and now for the Musical years...

I have toured and recorded since 1980, playing drums and electronic percussion for a variety of bands. I have played every kind of music imaginable from rock to jazz to experimental to everything in-between. For a complete discography (sort of) check the bottom of this page.

Go to page 2 the musical years and page 3 of pics and more info about Mark.

Gosh, lets see, where to begin???? My grandmother bought me my first musical instrument when I was just a pup. It was one of those cheezy drum kits with a picture of the Archie's Band or something on the front kick drum! LOL. My parents were so pissed at her that they used to let me set it right in front of her bedroom door and start playing early in the morning. (My grandmum used to work late so it was payback time) Before that my mum tells me that I used to bang on the pots and pans with her knitting needles when I was very young.

I used that Archie's set in my school play (the little drummer boy). Unfortunately I didn't get the main part, I got to be the thunder sound effect off stage. :^) I was into bashing even back then. All I remember about the performance was that by the end of the play my set was demolished. All due to my "effective" performance. From that moment on I was hooked. :^) Well that experience and the time before that when I destroyed a pair of maracas by throwing them against the wall while jamming to "what's new pussycat" by Tom Jones. I know embarrassing isn't it? LOL.

My next experience was with the clarinet. My father loved big band jazz clarinet and Pete Fountain and since my parents wouldn't allow me to get another drum set we both settled on the clarinet. That lasted for about 6 months. I couldn't keep my mouth shut to make a good enough sound on it (embouchure) so after plenty of begging I was able to talk them into finally trading it in on an old Ludwig 3 piece orange sparkle drum set. That set was eventually added to with an additional kick drum and two more tom toms. From that point there was no stopping me I was a full fledged crazed drummer/percussionist now. I used to spend countless hours pouring over Cream Magazines and hanging at the local music store and pawn shops. Within no time I had one hell of a conglomeration of percussive devices to play with and beat on.

Let's see, we'll skip a few years here and some early musical experiences like, KISS, Ted Nugent, Zeppelin, AeroSmith and others to the time when I first heard the Canadian band Rush!

Oh my what an eye opener that was. I first heard All the World's A Stage and Neil's drum solo!! From that moment on my musical tastes changed big time! Next to come was the likes of Genesis, King Crimson, Yes, ELP, Gentle Giant, Eno, Bowie and so on. After that came the jazz influences; Chick Corea, Mahavisnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, Passport and many, many others. I went to every concert I could during this time, I saw some amazing shows including Mike Oldfield, Devo and Dave Brubeck.

I drew from every musical influence I could, as someone once said the only way to really be original was to steal from everyone.

After a few failed attempts at piecing together a local band with friends I decided to join the Professional Musicians Referral (PMR) back in the late 70's. I sent in a tape and got a AA rating and started getting calls the following week. One of them was from a band in Arkansas Kansas called Lance Powers. They had two EP's out and one song that made it to #99 on the Billboard charts. I was flown down to audition the following day and ended up getting the gig. I had to learn 30 songs by the weeks end and play a gig with them which was being simulcast on a local radio station for Halloween.

I ended playing up with Lance's band on and off again touring the US and Canada for the next few years. I recorded an EP with them and made two videos. We played all the AA style clubs and hit the market just as MTV was starting out. This was a great band because the actual band (Mike "microwave Myers", Garrett Stucker and Myself) were pretty kickass back then. Lance was the show piece keyboardist/leadman and big daddy warbucks. Click here for some pics of that band. This was one of my greatest experiences because of the level of professionalism. We had a stage crew of 2, Rugsy Danmore (never knew their real names) and Dougee. They drove the big blue equipment truck and set everything up. We rode in a nice van all furnished. Lance had everything you could imagine. Huge lighting rigs with tons of lights, stages, keyboards out the butt and every piece of equipment needed to sound killer. And we did! Hell even his sound system was a custom designed system from EAW.

Lance Powers:
Lance Powers - keyboards, lead vocals
Mike Myers - guitars, vocals
Garrett Stucker - bass, vocals
Me - Drums, vocals

It was during my stint with Lance that I got to see the bands of MTV using the first electronic drum sets. I got to see the band Saga and that is when I got to feel those puppies through a big PA system. I HAD to have a set I said. So, Lance bought me one. :^) Amazing isn't it? When his band broke up I didn't get to keep it so when I came home I went out and borrowed 3 Grand to have the latest model shipped here Fed Ex from England. The Simmons SDS7, white with 5 pads. It was an amazing beast and at the time and ended up getting their little E-Prom blower and started sampling sounds right away!

After Lances' band broke up for the final time and I vegged out with the Simmons kit I started a little ensemble called mInOr cOndiTiOn. It was a GREAT band! We played very unusual music from the premiereMTV days. We used to cover tunes from bands like; Duran Duran, Talking Heads, Thompson Twins, Inxs, Eno, Bowie, King Crimson, Everly Brothers you name it. Anything that was played in the "good" MTV days. We went over like wildfire as this kind of music was just becoming popular. Plus no one had seen or heard electronic drums in real life and our keyboardist and guitarist had great sounds too! No one covered the kind of music we did and no one could. We were very unique at the time.

Minor Condition almost got somewhere because we were winning battle of the band contests beating out the local favorites where ever we played. The band had been propositioned by a local store owner to make a basement tape video for MTV and was told we had potential. We had lots of original songs and were very tight with a decent stage persona. Too bad we never took him up on it. Ya never know.

Minor Condition:
Orville Kronewitter - lead vocals, percussion
Dave Phillipson - guitars, effects, drunken antics, vocals
Kirk Udvardi - keyboards, sax, flute, vocals
Salvatore Vasta - bass, vocals
Ron Hornbeck - sound, lights, printing, recording, sound manipulation
Me - electronic percussions, vocals

After Minor Condition I started working at the Woodwind and Brasswind and ended up doing all kinds of gigs. Played with several bands, helped other musicians record their demo's and CD's and so on. I then ended up playing in little jazz fusion groups around town too. I had started to get into MIDI pretty heavy and drum programming and had my first company on the side doing training for electronics. I also did drum machine programming for several people.

Oh, this is also about the time I met my beautiful partner becky.

At that time while I worked at the Woodwind I was becoming the most knowledgeable MIDI/electronic salesmen at the store. I ended up getting certified by Roland,
E-MU, Ensoniq, Korg and KAT. My electronic kit grew and grew and grew. I started getting keyboards, samplers, PA system, effects, 4 tracks and so on... anything I could get my hot little hands on I picked up.

The musical sluffing years:

During this time I played with a couple of friends that worked at Crown (yes the amp company) It was a little trio called "All Shook Up" that were quite good but just played the typical light bar stuff. Anything from Elvis to everything in-between. We had a permanent gig at a little Italian restaurant /bar for over two years. It was the type of gig where the restaurant owner jumps in and sings to his customers and some nights we played to empty tables and chairs and the 3 or 5 regulars. It was an exercize in musical restraint. I had to play the simplest of tunes and not over play. One of the hardest things to do for a drummer.

During one of the summers with them we had a chance to be the back up band for Dave Jones (The Monkees) but we got under bid by a band from England.

This band played tons of gigs, anything from parties to weddings etc... It was fun but very boring at the same time.

Switching to Jazz:

My first jazz gig situation was when I sat in for a friend and I only had a couple of weeks to turn my style into a structured fusion solo type of thing. It was pretty hard as I have never had to jam with that caliber of jazz players before. I was scared shitless really but way too excited to not go for it. The gig was at a huge plaza hotel in this really cool inside/outside area of the hotel. It looked like Gilligan's Island there. It had a waterfall slide into a huge pool, sauna's grass hut bars and a nice area to play in. We got to stay and play. That weekend Chick Corea's Electrik Band was playing in the theater. We got to see him walking in and tried to jump to a Chick song quickly but didn't have time. :^(

Jazz ensemble #1 (can't remember the name)
Mark Manley - Double neck basses
Carl ? - Woodwinds and electronic saxophone
Chris ? - Guitar
Me - Electronic percussion

The night was a disaster because my Simmons kit farted out on me. Luckily I had it MIDI'd to a Korg DD1 Drum Machine and ended up using those sounds instead. From that point on I didn't do nearly as well as I had planned. There I was playing a new form of music I'd only played to records with and a limping drum kit to boot! It was video taped and after I watched it I wasn't as bad as I thought. :^) The other guys in the band were killer players and they just took long solos and I kept a good groove for them. That was the extent of that evening and I never played with them again.

It was about that time I recorded for a hot sax player in the area named Danny Lerman and did several songs on his studio CD. I then got asked to do several gigs with him.

Danny Lerman - Woodwinds, vocals, programming
Daryl Buchanan - Guitars, bass, vocals, programming
Trent ? - Keyboards, vocals, programming
Me - electronic percussion, programming

My next jazz experience was with a group of older guys that we doing these long dragged out duo/solo gigs with a drum machine. No bass player or drummer, no name, just a keyboardist who was a urologist by day and a physiologist synth guitarist. They came to me asking to do drum programming for them. I did about 6 tunes and they asked me if I wanted to come out and sit in on a gig. What the hell? so that weekend there I was in a club jamming with me and my weird kit and a guitar player that only played a Yamaha synth and keyboardist who did bass lines with one hand and solo'd with the other.

It was one heck of a night really. Total chaos but at the same time a blessed event. It was one of the most disgusting displays of self-righteous musical masturbation I have ever had the pleasure of being part. No one cared as we each shot off into uncharted areas of glory and jammed our asses off! I swear Carlos and Frank would have been proud at the length of the guitar synth solos! LOL. We had that Carlos Secret Chord Progression thing going pretty darn well.

We had so much fun that night we decided to make it a band and I found a killer bassist. Then with the naming of the band ">> Fast Forward>>" we were off and running. The name came from us writing tunes by taping our jam sessions and FF'ing past the boring bits. :^) We came up with about 15 songs and covered stuff from Herbie Hancock, Passport, Chick, Miles Davis and tons more. It was a fun band. We did a video on a local PBS program that turned out pretty good. Channel WNIT TV.

Fast Forward:
Mark Toth - Keyboards
Don Gentner - Guitars
Kevin Leazenby - Bass
Bruce Wolf - Woodwinds
Me - Electronic Percussion

After Fast Forward I took some time off and after about a year of turning down offers to join other bands in the area I was asked by some guys I had never met before. (That was unusual because I worked at the biggest music store in the area and knew everyone I thought) This was a band of guys from lots of other bands and had been playing together on and off in and out of other bands for years. They came to me when their drummer left and they had gigs to cover. I went to practice with them and played the guitarists Yamaha Custom kit. It was a nice set and I didn't have to bring anything so I said what the heck? :^)

We ended up getting one of the best male singers in town who was a great guitar player. The lead guitarist was quite good as well. The keyboardist was great too and so was the bass player. This band ended up being one the best sounding bands I've ever been in. The level of talent was amazing! We covered bands like: Steely Dan, Santana, Doobie Brothers, Talking Heads, Prince, U2 and much much more. That band had vocal talent up the rear end. Plus the sound we produced was just killer. Everyone was always amazed on how good we sounded. Of course I used my electronic kit.

The band was called The Groove Merchants, it was a 5 piece band that kicked some serious butt! I played my last gig with them on Dec 21st and 22nd 1998 to spend more time with my family and on my new company, BECamation. The Merchants played a house gig at one of the largest neon meat markets in town. It was a great club and we played there every other weekend for over two years.

Groove Merchants:
Glenn - Vocals, guitars, percussion
Steve Whaley - guitars, vocals
Jim Pechnezy - bass
Bob - keyboards
Me - electronic drums, vocals

We used to have a web site but I pulled it when the band broke up.

After the Groove Merchants broke up I pretty much stopped playing to concentrate on my new business. I haven't played out since other then on New Year's Eve last year with some of my old friends and band mates at a personal party. We each picked out tunes and sang and played them. I picked Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel. I didn't sound half bad. Or maybe it was just the alcohol. :^) I'm looking forward to playing again this New years eve.

To see some other older band pics please click here.

Below are some more pictures from old band days and from The Woodwind and Brasswind where I was employed for eight long years.

Above with Greg D'Angelo (White Lion's Drummer)	Above at the St. Louis Arch. (at a Percussive Arts Society)
Above with Mark Jones, Wendy Como and Woody. (Yes it's Perry's granddaughter)	Above demonstrating electronic Percussion to Mr. Terry Bozzio. (My favorite drummer from The Frank Zappa Band, Missing Persons, Jeff Beck and others)

After I worked at the Woodwind and Brasswind I got hired away by some musical manufacturers rep companies that represented companies like: drumKAT, Sabian, Sonar Drums, Dan Dauz, Trigger Perfect, JBL, Atari, Soundcraft, Kawai, E-MU, DOD, Digitech, Bagend and more. I did that for a few years covering the states of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Discography

One of my favorite TV sitcoms

e-mail me at:
mark@becamation.com (business address)
sales@a1hostco.net (business address)