Marcy Playground biography
Marcy Playground is an American alternative rock band consisting of three members: John Wozniak (lead vocals, guitar), Dylan Keefe (bass), and Shlomi Lavie (drums). The band is best known for its 1997 hit "Sex and Candy".
History
Early years
The band is named after the Marcy Open grade school in Minneapolis, which is an alternative school John Wozniak attended. He chose the name because many of his songs were inspired by his childhood. Marcy Playground emerged in the late 1990s. Influences include David Bowie, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd, Nirvana and the Beatles. The influences are quite clear on Marcy Playground's self-titled album, with songs like
Shadow of Seattle and
Saint Joe On The School Bus. Frontman John Wozniak's 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 limited run of CDs were self-released by Wozniak. "Our Generation" and "Dog And His Master," two songs found on Wozniak's
Zog BogBean project, would appear on later Marcy Playground albums. As of April 2009,
Zog BogBean is available for download at Marcy Playground's official site as well as other outlets such as iTunes.
Marcy Playground (self-titled album) (1997-1998)
After attending the Evergreen State College for two years, Wozniak moved east to New York, in order to work with Multi-Instrumentalist Jared Kotler who John had known from suburban Philadelphia. Jared believed in John's songwriting talent and put together money with his cousin Jeff White in order to pay for the duo to record at Sabella Recording Studios, in nearby Roslyn NY. After hearing the two records worth of material John had recorded of John's songs, Capitol Records became interested in the music. Kurt Rosenwinkel, a mutual friend, introduced bassist Dylan Keefe to John Wozniak and Marcy Playground began performing in NYC. The band was signed to capitol in 1995 and they performed a series of NYC club dates that would be the first incarnation of Marcy Playground as a band. Personal problems between John and Jared reached a peak after a year of playing the New York music scene and drummer Dan Rieser was brought in to replace Jared. The self-titled album was released in 1997, with the first single, "Poppies", released soon after. Marcy Playground emerged into the mainstream with the success of the single "Sex and Candy". The song spent 15 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The album went platinum and managed to spawn two other singles, "Saint Joe on the School Bus" and "Sherry Fraser".
Marcy Playground is quiet and minimalist in tone. Wozniak's songs run in many different styles: some are modern folk music; many have undertones reminiscent of children's songs; the blurred sound of psychedelia makes appearances; and then there are the songs with a clear rock sound.
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