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 Question Mark and the Mysterians

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Chris
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Spamer i rock'n'roll master
Chris


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Question Mark and the Mysterians Empty
PostSubject: Question Mark and the Mysterians   Question Mark and the Mysterians I_icon_minitimeWed Jul 08, 2009 9:49 pm

Question Mark and the Mysterians (rendered ? and the Mysterians on the record label) were an American rock and roll band formed in Bay City, Michigan, in 1962.The group is best known for its song "96 Tears," a garage rock classic recorded in 1966 that reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and would go on to sell over one million copies and receive a BMI award for over three million airplays. Rudy Martinez, the lead singer, legally changed his name to Question Mark (?). Question Mark and the Mysterians was perhaps the first band to be described as punk rock[1], and also may be the first Latino rock group to have a general audience hit record in the United States. The group named itself after the 1957 Japanese science fiction film The Mysterians, in which aliens from the destroyed planet Mysteroid arrive to conquer Earth.The band's frontman and primary songwriter was Question Mark. Though the singer has never confirmed it, Library of Congress copyright registrations indicate that his birth name is Rudy Martinez. His eccentric behavior helped to briefly establish the group in the national consciousness. He claimed (and still claims) to be a Martian who lived with dinosaurs in a past life, and he never appears in public without sunglasses.The original lineup came together in 1962, composed of Larry Borjas on guitar, Borjas's cousin, guitar phenom Robert Balderrama, and Robert Martinez on guitars and bongos. Martinez switched to drums shortly thereafter. The band played instrumental music inspired by surf groups and artists like Link Wray. They soon added Question Mark on vocals. These Mexican-American musicians were from the Saginaw Valley area of Michigan with Question Mark coming from Flint. Robert Martinez was drafted right before the band was scheduled to begin recording and Larry Borjas decided to enlist with him using the buddy system to keep the two friends together. Immediate replacements were needed and both Eddie Serrato (drums) and Frank Lugo (bass guitar) were recruited from Mexican bands, with Bobby Balderama switching from bass to guitar. Fourteen-year-old Frank Rodriguez was brought in on keyboards and the classic "96 Tears"' lineup was formed.
Question Mark wrote the song that would become their first and biggest hit, "96 Tears," with essential riffs and styling being contributed by the Mysterians. There is no truth to the rumor that the song was first entitled "Too Many Teardrops" or that it was changed to "69 Tears" before assuming the title "96 Tears".[citation needed] With its plaintive chorus and Rodriguez's catchy Vox organ riff, "96 Tears" was originally recorded on March 13, 1966 in Bay City, Michigan as a single for local Pa-Go-Go Records, owned by the group's manager, Lillian Gonzales. The song became a regional hit in the Flint and Detroit areas. Question Mark licensed the record to Cameo-Parkway Records because their logo was his favorite color, orange.[citation needed] The band released a single and it was originally intended that the song "Midnight Hour" would be the group's single with "96 Tears" as the B-side, but at the insistence of Question Mark, "96 Tears" was chosen to be the A-side. Question Mark personally went to radio stations to promote his song and get his single played, and the song quickly became a local hit. Then with the Cameo-Parkway release the song became a huge national hit
The band's next two singles, "I Need Somebody" and "Can't Get Enough of You Baby," were also charting hits, but nowhere near as successful as "96 Tears". The group's second album, Action, featured the Mysterians at the peak of their musicianship but was not as commercially successful. The band next briefly recorded with Capitol Records, Tangerine Records and Super K, with lineup changes occurring as the original members began to go off in other directions. Mel Shacher, prior to his role as bass player for Grand Funk Railroad, was briefly the bass guitarist for the band .In 1969 bassist Richard Schultz replaced Mel and helped co-write numerous songs with Question Mark one in particular was She Goes to Church on Sunday which is currently with Paul McCartney's publishing company in New York."96 Tears" continued to be re-recorded by numerous artists and became part of the standard classic rock repertoire, and has been recorded in dozens of different versions
In the early 1970s, Question Mark and the Mysterians reformed with a different lineup consisting of two guitars and no keyboards, attracting the attention of rock critic Dave Marsh, who coined the term "punk rock" in a 1971 article in Creem magazine about Question Mark. Question Mark and the original lineup of the Mysterians held a reunion concert in Dallas, Texas, in 1984 with Robert Martinez on drums once again, as Eddie Serrato had become ill with muscular dystrophy. This did not lead to a full revival for the band, but a recording was made which was released by the NYC label ROIR entitled 96 Tears Forever: The Dallas Re-Union Tapes. Then, in 1997 the group reformed again, collaborating with NYC promoter Jon Weiss, who made the band headliners at his CaveStomp Garage rock festivals. Cavestomp featured many revived 60's garage and psychedelic acts. The newly revitalized Mysterians quickly established themselves as one of the strongest playing bands of these reformed groups, and touring in various mid-sized concert venues followed. The reformed Mysterians gigged sporadically throughout 1998 and 1999 and made two visits to Europe, where, in November 1998, they wowed a capacity crowd at the "Wild Weekend" garage rock weekend in London. They followed with a second, longer tour in summer 1999 and an unlikely appearance at the Royal Festival Hall classical music venue as part of the "Meltdown 1999" music festival
In between these shows Question Mark was still occasionally active with the original Mysterians, and in 2001 Question Mark and the original lineup returned to NYC to play the very first Little Steven's Underground garage live event, selling out the Village Underground. Then, in 2003 they played what was billed as the final Cavestomp show co-headlining with The Vagrants and The Electric Prunes in the Polish National Home in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York.On January 10, 2007, a fire destroyed the home of Question Mark on his farm in Clio, Michigan, taking all of his priceless memorabilia and also taking the lives of his beloved breeding dogs (Yorkies). [1] Dog breeding had been a viable business for Question Mark for many years. Benefit shows have been held around the country with Question Mark performing The Mysterians (without Question Mark) still play live in and around their home state of Michigan and are now playing events around the country. Ironically, the tragedy has caused a wave of renewed interest in Question Mark. A documentary film about them is slowly being assembled by longtime friend and photographer Terry Murphy, who runs the official website for Question Mark and the Mysterians . The working title for the film is Are You For Real. It will include footage from their forty years in the music business—from 1966 to the 1997 reformation and up to the present.at some of these events.

• 96 Tears (1966, Cameo Parkway, SC2004) (#66 on US Billboard Pop chart)
• Action (1967, Cameo Parkway, SC2006)

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