The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band

The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band (WCPAEB) was an American psychedelic rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965. The core of the band started as the Laughing Wind with Michael Lloyd and John Ware with brothers Danny and Shaun Harris. They recorded a few songs and it caught the attention of Bob Markley who had money and offered to pay for touring expenses and new gear if he could join the band. The band agreed and they became the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. Markley drew up contracts to own the group's name and their publishing rights. Markley arranged for the band to release their first album, Volume One, on the Fifo label. It contained songs from the Laughing Wind and some of Markleys compositions. Following the release of Volume One, they signed with Reprise Records, and recorded three albums. Part One, Vol. 2 and Volume 3: A Child's Guide to Good and Evil. During this time they got to tour with The Mothers of Invention, Iron Butterfly, The Yardbirds and others. Reprise droped them from their roster because of lack luster album sales. Later they released two additional albums on independent labels, Where's My Daddy? and A Group which was released under the name Markley, before the group disbanded in 1970.
John Ware went on to be a session drummer and worked for Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Michael Nesmith, Hoyt Axton, Jonathan Edwards, Albert Lee and many others. Michael Lloyd went on to be the Vice President of A&R at MGM records. Later on he would write and produce songs, albums and soundtracks and become the president of Studio M. Shaun Harris released a solo album in 1973 and worked as president of Barry Manilow's publishing company, he retired from the music scene in 2004. Ron Morgan went on to join Three Dog Night and then the Electric Prunes, he died in 1989. Danny Harris continued playing music and in 1997 became a member of the Actors Guild, he passed away during the filming of a movie in 2012. Bob Markley worked as a record producer and later fell into ill health before dying in 2003.