Marcy Playground
Biography
Marcy Playground is an American alternative rock and post-grunge band. Named for the formative location in lead singer John Wozniaks childhood (the Marcy Open grade school in Minneapolis, Minnesota), Marcy Playground emerged in the late 90s. They had been influenced heavily by Kurt Cobain and his band Nirvana. The influence is quite clear on Marcy Playgrounds self-titled album, with songs like The Shadow of Seattle and Saint Joe On The School Bus. Wozniaks first effort, Zog BogBean - From the Marcy Playground, was self-produced, recorded in his bedroom studio with some help from his then-girlfriend Sherry Fraser and her brother Scott in the early nineties. A small run of CDs were self-released by Wozniak, and to this day they remain extremely difficult to find.
In 1996, after attending the Evergreen State College for two years, Wozniak moved east to New York, where Marcy Playground began to coalesce around the songs that would become the self-titled album. Bassist Dylan Keefe and drummer Dan Rieser filled out the bands sound, and complemented Wozniaks songwriting. The self-titled album was released in 1997, and Marcy Playground emerged into the mainstream with the success of the single "Sex and Candy." Marcy Playground is quiet and minimalist in tone. Wozniaks songs run in many different styles: some are modern folk music; many have undertones reminiscent of childrens songs; the blurred sound of psychedelia makes appearances; and then there are the songs with a clear rock sound. The only band member who contributed to all of the album was Wozniak himself; several others filled in for Rieser and Keefe on some of the songs, notably Jared Kotler (bass and drums).
Read full biography ↓
Marcy Playgrounds next outing was 1999s Shapeshifter, not as much of a success commercially as the self-titled album.
A minor controversy came to light when Paul Leary of the Butthole Surfers revealed on Marcy Playgrounds website forum that the cover art for Shapeshifter had originally been conceptualized and commissioned by Leary for his bands aborted After the Astronaut album. He admitted to being a fan of Marcy Playground, but accused the band of an apparent lack of imagination and originality. Learys outrage was eased once he learned that Capitol Records, former home of the Butthole Surfers and then-current home of Marcy Playground, had pitched the artwork to Wozniak as original work from their own art department and that Marcy Playground had no knowledge of the works origins. Upon learning the truth, Wozniak proclaimed that he was "honored" to have an album cover designed by Paul Leary. There were apparently no bad feelings between the bands once the controversy had been cleared up.
After Shapeshifter, drummer Dan Rieser left the band to pursue other interests. The position was eventually filled on his recommendation by Gonzalo Martinez De La Cotera, a friend whose previous band Lincoln had opened for Marcy Playground.
After a considerable hiatus and at least one failed attempt to record a follow-up to Shapeshifter, Marcy Playgrounds third album, MP3, was finally released in 2004 with even less commercial success than the two preceding albums.
Marcy Playground did little if any touring in support of MP3. Despite releasing many singles, the band never matched the success of their single "Sex and Candy".
As of July 12th 2008, John Wozniak posted a blog on MySpace stating his unreleased solo effort is now officially going to be a Marcy Playground record and is going to be released within the next few months along with a separate "Rarities and B-Sides" album. They are still performing live although to their many fans dismay, venues are sporadic. Meanwhile, Keefe has held the job of WNYC radio program On the Medias technical director, a position he left in December 2007. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.
