Pittsburgh local music spotlight: God’s Green Apples

Veteran Mon Valley rockers God’s Green Apples, blending punk and Americana, are back with a new single, “Can’t Stop.”

But the song, released March 25, isn’t actually that new.

“‘Can’t Stop’ was written in the early ’90s. I think it’s funny that the song was written so many years ago and still has the same meaning today,” singer/guitarist Jim McDonough said. “I guess guys will be doing the same thing forever, like wanting to talk to a girl, but not looking weak, so they wait till the last minute and end up losing it all. They just envision in their mind the way it should be — and they can’t stop.”

The group is working on a new album too.

“Slowly but surely, it’s coming along,” bassist Mike Evans said. “We’ve been recording songs in blocks of three and are going to remaster some songs released as singles to compile a full length soon. We’re planning to return to the studio late spring/early summer to finish the last three tracks for that.”

The band, which has been playing together for more than 30 years, value the community aspect of live music.

“Playing shows, we often bump into people that we’ve known for 25 to 30+ years, so it’s great to catch up,” Evan said. “As teenagers we really didn’t think we’d still be doing this into our 50s, but we’re glad that we are able to. Some of our favorite places to play locally would be Poetry Lounge, 222 Ormsby and the Green Beacon Gallery. These are spots run by people that love music and support it. You also get a gathering of folks at those shows who are there for the music primarily.”

It’s unlikely, however, they’ll run into The Offspring drummer Ron Welty again.

“Our CD had just come out in like ‘94, and we were playing a handful of dates on the East Coast to promote it,” Evans said. “One evening we were playing at a bar just outside of Ashbury Park, N.J., and it just happened to be that The Offspring were playing the following night at the Stone Pony. I guess they had a day off, and it turned out their drummer was at the show taking in our set.

“For some reason, we decided it would be funny to play a few bars of ‘Come Out and Play’ after every song. We did this like three-four times and while we thought it was hilarious, I guess he really did not and subsequently left. As a result, he has not attended a GGA show since.”

Evans filled in TribLive on what else we should know about God’s Green Apples:

Band: God’s Green Apples

Band members: Jim McDonough (vocals, guitar); Roby Rollison (guitar); Mike Evans (bass); P.J. Caruso (drums)

Founding story: We started as a hardcore/punk band in the late ‘80s. Around the valley in Charleroi, Belle Vernon, Monongahela and Donora there were small groups of kids that skated and were into music, so you would link up that way and basically that’s how we came together through those circles. We’d begin a typical Saturday with a skate session in the morning, then follow up with playing music in the afternoon depending on whose folks would allow it in their house. We initially started under the name Flagrant Violation early on and recorded a demo, played some garage shows and at Jam-n-Skate and the Electric Banana. After our singer decided to move on, we figured we’d start fresh with a new name and changed it to God’s Green Apples.

Origin of band’s name: We really didn’t do too much deep thinking or look to project anything specific when it came to a band name. We were just hanging out, and Jim mentioned his grandfather using a few sayings like “more (something) than Carter has liver pills” and “sure as God made little green apples.” So, we were like yeah, God’s Green Apples works. We could have easily been called Carter’s Liver Pills too, I guess.

For fans of: Gaslight Anthem, The Replacements, Social Distortion

Influences: Probably can point back to the “For Fans Of” here a little bit, but Jim and myself (Mike) are fans of ’60s rock so that was a factor. We used to cover a good bit of oldies when we first started out, but I think technically oldies are like Weezer now, right? We cut our teeth on ’80s punk rock though, which was a big reason why we wanted to play music in the first place.

Releases: “A Buck 74 and Some Pumpkin Seeds” 7-inch record (P.S. Records), 1993; “Bajesus” album (P.S. Records), 1995; “Begin The Again” EP cassette (P.S. Records), 2018; split w/TV’s Norm cassette (Lemon Tree Records), 2020

Next shows: May 9 at Green Beacon Gallery, Greensburg; May 15 at Mr. Smalls Funhouse, Millvale Music Festival

How to find them: God’s Green Apples can be found on their Linktree.

Three other Pittsburgh area bands to check out: City Escape Artist; Post Traumatik; Right on Warriors

Favorite pizza shop: This will be a collective answer here as we all have favorites from our hometowns. The Charleroi guys (myself and Roby) are going to go with Armando’s; PJ will pick Jake’s in Belle Vernon; and Jim’s go-to is Anthony’s in Donora.

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