Serial Joe
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Serial Joe had two albums, "Face Down" and "(Last Chance) At the Romance Dance", and the single "SKIDROW". The single from their first album, "Mistake", catupulted them to international fame in 2001. They were a group of high school students who were from Newmarket. They broke up after 7 years together.
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Rise to Fame
Serial Joe began as the side project of four highschool friends who would later go on to gain international notoriety. Their lead singer, Marlon Deogracias from Newmarket Ontario, was a practicing catholic, whose father pushed him as a young boy to become "the world's greatest rock star". Little would Marlon know, he would achieve this status in the very near future.
In 1995, 12 year old Marlon, would perform at Newmarket's annual "Young Tot's Talent Show", a show regarded by the town as a showcase of top local talent. Though Marlon only placed 7th out of 24-incidently beating fellow Canadian Avril Lavigne (who finished 9th)-his hunger for fame had not been dampened.
The Formation of a Dynasty
After placing 7th in the talent competiton, Marlon was in high demand among the local garage bands. After briefly performing as back-up singer for the indy all-female-band "Ours is the Power", he fell in with a group of fellow outsiders and social misfits, which included Bobby Mac and Timothy Jones. The group shared an interest in music, and eventually selected a group name based on a combination of their favorite food "Cereal", and their favorite name "Joe". "the Axl Rose Fan Club" was also considered by the band, but was scrapped for copyright reasons.
"Cereal Joe" toured extensively around the greater Toronto area, predominantly performing at junior highschool parties, and bar mitzvahs. Though their combination of jazz-infused rock n'roll was not initially popular with their peers, the music became an overnight success among boy band junkies and parents. Their first single, "Partyin' is cool, yo!" was released solely in the Newmarket area, where it received over 30 minutes of accumulated radio air time across numerous highschool and indepenent stations. The success of "Partyin' is cool, yo!" was quickly followed by the band's second single "I just want to party all the time". This second single was quickly retracted, as the band had unwittingly infringed on Eddy Murphy's song of the same name.
Soon afterwards, the band began to lose many of their fans. The 'Newmarket Teen Queen' magazine published the article "Cereal Joe: Biggest Losers on the Planet" in 1997. In an effort to regain their fame, Marlon Deograsias changed the band's name to "Serial Joe", claiming "We have totally been after this new sound... and 'Cereal Joe' just wasn't hardcore enough to cut it anymore!"
SKIDROW
Serial Joe was ill prepared for the success that came with the release of their first international single, "SKIDROW".
With a poetic elegance that mesmerized all who listened, Marlon was an instant celebrity. The first two lines of the song became instant classics, and celebrites of the time including Newmarket mayor Doug Gilmour and then US President Bill Clinton could be hear singing the still famous lines, "Yo skid, ya you, down on the row What ya gonna do now? Where ya gonna go? Yo skid, ya you, down on the row What ya gonna do now? Where ya gonna go?"
At only age 15, the boys in Serial Joe were living legends, arguably the greatest rock stars of that year.
The Great Grammy Mix-up
At the end of 2001, Serial Joe were considered the favorites to win in the categories of "best new group", "best rock group", "best rock video", "best hair", and "best overall". Showing up at the ceremonies completely plastered, Marlon and fellow bandmates mistakenly walked on stage during the presentation of an award, thinking that they had won for "best new group" (which went to RAM Jam), and then again for "best hair" (which went to BonJovi). Needless to say, the obviously intoxicated Marlon was lambasted by the media for being an awful rolemodel. This attention, however, only served to increase Marlon's popularity with the 13-17 underaged drinking demographic... Marlon could do no wrong.
Slippery Slope
With Serial Joe's fame came heighten expectations for this young groups musicians; and with those expectations came intense pressure. By increasingly trying to harden their image to gain respect among the underground and the mainstream, the members of Serial Joe dabbled heavily in glittery, sequin shirts and feathery pants. When asked about the change, Marlon Deograsias responded "When you've popped as many caps as I have, you gotta represent, yo". Though many members of the local media considered this clothing change to be superficial, and "fruity", Serial Joe's popularity sky-rocketed amongst gay and lesbian fans, many of whom consider Marlon Deograsias, if not a great performer, a snappy dresser.
After spending spending some time apart to focus on writing songs, the group reconvened in late 1997 in Marlon's basement studio to hammer out tracks for their sophmore album. To the suprise of the rest of the group, who had been focusing on similar material to that which filled their multi-platinum album, Marlon had experimented with a new sound. His first, and still unreleased and unrecorded song, "CRUISING", made the rest of the band incredibly uncomfortable. This discomfort was furthered by Marlon's supposed opposition to wearing any pant while he recorded, because "it hampered the creative process". Aside from CRUISING, the album-to-be was filled with Elton John and George Michael covers. The band members, particularly Bobbie Mac, ademently refused to perform any of the tracks marlon had written, and caused tension by accusing him of having gone commercial, and being "all about the hair". Relationships were further strained when just months later, Limp Bizkit catupulted to fame with the release of George Michael's "Faith" on their "three dollar bill" album.
