Mark Gloster and Big Rubber Shark is the musical vehicle for the writing and performance of Mark Gloster and a small cluster of friends. Occasionally the Rubber Shark Band (auxiliary) performs as a 50's-2000's cover band. Mark also performs a wild mixture of acoustic originals and covers in Rubber Shark Gumbo with the wonderful, funny, charming and talented Patrick J. Cooper
We kind of have a rubber shark theme going here.
Mark ascended from the primordial ooze area the dinosaurs knew as "Grrrr, Thptht!", which is really hard to say without lips, and the western reaches of el gran lavabo, or giant toilet- oh, sorry, that's Great Basin. As the earth cooled and most vegetation turned to sage brush, the young person found that he had to defend himself from dinosaurs by using clever verses he composed to confound them- I know what you're thinking- "walnut-sized brain," but consider the big teeth! Fast forward through that awkward Triassic and Jurassic youth, he then had to ward off lounge singers with the heaviest guitar he could find. Sadly, their violent echoes of schlocky music haunted him until he taught Neil Young that third chord and that was history for Neil. Our "sharkboy" was left in relative obscurity until someone unlocked the sub basement.
After experiencing unrewarding collaborative musical efforts with others in the early years, the only answer became clear to write music in relative solitude and begin singing and recording. Gradually, assisted by a small network of musical friends, a project began to take shape, and that shape was extremely shark-like. 1996 culminated, if a year can do that, in the release of _Monday's Lunch_, the album and the song of the same name. The album was a word of mouth success, but lacking the energy and full band and time to market it, many copies stayed on the shelf. They say that only a small number of people bought the Velvet Underground's first CD, but all of those people went out and started their own bands from the powerful influence. The story is similar for the CD, _Monday's Lunch_, as almost everybody who heard it started a band immediately after to just get that sound out of their heads. An earworm, like, oh, say THE CANDYMAN. Sorry.
The Glass Flesh, Robyn Hitchcock Tribute effort has seen some of Mark's contributions, as well as some by friends. Hopefully the next one will include more of that.
Over the past few years Mark has been cajoled, nudged and shrieked at by complete strangers. Well, haven't we all? But some of those strangers have suggested that this music become available again and that this magical artistic vehicle assert once again ginormous presence in the existential freeway of mass culture, since it is violent, reckless and moves a bit too fast.
As soon as is possible, the CD's will become available via normal channels. If you can't live without this material, you may contact Mark at this page. $10 shipped isn't a bad deal. Trust us. We know stuff like that. Have we ever lied to you?
Mark spends some of the time working on and designing (mostly cookbook) guitar amplifiers.