Marc Moreland (January 8, 1958 – March 13, 2002) was an American rock musician. He was the former guitarist for rock band
Wall of Voodoo
Wall of Voodoo was an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, United States. Though largely an underground act for the majority of its existence, the band came to prominence when its 1982 single " Mexican Radio" became a hit on MTV and ...
, punk band
The Skulls, and rock bands Pretty and Twisted and Department of Crooks. He also released a solo album under the name Marc Moreland Mess.
Early life
Moreland grew up in
West Covina, California
West Covina is a suburban city in Los Angeles County, California
Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most popul ...
, and was a student at Raymond Pre-School, Vine Elementary School, Hollencrest Intermediate School,
West Covina High School
West Covina High School (WCHS) is a four-year comprehensive secondary school located in West Covina, California, USA.
History
West Covina High School opened in 1956 on the old Covina High School campus on Citrus Ave. and Puente Ave. as the Spar ...
and Coronado High School.
In the mid-1970s, Moreland was in Cpt. Cosmos de Venus and The Sky People—a metal/glam hybrid. From 1977 to the early '80s, Moreland played guitar in one of the earliest American
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
bands,
The Skulls. He wrote some of the band's earliest songs, including "Victims" and "Babies".
Wall of Voodoo
Moreland was a founding member of Wall of Voodoo, which had its roots in Acme Soundtracks, an unsuccessful film score business started by vocalist-keyboardist-harmonica player
Stan Ridgway
Stanard "Stan" Ridgway (born April 5, 1954) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and film and television composer known for his distinctive voice, dramatic lyrical narratives, and eclectic solo albums. He was the original le ...
. Acme Soundtracks' office was across the street from the Hollywood punk club The Masque, and Ridgway was soon drawn into the emerging punk-new wave scene.
Moreland began jamming with Ridgway at the Acme Soundtracks office and the soundtrack company morphed into a New Wave band. In 1977, with the addition of Skulls members
Bruce Moreland
Bruce "Ravens" Moreland (born January 22, 1959) is an American rock musician and songwriter. He has worked with such bands as Wall of Voodoo (with his brother Marc Moreland), The Weirdos, Nervous Gender, and Concrete Blonde among others. As of 20 ...
(Marc Moreland's brother) as bassist-keyboardist and Chas T. Gray as keyboardist, along with
Joe Nanini
Oliver Joseph Nanini (1955 – December 4, 2000) was an American rock drummer, most famous for being the percussionist and a founding member of new wave group Wall of Voodoo during their heyday in the 1980s. He was known for playing with pots, ...
, who had been the drummer for Black Randy and the Metrosquad, the first lineup of Wall of Voodoo was born.
The Wall of Voodoo sound was noted for Moreland's unique guitar style – a mixture of
twang
Twang is an onomatopoeia originally used to describe the sound of a vibrating bow string after the arrow is released.Hensleigh Wedgwood, ''A Dictionary of English Etymology: Q - Z'' (1865), p. 433. By extension it applies to the similar vibrati ...
y
Spaghetti Western
The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...
-style melodies, angular
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...
riff
A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or accompani ...
s and well-placed
guitar feedback
Audio feedback (also known as acoustic feedback, simply as feedback) is a positive feedback situation which may occur when an acoustic path exists between an audio input (for example, a microphone or guitar pickup) and an audio output (for examp ...
.
The band had a ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
''
Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...
single in 1983 with the song "
Mexican Radio", which received considerable play on the newly aired MTV. Ridgway recalled, "Marc and I used to go to rehearsal in my '67 Mustang and we were really fed up with Los Angeles radio. We were very cynical and we thought it was much better to tune into these Mexican radio stations that would waft in across the border — of course, now the stations are all over Los Angeles. Anyway, when we'd come across one of these stations playing mariachi music, we'd get all excited — 'Great, man, I'm on a Mexican radio!' I didn't think a thing about it until one day, Marc came in with this little one-minute (demo tape) sketch of that great guitar lick and him singing, 'I'm on a Mexican radio,' kind of mumbling it. I thought, 'Wow, that is just inspired and twisted,' and immediately some of the other lyrics came to mind and where to take it, although it was still a puzzle."
By 1983 Nanini and Ridgway had left the band, while Bruce Moreland was in and out of the band throughout their history. Moreland and Gray thus remained the only two constant members of the band until their split in 1988. After this, Moreland went on to work in various other projects.
Pretty and Twisted
Moreland played guitar in the band Pretty and Twisted with
Johnette Napolitano
Johnette Napolitano (born Jonette L. Napolitano; September 22, 1957) is an American singer, songwriter and bassist best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and bassist for the alternative rock group Concrete Blonde.
Early life
Johnette Nap ...
. Moreland and Napolitano had previously worked together on a
Carpenters
Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters t ...
cover, "
Hurting Each Other
"Hurting Each Other" is a song popularized by the Carpenters in 1972. It was written in 1965 by Gary Geld and Peter Udell, and has been recorded many times by artists ranging from Ruby & the Romantics to Rosemary Clooney.
Previous versions
The o ...
", for the album ''If I Were a Carpenter'' in 1994. Pretty and Twisted released a
self-titled album in 1995.
Of working with Moreland, Napolitano said:
"I co-wrote more with Marc on this record than with
Jim
Jim or JIM may refer to:
* Jim (given name), a given name
* Jim, a diminutive form of the given name James
* Jim, a short form of the given name Jimmy
* OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism
* ''Jim'' (comics), a series by Jim Woodring
* ''Jim ...
in the last five years. I think we are more like-minded. I think that we both have been closer to the same ideal, and a great group is always the sum total of the individuals that comprise the group. This band is the sum total of the individuals that are in it — we're different than
Concrete Blonde
Concrete Blonde was an American alternative rock band from Hollywood, California. They were initially active from 1982 to 1995, and reunited twice: first from 2001 to 2004, and again from 2010 to 2012. They were best known for their album ''Bloo ...
. I just feel like we are at the same place at the same time."
Department of Crooks
In 1995 Moreland met vocalist-guitarist Sheldon Ferguson and keyboardist Frederika in Las Vegas. After the demise of Pretty and Twisted, Moreland said he had given up music. However, the three musicians clicked and formed the band Department of Crooks. They released an album titled ''Plan 9 From Las Vegas'' and had moderate success both in the US and in Europe.
Marc Moreland Mess
In 2002 Moreland released his first and only solo album, titled ''Take it to the Spotlight'', which is the only album which features Moreland on lead vocals. The album was released on
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
-based
Kitchen Whore Records, and featured contributions from
PJ Harvey
Polly Jean Harvey (born 9 October 1969) is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments.
Harvey began her career in 1988 when she joined loca ...
's
John Parish
John Parish (born 11 April 1959) is an English musician, songwriter, composer and record producer.
Parish is best known for his work with singer-songwriter PJ Harvey. He has also worked with such artists as Eels, Aldous Harding, Tracy Chapm ...
and Jean-Marc Butty.
Death
Marc Moreland died of
renal failure
Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...
following a liver transplant on March 13, 2002, in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, at the age of 44.
Mentions
Moreland is the subject of the song "
Joey
Joey may refer to:
People
*Joey (name)
Animals
* Joey (marsupial), an infant marsupial
* Joey, a Blue-fronted Amazon parrot who was one of the Blue Peter pets
Film and television
* ''Joey'' (1977 film), an American film directed by Horac ...
" by
Concrete Blonde
Concrete Blonde was an American alternative rock band from Hollywood, California. They were initially active from 1982 to 1995, and reunited twice: first from 2001 to 2004, and again from 2010 to 2012. They were best known for their album ''Bloo ...
. Lead singer
Johnette Napolitano
Johnette Napolitano (born Jonette L. Napolitano; September 22, 1957) is an American singer, songwriter and bassist best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and bassist for the alternative rock group Concrete Blonde.
Early life
Johnette Nap ...
wrote the song about being in love with an alcoholic, and confirmed the song was about Moreland in the Concrete Blonde D.C. Sessions concert in 2002. About Moreland, Napolitano said:
"I had met Marc Moreland in Australia the first time (Concrete Blonde) toured. That was the first country we toured outside of America. We were opening for Wall of Voodoo in Australia and we just became tighter than anything in a very short time. There was a lot of mutual worship there."
After his death, Moreland was the subject of the song "Jerry #5" by his former band
The Skulls. The song appeared on their album ''The Golden Age of Piracy''.
The documentary film ''Who Is Billy Bones?'' discusses Moreland's role in both the formation of The Skulls and
Wall of Voodoo
Wall of Voodoo was an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, United States. Though largely an underground act for the majority of its existence, the band came to prominence when its 1982 single " Mexican Radio" became a hit on MTV and ...
, and features archival photos of him performing in 1977 at the Los Angeles punk club
The Masque
The Masque was a small punk rock club in central Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood, California which existed from 1977 to 1978. It is remembered as a key part of the early LA punk scene.
History
The Masque was founded by Scottish-American rock ...
.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moreland, Marc
1958 births
2002 deaths
American rock guitarists
American male guitarists
Deaths from kidney failure
20th-century American guitarists
Wall of Voodoo members
20th-century American male musicians