Additional personnel: Kim Bingham (vocals); Kurt Rosenwinkle (guitar); Bill Clark (trumpet).
Recorded at Mushroom Studios, Roslyn Heights, New York.
Singer/songwriter John Wozniak of Marcy Playground loyally carries the torch lit by bands like Nirvana. The music of Marcy Playground is truly in tune with a lost generation seeking to understand itself. Wozniak hasn't forgotten the innocence and mischief of childhood in "It's Saturday," where our hero convinces his mother he's too sick to go to school. Part Dr. Seuss and part shaman, Wozniak takes us on a tour of his imagination with SHAPESHIFTER. Darker conjurations are found in the descriptive sorrow of tracks such as "Never" and "Wave Motion Gun." Meanwhile, "Sunday Mail," "Our Generation," and the cartoonish "Secret Squirrel" keeps the mood of SHAPESHIFTER from getting overwhelmingly dark.
Wozniak is as much a crafty songwriter as a psychedelic poet. In the romantic dream of "All the Lights Went Out" a fuse is blown in heaven only to make it clear how special the character's lover is. The closing hidden track has Marcy Playground paying tribute to Tiny Tim, with a reprise of "Pigeon Farm" sounding like an old 78 r.p.m. record, complete with scratchy vinyl sound effects. The true charm of SHAPESHIFTER is how Marcy Playground effectively shifts shape without losing their sound.
LYRICS