Marcy Playground

Named for the formative location in lead singer John Wozniak's childhood, the Marcy Open grade school in Minneapolis, Marcy Playground emerged in the late 1990s with clean and subdued alternative rock.

Wozniak's first effort, "Zog BogBean - From the Marcy Playground", was a self-produced labor of love, recorded in his bedroom studio with some help from his then-girlfriend Sherry Fraser in the early nineties. A small run of CD's was self-released by Wozniak, and to this day it remains extremely difficult to find, and highly sought after. Most copies that surface for sale go for over $100.

After attending the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington 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 band's sound, and complemented Wozniak's 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, but filled with emotion and childhood imagery. Woz'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 where Wozniak clearly defines himself as a rock man. A lot of its commercial draw was due to the success of Seattle's grunge-influenced sound.

Marcy Playground's next outing was 1999's Shapeshifter, in many ways a more complex album than Marcy Playground, despite not being as much of a success commercially as the self-titled album. The songs are longer and harder-edged than those on the self-titled album, and have a more layered sound. Whereas most of Marcy Playground has the feel of a quiet, unplugged live show, Shapeshifter is clearly amp-driven rock, and maybe even less grunge inspired.

A minor controversy came to light when Paul Leary of the Butthole Surfers revealed on Marcy Playground's BBS that the cover art for Shapeshifter had originally been conceptualized and commissioned by Leary for his band's 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. Leary's 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 when Wozniak mentioned that he was a fan of artist Mark Ryden (who actually created the painting), and that Marcy Playground had no knowledge of the work's 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 band once the controversy had been cleared up.

After Shapeshifter, drummer Dan Rieser left the band to pursue other interests, although he and the band remain friendly. The position was eventually filled on his recommendation by Gonzalo "Gonz" Martinez De La Cotera, a friend whose previous band had opened for Marcy Playground.

After a considerable hiatus and at least one failed attempt to record a follow-up to Shapeshifter, Marcy Playground's third album, MP3, was finally released in 2004 with even less commercial success than the two preceding albums. MP3 fit the pattern of evolution from Shapeshifter, with a more electric sound and a slicker production. Some of the songs on MP3 also featured more overt messages of Wozniak's feelings on the music industry ("Hotter than the Sun," which tells a tale similar to the story of the band) and politics (the anti-censorship "Flag and Finger" and "Jessie Went to War," the story of a friend lost at war). This made MP3 arguably more topical than previous Marcy Playground albums, the songs of which seemed to have a more generally timeless quality.

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", and are generally considered a one-hit wonder.

Wozniak is currently working on a new album which is scheduled for release sometime in Fall 2006.