Early life
Moreland grew up in West Covina, California, and was a student at Raymond Pre-School, Vine Elementary School, Hollencrest Intermediate School, West Covina High School 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 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. 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 (Marc Moreland's brother) as bassist-keyboardist and Chas T. Gray as keyboardist, along with Joe Nanini, who had been the drummer for Black Randy and the Metrosquad, the first lineup of Wall of Voodoo was born. The band had a '' Billboard'' Hot 100 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 withDepartment 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-based Kitchen Whore Records, and featured contributions from PJ Harvey's John Parish and Jean-Marc Butty.Death
Marc Moreland died of renal failure following a liver transplant on March 13, 2002, inMentions
Moreland is the subject of the song " Joey" by Concrete Blonde. Lead singerReferences
External links
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Moreland, Marc 1958 births 2002 deaths American rock guitarists American male guitarists Deaths from kidney failure in France 20th-century American guitarists Wall of Voodoo members 20th-century American male musicians