trio, among elsewhere. Neisser grew up in Manhattan, but has long since learned to love the woods as well. He now lives in West Pierrepont, NY and he teaches political theory at SUNY Potsdam.

Eli Ochshorn is a Physics PhD and a talented keyboardist, as well as fretless bassist.  His band credits include Almost Hannawa.

Ten Speed Taxi’s music is available on iTunes, digstation.com, cdbaby.com, and amazon.com. The band can be contacted through their website: tenspeedtaxi.com