Yod Crewsy visited the Flamingo Lounge virtually on January 4, 2025 to tell his story. To prepare for the podcast, I asked Yod to submit a bio. Here it is in his own words:

I guess I always wanted to be part of rock band since I was a kid…I loved watching the Beatles animated show, or Josie and the Pussycats, or Sabrina and the Groovy Ghoulies on Saturday mornings..…and who didn’t love the Partridge Family??

Well for me, it really all started back in 1981 or so…with my first good quality musical instruments (a semi-decent semi-hollow German electric guitar, and a Fender Mustang bass) and playing along with Jeff Shaffer, Sherry Murawski, and Karen Rademacher in a quirky new-wave band called the Blurred Kriebos (I came up with that name). We played the talent show upstairs at Mr. Goodbar (a reviewer from the Buffalo Evening News said we sounded a little like the B-52s) and then we got gigs at the Schuper House and the Hat Trick, often opening for quirky new wave bands like the Triangular Nelsons and Der Fuhmens.

At some point I started learning bass lines to more familiar and recognizable tunes, like “Under the Boardwalk” and “For you Love” by the Yardbirds. I jammed on bass with Sherry Murawski on guitar and Jeff Shaffer on drums, but we added Paul Endres on lead guitar…we called ourselves the Statictones…lol….

By 1982, I felt that I could front my own band (!!). I then created a mod (skinny ties, 3-button suits) band called the Spidermen…with Steve Brueckman on bass and Joe Marciniak on drums…playing tunes by the Jam, the Lambrettas, the Who, the Purple Hearts, the Action, the Creation, etc. We were one of the last bands to ever play McVans.

BUT….I departed WNY in December 1983 …I thought I was leaving permanently for Norway…then hated Norway …so only to return to WNY in the Summer of 1984… In the summer of 1984 I joined up with some folks I knew from the Elmwood Avenue (and Buffalo) punk rock music scene….and suddenly I was a guitarist in the SplatCats! Well everyone in the band was compelled to come up with a goofy stage names, and I had just finished reading a whole slew of Anthony Burgess novels…so I swiped the “Yod Crewsy” character name for my own….and it has stuck to this day…lol… The SplatCats had a great and storied time back then….being a regular act at the Continental in Buffalo….Being part of the “new wave” scene at that time, playing with bands like the Moment, the Joy Buzzers, the Goo Goo Dolls, the Beaumonts, and others…

Then the SplatCats (who educated me on the “garage-rock” ethos and tunes of the mid to late 1960s) began to garner some weird attention from concert promoters, because we were playing lots of obscure garage rock tunes (Moving Sidewalks, Seeds, Shocking Blue, etc.), and suddenly we were getting opening slots for many of the “neo-garage” acts that were cropping up, like the Lyres, the Cynics, the Fleshtones, the Mosquitos, the Hoo Doo Gurus, and the Chesterfield Kings.

And so then, (along with the Goo Goo Dolls), the SplatCats got a record deal on Moving Target Records!!! And later we got to open for the Ramones at SUNY Fredonia! Fun times!! And we recorded an EP and an LP!!!

But the SplatCats gave me an ultimatum: “go on tour with us to promote the new LP “Sin 73” or you are out”…and with me being so close to finishing my Master’s degree….. I opted out ….this was 1986…

In 1987 I formed the very first incarnation of my very own garage-rock band…the Dark Marbles. And the Dark Marbles would play regularly at the Continental…fast and furious versions of the following tunes: “Bad News Travels Fast “ by the Fuzztones, and “I’m a Man” done Yardbirds-style….there is tape of us playing live at WBNY at Buff State…. So it would turn out that the “opting out” from the SplatCats was not critical to my musical career… in late 1987 Casino El Camino (bassist from the SplatCats – who had also gotten the boot from the SplatCats)…wanted to get a group together with me ….and I knew Buck Quigley from jamming with him in a jug band called the Sky Cabin Boys…..and so in late 1987, I disbanded the Dark Marbles and the JackLords were created…

The JackLords started out a bit rough, but soon we were the “garage-rock” darlings of Buffalo, packing both Marshall’s on Main Street and then Nietzsche’s on Allen Street, and being nominated as Buffalo’s best new party band! The JackLords had a slew of original songs, but we would also play covers from as diverse a group as: Johnny Kidd, the Standells, REM, the Plimsouls, Swinging Medallions, Billy Boy Arnold, Percy Sledge, the Flamin’ Groovies, and others… And lo and behold, word got around , and the JackLords got a record deal…with SkyClad Records. The JackLords LP “Mothers Rock” is still considered a pretty great LP. The JackLords had such great and lively live shows!…Once a promoter came into a packed and rockin’ Marshalls to check us out, and the next thing – we were hired to open for Roy Orbison and his big band at Kleinhans Music Hall! Super fun times!!!! But in 1990, after the JackLords were denied a second LP from SkyClad, and with Buck wanting to go more towards the country vein of music, the JackLords members parted ways. I myself went up to Boston for a spell before returning to WNY.

I then reformed the Dark Marbles at this time, first as a “power-pop” trio with the DiBiasio brothers on bass and drums, then as a quartet with such notable members as Patrick Kane and Doty Hall (both formerly of the Stains/Elements).

As an aside, I had always pursued my career as an attorney, and with my graduation from UB Law School in 1994 and then my leaving WNY for NYC, the Buffalo version of the Dark Marbles came to an end.

But as soon as I relocated to NY City in 1995, I formed a new version of the Dark Marbles! This version of the Dark Marbles rocked the NYC garage-rock scene, playing at the Orange Bear, the Continental Divide, and Desmond’s, among other clubs. We would open for such bands as Muck and the Mires and the Anderson Council. We were one of the last bands ever to play CBGBs, opening for Mod Fun.

I also fancied myself a concert promoter at this time, and I brought some Buffalo bands like Scott Carpenter & Real McCoys, and the Irving Klaws to New York City. A three-song Dark Marbles EP was recorded at this time: “Let’s Go!”

I moved from NYC to NJ in 2002, and this changed the Dark Marbles line-up a bit. The venues we played also changed: The Dark Marbles played Maxwell’s in NJ opening for the Insomniacs, Sky Saxon and the Seeds, and we also played venues in Asbury Park and Hoboken.

I left NJ (with family) in 2009, and I moved with my wife and kids to the Adirondacks. But the music continued….in fact, the studio recordings took even more precedence. I had figured out the workings of ProTools recording software, and in 2011, the Dark Marbles released an album entitled “Variety Pack” with 18 songs that had been recorded in NYC and Brooklyn, but finally mixed down at Robbie Takac’s Good Charamel studio in Buffalo.

In 2013, I released a CD of garage-rock tunes that the Dark Marbles had covered entitled “Back to the Garage!”

In 2015, “Yod Crewsy and the Dark Marbles” released a CD entitled “Brit-Pop Faves” with 20 or so songs that I have always loved from my British invasion days. In 2020, I released a double CD of tunes entitled “The Longings of Paul Roalsvig”. Mixed down in Buffalo, of course.

The Dark Marbles still exist – well …sort of….the band exists when I assemble musicians to play a show. For example, a version was assembled to open for the GripWeeds at one of the music festivals held in Long Lake. Another version was assembled to play at Waynestock in North Creek, NY one summer. And I have always gotten a version of the Dark Marbles together (with Russ Steinberg on bass) to play in Buffalo at Nietzsche’s in early March for the Lou Reed birthday tribute hosted by the Irving Klaws. So every year, I have to teach some Lou Reed/Velvet Underground songs to some other musicians.

These days, I am trying to be a better lead guitarist, but I am also considered the “King of Open Mics” in the Adirondacks. Post-COVID, I found myself needing to leave Long Lake to find live music, thus playing open mics from Tupper Lake, over to Old Forge, and down to North Creek and Bolton Landing, and everywhere in-between. I currently host open mics on a regular basis at the Black Bear in Pottersville, NY, and I have a loose ensemble of a band called the “Yod Squad” that plays fairly recognizable cover tunes by Elvis, Johhny Cash, the Beatles, the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, etc…we’ll play farmer’s markets..hey!..don’t laugh! They pay well!

These days, I also attend bluegrass jams at the Crandall Library in Glens Falls, and I am a regular player performer at the Schroon Lake boathouse acoustic jam held in Schroon Lake, NY every Monday evening in the summertime. Sometimes I bring my mandolin, my Irish bouzouki, or my 6-string banjo. I like to keep folks on their tippy toes…. I also attend, very regularly, the “SloJam” in Saranac Lake (a beginner acoustic jam) , where I might even play my Melodica!!

Lastly, for all you theater people, I have also (in the past) been active in community theatre, appearing in musicals through the Arts Center in Blue Mountain Lake (as Daddy Warbucks in “Annie,” Captain Von Trapp in “Sound of Music”, the King in “Cinderella –the Enchanted Version,” R.H. Macy in “Miracle on 34th Street – the musical”) as well as performing with the Cabin Fever Players (the Music Man, Mary Poppins) in Indian Lake. I have also acted in non-musicals, such as “Crimes of the Heart” directed by Jordan Hornstein or “Sylvia” directed by Alison Studdiford, and I even have made a cameo appearance as a real estate developer in the film “Song of Sway Lake” shot in Blue Mountain Lake and directed by Ari Gold. I still have the letter inviting me to join the various actors’ unions..! lol….

Oh….BTW…did I mention that a SplatCats song from the LP “Sin 73” was used in the Netflix series “Heist”? And one my proudest accomplishments: getting a song I recorded on my “Brit-Pop Faves” CD played several times on Little Steven’s Underground Garage (Channel 21) Sirius XM radio station!!!

So there you go….