Origins/History: The material derives from my 1984 Reagan-era band "Pulsating Love Flower," essentially created as a vehicle to teach Cathy bass. The band quickly took on a life of it's own and we are proud to have been a part of the "San Antonio underground music scene" of the time, playing such venues as Raw Power and Light, Buddy's Ize House, the Bone Club and Taco Land. For a wonderful article on the scene check out this article: http://www.sacurrent.com/sanantonio/the-kids-were-alright/Content?oid=2282150
The all-original music was heavily influenced by bands such as Lung Overcoat, the early Smiths, U2 and New Order. Probably most influential for us were two somewhat obscure compilation LPs that came out of the UK:
Pillows & Prayers (subtitled, Cherry Red 1982-1983) is compilation album released Christmas 1982 featuring artists on the Cherry Red record label at the suggestion of A&R head Mike Alway. The record was originally sold at 99 pence (in fact, "pay no more than 99p" was printed on the original sleeve), which helped ensure that the album peaked and remained at number 1 on the UK Indie Chart for 19 weeks and sold over 120,000 copies.[2] Of note are tracks by English post-punk groups Everything But The Girl—whose singer Tracey Thorn also sang on her own solo track and as part of Marine Girls -- The Monochrome Set and Felt, as well as a spoken word piece by writer Quentin Crisp
and:
Recorder Three (Bristol Records LP/Magazine 1981) which had tracks from P.B. Davies (of Crystal Theatre/Shoes For Industry), Essential Bop, Robert Fripp, Ekome Dance Company and Thompson Twins.[
Pulsating Love Flower became a recurring opening act for Lung Overcoat and Red Square in 1984; we participated in a monthly San Antonio showcase at the famed "Beach" in Austin where the Big Boys and Zeitgeist were frequently in attendance. We began playing shows with Zeitgeist (later "the Reivers"), Doctor's Mob and Fab Motion, and played punk venues in Houston, opening for Fudge Tunnel, Lung Overcoat, Red Square, Fab Motion and others. We were invited to play at the very first Woodshock festival (July 1, 1984). Around this time the term "the new sincerity movement" began to be used by the press, the Reivers being the primary catalyst for this term. We were certainly earnest, but I've always liked the term the Reivers themselves used: "jangle pop."
Looking back over my tunes from the perspective of 2018, I feel more than ever that the journey is towards open-heartedness and joy. To be in that relaxed state, whether alone in my music room or at a venue, playing the tunes... each song uniquely imbued with a sense of history, meaning and connection to a time/place/memory. Each performance is a holographic "book" with unique variations, emphasis. So for me, the songs are not "just songs." They represent my entire life journey and a powerful emotional connection to my very psyche or "kata."Communicated through the act of performing.
In 2003, Cathy wrote the following about our music and journey. She explains it much more eloquently than I can. Here is a portion:
"I showed my sweet and dear Spanish friend Carmen some of the video of our gig at Tacoland and was explaining to her how we got together over 20 years ago and began playing music. I told her that we weren't as heady or musically complex as Red Square or as beautiful and stylish as Lung Overcoat, but we made a lot of noise for three people and had a raw, innocent and slightly messy sound that seemed to appeal to some of our peers. I told her how I would hang out at your house and you would teach me how to play the bass. I also told her how, at that time, you were reading (and writing) about Buddhist philosophy, talking about divinity and spirituality on a level I had never encountered before, and searching for a bit of humanity in an increasingly inhumane world. I told her that I didn't always understand everything you were telling me, but I wanted to listen and I wanted to learn. Over the years, some of those ideas, concepts, visions, whatever, you call 'em, have re-emerged in my mind and "sometimes" as small revelations during brief moments of lucidity.
I said that I chose to play with Pulsating Love Flower because I believed in your songs and the beauty and energy behind them, though their meaning wasn't immediately clear. Even when we didn't practice or I thought we sounded a bit sloppy, those songs sounded so special to me because they were written from the a place in the heart that both embraces and questions the world and our role in it. I told my friend that this experience was extremely important and influential for me and I have taken bits and pieces of it with me throughout my life. I also told her that beyond our own experience as friends and in playing music we became part of a world of other players and thinkers like Gary Davenport, Steve Sanchez, Joe Trevino, Jim Cobb, Godfrey Daniels, Will Willard, Dan Tellez, Chris Smart, Johnny Rodriguez, Frank Lugo, and many others (why are they all guys?) who thought about music as a way to reach inside of our thoughts, imagination, creativity, humility, and curiosity and connect with one-another as a community and as human beings. I told my friend that even though I have spent most of the last 10-15 years away from San Antonio and Texas, that I have always felt tied to this community. There were time that I thought I had removed myself from this part of my past, but those were times I felt lost and very alone. Playing with you and Scott this summer helped me reconnect with the community and the history that I had constructed with you guys at an incredibly vulnerable and important time in my life. I realized that no matter where I go or who I am with, I will always remain connected to you and to the community we helped create. Deep, deep down, I explained to my friend, I know that I have a home no matter where I choose to live of travel. I am not unnecessarily talking about my family's house or even San Antonio, but a home within the memories, hearts, and experiences of a few dear friends like yourself who had a huge impact of the development of my existence here on planet earth."
Bands: "Entropics" with Will Willard, Dan Tellez and Scott Potter (1982), “Pulsating Love Flower” with Cathy Ragland and Scott Potter (1984), “Buddies for Life” with Godfrey Daniels (1985), “Town Freaks” with Michael Escamilla, Lloyd Walsh, Scott Potter (1987), “Paul is Dead” with Will Willard, Scott Potter (1989), “Debris” (1991) with James Flores and Allen Holub, “Holodax” (2009) with Daryl Chadick, Scott Potter, The Johnny Love Band with Daryl Chadick and Scott Potter (2011), "Johnny Love and the Lovecasters" with Holly Holbrook and Scott Potter (2016).
Collabs: Will Willard (THE GILLIAM SECTION), Spingere, Will Cruttenden, Yoshi Hampl, Gerald Benesch, Daryl Chadick, Scott Potter, Matt McCabe, Teredelie, Tony Garza, Cathy Ragland, Godfrey Daniels, Alessandra Celletti, Moon, Sylvie Walder, Andy Lee, James H. Sidlo, Daniel Garcia-Lara, Michael Escamilla, Alan Van Dyke, Holly Holbrook, Gary Davenport, Dan Tellez, Jeff and Jess (“Hyperbubble”), Brad Morrison, Clay Dooley, James Cobb, Lloyd Walsh, Dan Tellez, Jeff Hoskins, Justine Foy, Amy and the Cigs, Mark Semmes, Jose Sanchez, Dee Lusk, Joe Belk, Val Cronk, Anthony Curtis and Lee Van Laer.
Selected Discography:
* Musics from the Barren Wasteland: San Antonio Underground 1982 (Closet Records) Unreleased (with Entropics, Lung Overcoat, Will Willard and Robert Scott Potter)
* As Raindrops Become Ocean (Closet Records, 1986)
* Live at the Bar America: Daniel Garcia Lara (Tarantula Music) (1993 Garcia Lara Music) (playing on track 2: The Bar America and Track 6: Leaving Me High)
* The Johnny Love Experience (2001) (Engineer: Karl Yelderman)
* Pop! The Exploding Sex Kittens (on Track 2: "King R. Rodrigo") (2009)
* “Solus” The Gilliam Section (Habitual Grace, 2009)
* “Lost in the Valley” Johnny Love (Habitual Grace, 2009)
* “The Gilliam Section” (Habitual Grace, 2010)
* ”Rising & Falling” (Will Cruttenden/John Marcell 2010)
* ”Elemental” Paxsimius (Petit+Audioscapes) Featuring Alan Van Dyke (2010)
* ”Zen Series” (Petit+Audioscapes 2010)
* ”Petit+Audioscapes (Petit+Audioscapes 2010)
* "New Arising" (Petit+Audioscapes 2012)
* "Solastalgia" Twisted Ear with John Marcell, Cathy Ragland and Scott Potter. Special thanks to Joe Trevino (Habitual Grace, 2013)
* "The Making of the Americans" The Willard Marcell Theory, Will Willard, John Marcell and Scott Potter (Habitual Grace 2013)
* and appearing on:
* “Human Touch” Gerald Benesch (Habitual Grace 2010);
* Spingere “Recall” 2011;
* Yoshi Hampl “ATX” with Markus Reuter and Pat Mastelotto (Unsung 2011);
* "Code One Charlie" (2014) with Alan Van Dyke;
* Another Way of Loving You (2021);
* Combines (2021);
* Inner Worlds (with Dan Tellez) (2021);
* Looking for Shooting Stars (2021);
* Saturday Speedway (with Cathy Ragland and Scott Potter);
* Spingere "the New Normal" (2021);
* Dangerous Times/American Zen (2021)
* Spingere "A Window in Darkness" (2021);;
* Love Explosion (2021);
* Hello (2021);
* Red Matter (with Will Cruttenden);
* Underneath Blue Sky (2021);
* The Ghost of Memory (DMT) (2021)
* So in Love with You (2021);
* Nous Sommes Tous Un (with Teradelie) (2021);
* Love is Love (2021); and
* Boom (LeeTeraLove) (2021)
* Natural Selection (Gerald Benesch) (Track 2: "Violas vs. Johnny vs Dobro vs. 808" ~ reading a selection of my poems) (2022) ("Meine Megaphon Gesellschaft")
* The Migrant Song (Teradelie) (February 2022)
* Piano Works (Gerald Benesch) (March 2022) (Tracks: 6 & 7) ("Meine Megaphon Gesellschaft")
As John Marcell:
* Words (2022) iTunes, YouTube, Spotify
* Skorched (2022) iTunes, YouTube, Spotify
* Hypnotized (2022) iTunes, YouTube, Spotify
* Let Me Fall (2022) iTunes, YouTube, Spotify
* A Shot in the Dark (2022) iTunes, YouTube, Spotify
The all-original music was heavily influenced by bands such as Lung Overcoat, the early Smiths, U2 and New Order. Probably most influential for us were two somewhat obscure compilation LPs that came out of the UK:
Pillows & Prayers (subtitled, Cherry Red 1982-1983) is compilation album released Christmas 1982 featuring artists on the Cherry Red record label at the suggestion of A&R head Mike Alway. The record was originally sold at 99 pence (in fact, "pay no more than 99p" was printed on the original sleeve), which helped ensure that the album peaked and remained at number 1 on the UK Indie Chart for 19 weeks and sold over 120,000 copies.[2] Of note are tracks by English post-punk groups Everything But The Girl—whose singer Tracey Thorn also sang on her own solo track and as part of Marine Girls -- The Monochrome Set and Felt, as well as a spoken word piece by writer Quentin Crisp
and:
Recorder Three (Bristol Records LP/Magazine 1981) which had tracks from P.B. Davies (of Crystal Theatre/Shoes For Industry), Essential Bop, Robert Fripp, Ekome Dance Company and Thompson Twins.[
Pulsating Love Flower became a recurring opening act for Lung Overcoat and Red Square in 1984; we participated in a monthly San Antonio showcase at the famed "Beach" in Austin where the Big Boys and Zeitgeist were frequently in attendance. We began playing shows with Zeitgeist (later "the Reivers"), Doctor's Mob and Fab Motion, and played punk venues in Houston, opening for Fudge Tunnel, Lung Overcoat, Red Square, Fab Motion and others. We were invited to play at the very first Woodshock festival (July 1, 1984). Around this time the term "the new sincerity movement" began to be used by the press, the Reivers being the primary catalyst for this term. We were certainly earnest, but I've always liked the term the Reivers themselves used: "jangle pop."
Looking back over my tunes from the perspective of 2018, I feel more than ever that the journey is towards open-heartedness and joy. To be in that relaxed state, whether alone in my music room or at a venue, playing the tunes... each song uniquely imbued with a sense of history, meaning and connection to a time/place/memory. Each performance is a holographic "book" with unique variations, emphasis. So for me, the songs are not "just songs." They represent my entire life journey and a powerful emotional connection to my very psyche or "kata."Communicated through the act of performing.
In 2003, Cathy wrote the following about our music and journey. She explains it much more eloquently than I can. Here is a portion:
"I showed my sweet and dear Spanish friend Carmen some of the video of our gig at Tacoland and was explaining to her how we got together over 20 years ago and began playing music. I told her that we weren't as heady or musically complex as Red Square or as beautiful and stylish as Lung Overcoat, but we made a lot of noise for three people and had a raw, innocent and slightly messy sound that seemed to appeal to some of our peers. I told her how I would hang out at your house and you would teach me how to play the bass. I also told her how, at that time, you were reading (and writing) about Buddhist philosophy, talking about divinity and spirituality on a level I had never encountered before, and searching for a bit of humanity in an increasingly inhumane world. I told her that I didn't always understand everything you were telling me, but I wanted to listen and I wanted to learn. Over the years, some of those ideas, concepts, visions, whatever, you call 'em, have re-emerged in my mind and "sometimes" as small revelations during brief moments of lucidity.
I said that I chose to play with Pulsating Love Flower because I believed in your songs and the beauty and energy behind them, though their meaning wasn't immediately clear. Even when we didn't practice or I thought we sounded a bit sloppy, those songs sounded so special to me because they were written from the a place in the heart that both embraces and questions the world and our role in it. I told my friend that this experience was extremely important and influential for me and I have taken bits and pieces of it with me throughout my life. I also told her that beyond our own experience as friends and in playing music we became part of a world of other players and thinkers like Gary Davenport, Steve Sanchez, Joe Trevino, Jim Cobb, Godfrey Daniels, Will Willard, Dan Tellez, Chris Smart, Johnny Rodriguez, Frank Lugo, and many others (why are they all guys?) who thought about music as a way to reach inside of our thoughts, imagination, creativity, humility, and curiosity and connect with one-another as a community and as human beings. I told my friend that even though I have spent most of the last 10-15 years away from San Antonio and Texas, that I have always felt tied to this community. There were time that I thought I had removed myself from this part of my past, but those were times I felt lost and very alone. Playing with you and Scott this summer helped me reconnect with the community and the history that I had constructed with you guys at an incredibly vulnerable and important time in my life. I realized that no matter where I go or who I am with, I will always remain connected to you and to the community we helped create. Deep, deep down, I explained to my friend, I know that I have a home no matter where I choose to live of travel. I am not unnecessarily talking about my family's house or even San Antonio, but a home within the memories, hearts, and experiences of a few dear friends like yourself who had a huge impact of the development of my existence here on planet earth."
Bands: "Entropics" with Will Willard, Dan Tellez and Scott Potter (1982), “Pulsating Love Flower” with Cathy Ragland and Scott Potter (1984), “Buddies for Life” with Godfrey Daniels (1985), “Town Freaks” with Michael Escamilla, Lloyd Walsh, Scott Potter (1987), “Paul is Dead” with Will Willard, Scott Potter (1989), “Debris” (1991) with James Flores and Allen Holub, “Holodax” (2009) with Daryl Chadick, Scott Potter, The Johnny Love Band with Daryl Chadick and Scott Potter (2011), "Johnny Love and the Lovecasters" with Holly Holbrook and Scott Potter (2016).
Collabs: Will Willard (THE GILLIAM SECTION), Spingere, Will Cruttenden, Yoshi Hampl, Gerald Benesch, Daryl Chadick, Scott Potter, Matt McCabe, Teredelie, Tony Garza, Cathy Ragland, Godfrey Daniels, Alessandra Celletti, Moon, Sylvie Walder, Andy Lee, James H. Sidlo, Daniel Garcia-Lara, Michael Escamilla, Alan Van Dyke, Holly Holbrook, Gary Davenport, Dan Tellez, Jeff and Jess (“Hyperbubble”), Brad Morrison, Clay Dooley, James Cobb, Lloyd Walsh, Dan Tellez, Jeff Hoskins, Justine Foy, Amy and the Cigs, Mark Semmes, Jose Sanchez, Dee Lusk, Joe Belk, Val Cronk, Anthony Curtis and Lee Van Laer.
Selected Discography:
* Musics from the Barren Wasteland: San Antonio Underground 1982 (Closet Records) Unreleased (with Entropics, Lung Overcoat, Will Willard and Robert Scott Potter)
* As Raindrops Become Ocean (Closet Records, 1986)
* Live at the Bar America: Daniel Garcia Lara (Tarantula Music) (1993 Garcia Lara Music) (playing on track 2: The Bar America and Track 6: Leaving Me High)
* The Johnny Love Experience (2001) (Engineer: Karl Yelderman)
* Pop! The Exploding Sex Kittens (on Track 2: "King R. Rodrigo") (2009)
* “Solus” The Gilliam Section (Habitual Grace, 2009)
* “Lost in the Valley” Johnny Love (Habitual Grace, 2009)
* “The Gilliam Section” (Habitual Grace, 2010)
* ”Rising & Falling” (Will Cruttenden/John Marcell 2010)
* ”Elemental” Paxsimius (Petit+Audioscapes) Featuring Alan Van Dyke (2010)
* ”Zen Series” (Petit+Audioscapes 2010)
* ”Petit+Audioscapes (Petit+Audioscapes 2010)
* "New Arising" (Petit+Audioscapes 2012)
* "Solastalgia" Twisted Ear with John Marcell, Cathy Ragland and Scott Potter. Special thanks to Joe Trevino (Habitual Grace, 2013)
* "The Making of the Americans" The Willard Marcell Theory, Will Willard, John Marcell and Scott Potter (Habitual Grace 2013)
* and appearing on:
* “Human Touch” Gerald Benesch (Habitual Grace 2010);
* Spingere “Recall” 2011;
* Yoshi Hampl “ATX” with Markus Reuter and Pat Mastelotto (Unsung 2011);
* "Code One Charlie" (2014) with Alan Van Dyke;
* Another Way of Loving You (2021);
* Combines (2021);
* Inner Worlds (with Dan Tellez) (2021);
* Looking for Shooting Stars (2021);
* Saturday Speedway (with Cathy Ragland and Scott Potter);
* Spingere "the New Normal" (2021);
* Dangerous Times/American Zen (2021)
* Spingere "A Window in Darkness" (2021);;
* Love Explosion (2021);
* Hello (2021);
* Red Matter (with Will Cruttenden);
* Underneath Blue Sky (2021);
* The Ghost of Memory (DMT) (2021)
* So in Love with You (2021);
* Nous Sommes Tous Un (with Teradelie) (2021);
* Love is Love (2021); and
* Boom (LeeTeraLove) (2021)
* Natural Selection (Gerald Benesch) (Track 2: "Violas vs. Johnny vs Dobro vs. 808" ~ reading a selection of my poems) (2022) ("Meine Megaphon Gesellschaft")
* The Migrant Song (Teradelie) (February 2022)
* Piano Works (Gerald Benesch) (March 2022) (Tracks: 6 & 7) ("Meine Megaphon Gesellschaft")
As John Marcell:
* Words (2022) iTunes, YouTube, Spotify
* Skorched (2022) iTunes, YouTube, Spotify
* Hypnotized (2022) iTunes, YouTube, Spotify
* Let Me Fall (2022) iTunes, YouTube, Spotify
* A Shot in the Dark (2022) iTunes, YouTube, Spotify