Biography
Marginal Man emerged in 1982 as a Washington, D.C. punk outfit whose lineup featured guitarists Kenny Inouye and Peter Murray, bassist Andre Lee, drummer Mike Manos, and vocalist Steve Polcari. The group coalesced after Artificial Peace dissolved, the earlier band having already contained Murray, Manos, and Polcari. Their first public performance took place in January 1983 at the city’s landmark 9:30 club, where they supported Faith and Minor Threat. Once several songs had been road-tested, the musicians entered Inner Ear Studios alongside Ian MacKaye to capture Identity, issued in the first months of 1984. Departing from the insular Dischord circle that defined most D.C. punk acts, they placed their sophomore effort, Double Image, with Enigma’s Gasatanka subsidiary the following year. Several seasons later the self-titled Marginal Man appeared on Giant, though the band had already dissolved in 1988, rendering the release posthumous. Dischord has continued to keep Identity available, yet an unauthorized German pressing of Double Image surfaced in the late 1990s; upon learning of the bootleg, Inouye oversaw an official compact-disc edition in 2001 that featured enhanced audio and new liner notes.
Albums