Paul Black

Born in San Francisco, California, Black's roots were in bluegrass. In the 1970s, his high school rock band was called Your Mother. He also played in several jazz cover bands. In 1978, he was a percussion major at San Jose State University. Black moved to Los Angeles in May 1980, still using his given name, Paul Martin Marmorstein. His first L.A. band was Mad Captions who played CBGB in New York and The Hot Club in Philadelphia with The Dead Boys. In 1981, Paul joined The Mau Maus, a Los Angeles–based punk band which was fronted by vocalist Rick Wilder, formerly of glam rock band, The Berlin Brats. During Paul's time with The Mau Maus, he shortened his name to "Paul Mars." In 1984, Paul Mars was replaced Nickey "Beat" Alexander in The Mau Maus and he subsequently joined The Joneses, recording the drums for Keeping Up With The Joneses. Black, along with the rest of the 1981 lineup, rejoined The Mau Maus in 2011 to record their long delayed first album, Scorched Earth Policies: Then and Now. Black was the featured drummer in both the aborted 1983 sessions originally produced by Robbie Krieger (who also played guitar on the first track) of The Doors and the new latter eight songs produced by Geza X in 2011. The album was released in 2012.