Mark Durante

Mark Durante is an American musician who is based in Chicago.

Career

Durante began playing guitar in 1968 after being inspired by the fretwork of Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa and Merle Travis. Ten years later, Durante founded a rock combo he named "Public Enemy". Durante's band bears no relationship to the hip-hop musicians of the same name. The band broke up when Durante expressed a desire to play punk rock.

In the early 1980s, Durante played guitar with The Aliens and the punk band The Next Big Thing. In the late 1980s, he played with the Slammin' Watusis who recorded two albums for Epic Records. It was during this time Mark started using the "durantula" moniker given to him by Blue Watusis drummer Marcus David, later to be trademarked. Although a third album by the Watusis' was produced by Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick, it was not released when Sony bought the label and dropped the band.

Durante then played guitar with Revolting Cocks on their 1990 U.S. tour and their 1991 European tour. During that tour, RevCo recorded the live tracks for their Beers, Steers and Queers Remixes EP, on which Durante provided guitar.