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Who were the Dark Marbles? Answer: In its last incarnation, the Dark Marbles
were Central New Jersey’s (and the greater NYC area’s) favorite loud and crude garage rock and roll band! With
a little bit of power-pop and surf instrumental thrown in the mix!
The Dark Marbles played the world-famous Maxwell’s
in Hoboken, NJ with Sky Saxon and the Seeds and Muck and the Mires. That was one great show! The Dark Marbles also opened for the
Insomniacs, as well as Mondo Topless!
The Dark Marbles were nominated for the local Asbury Park Music Awards, and
they opened for Jason Ringenburger, lead singer from Jason and the Scorchers, together with another well-known Asbury Park
NJ band called Maybe Pete.
In the past, they've also played at Desmond’s Tavern in NYC with the Nines and
the Demands, in NYC many times with the Coffin Daggers, with the Von Ghouls, the Apes, the What Fors, the Howling Thurstons,
and they've played several times with Get-Hip Records recording artists Irving Klaws. Each one was a show not to be missed!
Yod Crewsy is the lead singer and rhythm guitarist. Most people call him “Yod Crewsy” or “Yod the
Mod”. He's been playing his Rickenbacker 330 and his Vox guitars since 1984 or so, when he was in the seminal Buffalo
garage/punk recording artists “the SplatCats” (he was with them until 1986 or so).
A little musical
background history: The SplatCats had the reputation of being the trashiest (and brashest) punk/garage-rock and roll band
in all of Buffalo’s musical history, opening for such bands as the Goo Goo Dolls, Forgotten Rebels, the Hoodoo Gurus,
the Fleshtones, the Cynics, the Dundrells, the Volcano Suns, the Lyres, the Chesterfield Kings, and the Ramones. While Yod
was in that band, the SplatCats put out a 5-song self-produced EP called “Five Big Ones” as well as an LP on Moving
Target Records called “Sin 73”. After leaving the SplatCats in 1986, he formed the first, primeaval version of
the Dark Marbles in 1987.
Not satisfied with this group, however, he hooked back up with one of his former SplatCats
band mates, namely bass player Casino El Camino (now with the Sons of Hercules) and together, they formed a new group, the
JackLords.
The JackLords only lasted a couple of years and recorded only one item - an album called - “Mother’s
Rock” - issued on NJ’s Skyclad records. The JackLords won many awards, however, as the best new band in Buffalo
(Buffalo Nightlife Awards), and they opened for the Cynics, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, and Teenage Head. They played
shows with the Original Sins, the Raunch Hands, the Headless Horsemen, and also with the bands Go to Blazes and Pink Slip
Daddy. Most notably, based upon their “fun-tastic” live shows, the JackLords were chosen to open for the (now
late) great Roy Orbison and his band at one of Roy's last live shows at the revered Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo (see photo
at www.Jacklords.com). In the early 1990s, the JackLords broke up and all the members went their separate ways. Yod then put
together another version of the Dark Marbles, with, initially, new members Pete and Dave DiBiasio (bass and drums), and afterwards
with the famous Patrick Kane on lead guitar, Doty Hall on bass, and Al Konrad on drums.
But then Yod moved to New
York City....
In the band's last line-up: drummer Tony Stupiello used to be in NJ’s Speedcrazy, long-legged
bassist Deb Schuster also plays in the NYC all-chick rockabilly outfit Catspaw, and lead guitarist Peter Quilla came from
the now-defunct NJ bands The Vigilante Cowboys and The Noise.
In the greater NYC-NJ area the band played at such
NYC clubs as Don Hills, The Orange Bear, Nightingale’s, Desmond’s Tavern, the Charleston Tavern, the Hells Kitchen
Bar, the Bellevue, Hank’s Saloon, and in NJ, the Broadway Café in South Amboy, Maxwell's in Hoboken, The Saint
in Asbury Park and the Crossroads in both Garwood and Asbury Park. Their latest show was at the Berkeley Carteret Hotel in
Asbury Park on January 21, 2005.
A live “bootleg” CD from one of the band's live shows at the Saint
(in Asbury Park, NJ) has been mass-duplicated and is floating around out there with the general public, and it recently received
rave reviews in NJ's "The Aquarian" music weekly from music critic Al Muzer.
The band is also distributing
the recording of that October 8, 2004 live show at Maxwell’s, because it captured the band in peak energy and at top
form. Recording has just been completed on a 21-song full-length Dark Marbles
CD, and mixing will begin in August of 2009. Stay tuned!
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