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Blessed with one of the largest foreheads in rock and roll, lead vocalist
Mike Baker at the tender age of 12 formed Black Marauder along with
his childhood friends, Sam El-Halawani and Scott Ehrenberg in the
summer of 1980.
Baker wrote his first song that summer, "First Deadly Sin." The song
was allegedly influenced by his Catholic school upbringing, however, in truth,
lyrically the song made little sense.
"Running down the street I was shuffling my feet finding my way back home.
My heart was really high my anxiety will fly all of my sides are shown. It was
the first deadly sin of the world. The first deadly sin that I know."
Soon after the release of the largely incomprehensible "First Deadly Sin",
the band recorded "Ode to Jimmy and Ray." Written by the youngest member
of the group, Scott Ehrenberg who was 11 at the time. "Ode..." was a
trifling song about local neighborhood bullies. It
was the first Black Marauder song to feature the band's trademark call and
response vocal stylings.
"What's the leader got?" "WHAT?" "It looks like a chain! Oh No it's Jimmy
and Ray."
Frustrated by lack of commercial success with both "First Deadly Sin" and
"Ode to Jimmy and Ray" the band set out to record a new batch of tunes on the
boom box cassette recorder in Baker's basement. Drawing again on his
Catholic school frustrations, Baker wrote his now classic "I Got an F."
The song aptly captured Mike's test-taking angst (an angst he harbors to this
day) and it spoke to a generation of disaffected Catholic school youth.
Scott contributed what would become the band's party anthem "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y
Night."
It was at about this time that Sam El-Halawani expressed frustration over his
role in the group. He was tired of playing drums and wanted to play bass
instead. A series of lineup changes ensued as the band continued in search
of its sound.
John "Hacksaw" Tharaldson made a brief but historic appearance
on drums at the
infamous "Bakes On The Lake" concert. John, however, decided to quit
the band after the concert's first intermission. When asked why, he
stated, "Everyone is laughing at me." The band and its management assured
John that, in fact, the crowd was laughing at the entire band to which John
replied, "Yeah, well they're laughing and pointing at me! I quit!"
Steve Wander emerged from the band's transition period as one of the
more permanent fixtures of the group. Adjusting to the changing band
chemistry, however, proved difficult for everybody involved in the project.
In particular, Steve and Scott found themselves arguing constantly - mostly over
choreography and wardrobe. Mike and Sam grew tired of the constant
in-fighting and privately they knew that something had to give.
Ulitimately, having an older brother with a driver's license assured Steve his
place in the band. One-time Black Marauder co-visionary, Scott Ehrenberg was summarily dismissed
and
replaced by up and coming guitar virtuoso, Steve Proper. A bitter court battle ensued over the
rights to the name Black Marauder ushering in an era of acrimony between Scott
and the rest of his former bandmates.
The group went on to add drummer, Paul Kurkowski, and set about finding a
new band name to sidestep the ongoing legal brouhaha surrounding the rights to
Black Marauder. Mike Baker suggested the band be called Sodomy.
Everyone agreed that the name sounded pretty cool but nobody was sure what it
meant. So they looked the word up in the dictionary. It was then
that they decided to name the new band, "Vixxon."
Shortly thereafter, an
unsuspecting Mike and Sam were callously ousted from Vixxon. They were replaced by vocalist
Gary Ukura and Greg Selner, a multi-talented bass player who played
keyboards simultaneously with his toes.
In time, Sam and Scott would patch up their musical differences to form
Batteries Not Included - arch rival of Vixxon throughout high school.
Eventually, this rivalry too would subside when in 1987 Steve and Gary from
Vixxon would join Sam and Scott to form, The Dive.
The musical rift between original Black Marauder co-visionaries, Mike and
Scott, however, would linger for over 20 years. In recent years their
acrimony for each other had softened enough to allow Scott to play on several studio
CD recordings of Mike's current band, Sebastian Orange. The two
have not, however, performed live on stage together for 25 years. The
planned BLACK MARAUDER reunion show in April, 2006 figures to rival similar
recent rock reunions of Jesus Jones (2002), Musical Youth (2004) and
Loggins & Messina (2005).
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