Biography
Beginnings
Marty's formal percussion and sight reading instruction began at the age of 11 at the Jimmie Stavris Drum School in 1973. He studied with Jimmie Stavris Sr. from 1973 to 1976 and then from 1976 to 1980 with instructors Russell Spang and Robin Frost. Both Stavris and Spang were Big Band drummers who were disciples of percusssion legend J. Burns Moore. Additionally, Stavris was mentored by rudiment master, Alexander Lepak Sr. Marty's studies with these instructors included weekly excercises in the above pictured books: "Buddy Rich's Snare Drum Rudiments", Charles Perry's Introduction To The Drum Set,"Ted Reed's "Syncopation", Joe Cusatis' "Rhythmic Patterns for the Modern Drummer",and Joel Rothmans' "Rolls, Rolls, Rolls".
Marty's first bandmates were brothers Tony and Peter Scherr. The three formed a Rock trio in 1974, rehearsed frequently and played a handful of performances at schools and a few paid private events. Today, both Tony and Pete are successful musicians in their own right. Peter Scherr, a former member of the Hong Kong Symphony, is a composer, producer and bassist in various jazz ensembles such as Jazz Folk and Headache and currently runs a commercial recording studio in Hong Kong. Tony is an accomplished bassist/guitarist/vocalist and also an original composer/performer who has released two critically acclaimed solo cds and also appeared on countless original cds including Nora Jones' Grammy award winning album: Come Away With Me.
In junior high school, Marty received private guitar instruction from Knox Chandler. Later, while in High School, Marty was the percussionist for the jazz ensemble, The Creative Traction Orchestra, led by Chandler, a successful session and performing musician who has performed live or on albums by REM, The Psychedelic Furs, Cyndi Lauper and others. At that time, Marty joined a group with brothers Mike and Nick Cudahy and schoolmate Dan Castelli who eventually became members of the critically acclaimed IRS Record's band Christmas. After Christmas dissolved, the Cudahy brothers became members of the popular group Combustible Edison.
Heading into the late 70's, Feier took notice of the new sounds emerging from bands like The Ramones, The Sex Pistols and The Police. Feier and the Scherr Brothers joined forces with local night club singer Peter Prizzi and performed at a high school concert splitting the bill with schoolmate Paul McNair's punk rock band Poodle Boys. While Feier, Prizzi and the Scherr brothers rocked the crowd with a few originals and other tunes by The Who, Traffic and The Doors, Marty couldn't help but to also embrace the fresh new underground sound and frequently snuck into the New Haven punk rock club Ron's Place which often featured groups such as The Saucers and Poodle Boys, who had gained national notoriety through a feature in Life Magazine. The club was located on the corner of Chapel and Park in a rough section of town and provided club patrons with an organic rock and roll experience not unlike like The Cavern Club or one of the dive venues that the Beatles played in Hamburg. While Toad's Place may have had the big names, Ron's had the truly passionate cutting edge original groups.
First Night Club Show
One Thursday night in the late 70's, Feier left work as a truck fueler and walked into the Redwood Inn, a local Country and Western club, and observed that the house trio, Steve Williams and Shiloh, was performing as a duo. Steve was playing guitar and singing lead with bandmate Gary on bass and harmony vocals while the drum set was covered up with a large tablecloth. Marty inquired about the absence of their drummer. Steve replied that the drummer was off for the night and Marty asked if he could sit in. Steve and Gary said sure and Feier left the club and quickly returned with sticks and cymbals and played the rest of the evening with the trio. The crowd danced, applauded and, best of all, didn't throw things.
College Daze
In college, Marty played percussion in the orchestra, jazz ensemble,collegium and virtually every other available ensemble or stage show that was up for audition. In the jazz ensemble he studied under the guidence of current Skidmore Jazz Institute director Gerald Zaffuts. This world class institute has featured guest faculty members such as legendary jazz bassist Milt Hinton and former Johnny Carson Tonight Show drummer Ed Shaughnessy. Marty studied and performed percussion in the orchestra and collegium under the guidence of conductor Anthony Holland. Feier also immediately sought out additional musicians from college and from the surrounding Capital District club scene for live and original projects. At this time, Marty and college pal Chris Festa collaboratated as a duo, recording several original electronic music compositions using only synthesizers and percussion. In addition to completing college recording engineering and electronic music programs, Marty also received an FM Broadcasting license and eventually earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1984 from Skidmore College. Marty's FM experience led to a decade long stint as host of the popular radio program "Marty's Pop Party" which featured cutting edge new music and interviews and diverse guest spots by legendary music artists such as Bo Diddley, Richard Thompson, Chris Spedding, Hugh Cornwell, Root Boy Slim,John "Rabbit" Bundrick, and Eric Burden.
The Seclusions
Through a post he placed on the college bulletin board, Feier met Dash Hoving and the two formed a band that performed concerts at many famous New York music venues such as the Savoy Theater, Trax and The 80's club. The original lineup of the band included schoolmates Tom Hoistma and Dave Kalafa who departed the group prior to the New York City recording sessions and eventually went on to form an original reggae rock band, the Watts. The Seclusions cut a successful lp in New York City at Intergalactic, Variety and Electric Lady Studios. Funk bassist Busta Jones expressed an interest in working with Dash, and Feier , who was in the middle of a run of a college production of the musical Grease, had to secure an understudy in the show's orchestra in order to accommodate the sudden recording schedule with Dash and Jones. Jones had just completed a tour with the Talking Heads which was recorded and eventually included in the double LP The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads. The record Isolation For Creation was released initially in the US and then the band subsequently signed a contract in France. From there, the LP was released throughout Europe. The album received worlwide distribution from Important Distribution and others. Featured on MTV music news, the LP received college and some commercial airplay, positive reviews in Billboard and CMJ magazines in addition to other well known music and trade publications. Billboard Magazine described the LP as "Punk's answer to the Moody Blues." In addition to Busta Jones, the album featured appearances by Ramones frontman Joey Ramone, members of the groups Blondie, the Patti Smith Band and the Psychedelic Furs. Marty co-produced the LP with Dash and helped supervise the final mixes at Electric Lady Studios. Although the liner notes mention that the group was produced by " Joe Blaney, Nigel Moving and The Seclusions", in actuality, Dash and Feier were the most constant producers of the project. Eventually, Marty joined the Albany band, The Verge, full-time and the drum chair in The Seclusions was assumed by Patti Smith drummer, Jay Dee Daugherty.
The Verge
The Verge was an original trio from Albany that had formed sometime around 1980.
The band's original drummer departed sometime in '81 and Arabellum Studio owner and college instructor Art Snay recommended the band to Marty who was enrolled in a recording engineering course taught by Snay at the college recording studio.
Band members Tom Rella, Skip Murray and Marty first recorded the song "123456" for inclusion on the successful compilation LP, Hudson Rock.
They then recorded the critically acclaimed Habitual EP, with Snay engineering at his Arabellum Studios. This EP was distributed worldwide by Important, Upstart and Dutch East Distribution and continues to be sought out especially by european record collectors . Trouser Press Magazine positively reviewed the record stating that : "The band flies through four angry-and-noisy tunes without a misstep." Maximum Rock and Roll Magazine exclaimed : "Echo and the Bunnymen should sound so good." Respected Rock Critic Lou O'Neill Jr., in Rockbill Magazine listed the band with groups like Big Country as "Important." The record received confirmed charted airplay on :WUSB,WXDU,WVCR,WERS,WMBR,WZBC,WRKC,WCDB,WCSB,WAUP,
WSPN,WICN,WBWC,WRPI and many other radio stations. The band performed throughout the east coast and appeared on concert bills with The Ramones (Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Inductees), Violent Femmes, Flipper, Mission Of Burma, Sun City Girls, Jody Foster's Army and others.
The Watts
The other two original members of the Seclusions departed and formed the Watts initially with a rhythm box but soon realized the limitations of an electronic drum substitute. Feier reunited with his former bandmates, and Dave Waite, to play live and appear on the LP's American Underground and Live at 288 . The Watts regularly played live and appeared on concert bills with other acts such as Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and Albany legends Blotto.
Link Wray
In 1985, Marty was hired by guitar legend Link Wray (Billboard Top 40 Hits "Rumble" and "Rawhide") to replace recently departed Late Night With David Letterman/Session drummer Anton Fig. Marty toured in a power trio with Link and bassist Keith Lentin throughout January and into February of '85. Lentin was a former member of the band Spider which also featured Anton Fig on drums. Lo Fi tapes of two shows were sold by Wray to British and German record labels which resulted in the releases Live in '85 and Born To Be Wild. The live concerts received positive reviews as in the Boston Globe article seen above.
Feier reunited with Link Wray twenty years later in 2005 perfoming live for a one hour concert.
Revolver
Following the Link Wray tour, Marty auditioned musicians for Revolver which was to be an original pop group that also performed hits from the 60's and 70's. The original members besides Feier were Kevin Noonan, Dave Plummer and Doug Doyle. This band eventually recorded the album Scratch and Dent for Feier's Slinky Records. The record was engineered by Joe Blaney and produced by Feier at Intergalactic Studios in New York City. Blaney had recently celebrated the success surrounding his engineering of the Platinum album Combat Rock recorded by The Clash. Nashville songwriter Kevin Noonan brought most of the original material to the Revolver sessions and it was recorded in just a few days. The record received positive reviews and several cuts from the album received moderate commercial airplay on various FM stations in the northeast including WQBK in New York and WEQX in Vermont. The record receives occasional airplay even today as evidenced on the discography/airplay page. Marty bolstered the album with appearances of New York studio friends like Bob Dylan drummer Howie Wyeth on Keys, Television bassist Fred Smith on bass and Carla Bley/Pink Floyd Drummer Nick Mason saxophonist Gary Windo on Sax. The album was sold and distributed throughout the US and Europe. Revolver continued for a decade with many revolving members including Lenny Kravitz bassist Jack Daley on bass and singer/songwriter Chris Busone on vocals/guitar. Many other great Capital District musicians performed with this band including Frank Daley, Dave Rishell, Paul Dwyer, Jim Capello, Snooky, Mike Kisel, Rich Riotto and Rick Gamache.
Love Zombies
Photo by John Whipple
Marty joined Love Zombies in 1988 and produced the Slinky Records' release Never Lie at Woods End Studio with Jack Daley engineering. Love Zombies featured Wayne Peereboom guitar and vocals, John Whipple Bass and vocals and Guitarists Tim Crow and Tim Kenneally who also provided occasional vocals. Feier also plays guitar on the opening of the track Never Lie. Following the release of the record, Feier negotiated with Premier Talent in New York to place Love Zombies as a special guest on several live east coast concerts on The Ramones 1987/88 tour. Amazingly, the band was well received by partisan concertgoers and these performances received rave reviews and the band went on the play shows with other great groups such as Flaming Lips and Chesterfield Kings.
1313 Mockingbird Lane
Photo by John Whipple
In 1989, Marty assumed the drum throne in 1313 Mockingbird Lane and appeared on the Scarab records EP The Second Coming Of..., Sundazed LP Have Hearse Will Travel and Ulta Swank CD. The band was fronted by Haunted Hausmann,Vocals and Guitar and featured Robin Graves on bass and vocals and Kim on organ and backing vocals.
Feier Co-Produced both the EP and LP with the rest of the band and additionally makes brief appearances on guitar and bass. These records received many positive reviews around the world and the band was listed in the worldwide top 100 best garage bands in Timothy Gassen's book The Knights Of Fuzz. Both Metroland Magazine and the Schenectady Gazette voted The Second Coming Of....as a top recording of 1989 during the last week of December of that year.
Other Live Acts
Feier frequently performed live as a member of many other popular Capital District night club acts such as the Rhythm and Blues groups Joey and the Nighttrains and Scotty Mac's Jive Bombers. The Nighttrains were fronted by vocalist Joe Reinfurt and featured Dave Rishell on guitar and vocals and Dave Kalafa on bass. The Jivebombers also featured Chris Busone on vocals and guitar and Buck Malen on bass and vocals. Marty briefly fronted the Doors/60's Psychedelic Tribute Show Daddy Jack. In addition to the music of the Doors, this band, featuring Feier as lead vocalist, performed music by MC5, Mountain, Cream and Vanilla Fudge. Daddy Jack also featured Tom Costanzo ( from the 60's group Harvest) on guitar ,Tom Johnson on bass, Biff Hopkins on keys and Jerry on drums.
The Cast Of Beatlemania/Beatlemania: A Tribute
Marty portrayed Ringo Starr, performing hundreds of concerts in several Beatles tribute shows throughout the 90's and into the 21st century. These tribute shows are theatrical and musical stage recreations of The Beatles entire career and featured former original cast members of the hit Broadway show Beatlemania, as well as current or former members of the #1 ranked stage shows Rain and 1964 The Tribute. Although Marty began playing Beatles tributes with bandmates such as Mitch Weissman and Jimmy Poe in the late 80's /early 90's , Marty then played Ringo in the show Cast Of Beatlemania full time beginning in the second half of the 1990's with Carlo Cantemessa, Lenie Colacino, Jim Filgate and Off Stage Keyboardist Mark Templeton. In addition to playing festival and concert shows, Marty and the band were occasionally accompanied by symphony orchestras such as the Jackson Symphony, Southwest Michigan Symphony and Nassau Pops while performing as the Cast Of Beatlemania in select cities.
Marty's own group Beatlemania: A Tribute performed casino, theater and concert shows and featured Broadway cast members Mark Vaccacio as John, Mitch Weissman, Lenie Colacino and Alan LeBoeuf alternating as Paul. Space Oddity's David Brighton portrayed George Harrison. David Brighton is the world's finest Bowie tribute artist and was recently seen in a european TV commercial with David Bowie. Both Brighton and Bowie play Bowie in the commercial.
Marty has toured worldwide with these shows and performed in venues as large as 10,000 seats. Sample of venues played include Astor Theater, Canada, Flynn Theater, VT, Akzent Theater, Austria, Landmark Theater, NY, Houston Aerodrome, TX, Gerald Ford Ampitheater, CO.
British Invasion Tour
Marty performed with both Billy J Kramer (4 Billboard Top 40 Hits) as well as the Beatles tribute show that appeared on the 1993 US British Invasion tour bill that also featured Gerry and the Pacemakers (7 Billboard top 40 Hits), The Searchers ( 7 Billboard Top 40 Hits including the Sonny Bono penned "Needles and Pins"), Herman's Hermits (18 Billboard Top 40 Hits including the # 1 songs: "Mrs Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter" and I'm Henry The VIII, I Am), and members of Manfred Mann (4 Billboard Top 40 Hits including the #1 "Do Wah Diddy Diddy").
Other Sessions, Live Concerts, Memorable Jams etc.
Feier has additionally perfomed on sessions or live with with Elton John/Paul McCartney/Roxy Music/Session guitarist Chris Spedding, Tommy Roe (11 Billboard top 40 Hits including 2 #1 Hits "Dizzy" & "Sheila"), Bucky Wilken (Lead Singer/Songwriter) of Ronny and The Daytonas (2 Billboard top 40 Hits "G.T.O" & "Sandy") Len Barry (Billboard #2 Song 1-2-3), Warner Bros Singer/Songwriter Loey Nelson, the Uptown Horns, The Who Keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick, Sticky Fingers Band featuring singer Glenn Carroll and bassist Kenny Aronson and Mick Jagger/Jerry Lee Lewis guitarist Jimmy Rip, to name a few. Some of these sessions were engineered and/or produced by Feier and in addition to percussion, Marty occasionally contributed guitar, bass, or vocal tracks.
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