~ R.I.P. Mark Kelley (The Pillbugs) 10/28/62 - 5/3/2008 ~
Sadly to say " Mark Kelley" passed away on 05/03/2008, resulting from a battle with cancer. Therefore, I would like to take this moment to send out my thoughts and prayers to Mark and "The Pillbugs", the families, friends and to all who knew and loved him! He will be greatly missed by many!
May He Rest Peacefully In Greener Pastures and Rock The Heavens Above!!!
God Bless!
-- Jan (editor)
Band Bio
The origin of The Pillbugs can be traced back to January of 1991. That's when Mark Kelley first called me up and asked me to form a band. He had a drummer (Dan Chalmers) and I brought in Glenn Blattner on guitar. I was to play rhythm guitar and Mark played bass. Mark and Dan were very keen on playing my original songs and wanted to make that the focus of the band (which of course - I didn't mind one bit).
We became The Mark Mikel Hallucination and started gigging around Toledo. Glenn got a little fed up and left so we replaced him with Randy Parades and added Stevie Eyer on keyboards. Then Randy left and we replaced him with Wayne Stevens and added Davey Murnen on percussion/backing vocals. Then Wayne left and we replaced him with Mark Jackson. Then Mark Jackson left and I said, "Screw it. I'll play lead from now on." Then Stevie left. You guys still with me here? (head spinning)
So then there were four and it's 1995. Up to that point (within the time of all those changing members) we won a few Battles Of The Bands, released my first 2 solo albums, had a local #2 hit on the radio, and opened for a whole bunch of national acts.
After a year of playing as a foursome I was approached by my old childhood mate Scott Tabner. Scott and I were in another psychedelic band from the late 70s through the late 80s called Marikesh. He sort of had to beg me to join. I was very leery of adding another member who was possibly going to quit. But he just wanted to be part of what we were doing and said he'd be a background/filler guitarist - and I would still play the lead. Of course he's too good to just be a background/filler guitarist, so it wasn't long before he was playing lead.
Then in 1996 I was feeling like the band was getting very tight and strong. They deserved to be seen as equals and not just my backing band. I came up with the idea of The Pillbugs and that we'd go WAY deeper into psychedelia.
We released our first album on CD in 1998 on our own label (Omniphonic). I believe it was the first double album's worth of new and never-before-released music on a double disc format. Until someone proves me wrong - that's what I believe.
Our second CD "The 3-Dimensional In-Popcycle Dream" was completed in early 2001 as another double set but we couldn't afford to release it. Then a couple of dormant years later we signed with an indie label (Proverus) consisting of my friends Scott Hunt, Jim Ryan and Ken Dudley. Proverus had us strip down the album to 1 CD (a brilliant move actually) and then we inserted a 3D Viewmaster reel to make it really crazy.
That album was released during the summer of 2003. Proverus helped us get a lot of notoriety (especially on the Web) and also helped to get us and manage gigs. We sold out of the first run of 3D in a matter of 2 months (most of them going to Japan). That was successful enough for Proverus to want a follow-up. The next summer we released our 3rd CD "Happy Birthday." Now we're working on a new one and that brings basically everybody up to speed, yes?
By Mark Mikel
Band Members
Mark Kelly (bass/vocals), Dave Murnen (vocals/percussion), Dan Chalmers (drums), Mark Mikel (vocals, guitars, keyboards, sitar), Scott Tabner (guitars).
Influences
The Monkees, The Beatles, The Kinks, The Who, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The Pretty Things, Frank Zappa, Simon & Garfunkel, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Doors. Cream, The Moody Blues, Queen, Neil Young, Mott The Hoople, T Rex, Ray Charles, Steppen Wolf, King Crimson, Traffic, David Bowie, The Peppermint Trolly Co, Carole King, Yes.
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