Breathe Again March 3, 2006 @ Club Underground - Minneapolis, MN. Thanks to Ed for the video, and Vince for...whatever it is he's doing.John Mars isnt trying to reinvent the wheel, hes not trying to be the next big thing, he just wants to serve those thirsty for good music a pint or two of what he has on tap. And whats on tap is solid songwriting that you want to sing along with, reminiscent of Paul Westerberg and Butch Walker mixed with The Cars and Men At Work.No stranger to the indie music scene, John Mars spent the late 90s and early 2000s fronting the Detroit power-pop outfit, I Hate Mars. If you were in the know, then you may have seen the blip that I Hate Mars made on the indie radar screen with two releases: 1997s Rosemary Flakes and 1999s Small Screen Drive In. After disbanding I Hate Mars in 2002, John Mars fronted the Detroit rock group, Stand Up Johns, through 2003. The group independently released The Rad EP in 2003.John spent about a year away from music while he tried to find himself in new and sometimes very unusual ways. His soul-searching led him to Denver, Colorado in 2004 where he spent a year teaching todays eager youth how to become tomorrows disenchanted punks although, he had the staff of the Denver School of Music convinced that he was teaching guitar and songwriting. After leaving Denver, Mars planted roots in Madison, Wisconsin where he realized that if you hold the music in too long, it starts to hurt.Taking his realization as a cue, John made his was back to Detroit where he spent 4 months recording his debut solo release, The Secrets I Wont Even Tell Myself. The disc hit the streets in May 2006.Now calling Madison home, John is playing solo acoustic shows in Detroit, Madison, Denver and anywhere in between. And when his addiction to raw, unapologetic rock gets the best of him, Mars can be found fronting his band, The Bloody Awful.
