Although the members of Marcy Playground met in New York City during the mid-'90s, both singer/songwriter and guitarist John Wozniak and bassist Dylan Keefe originally hail from Minneapolis, while drummer Dan Rieser is a former resident of Ohio. The group took their name from an experimental elementary school that Wozniak attended in the late '70s (called the Marcy Open School), a time that saw Wozniak intimidated by a few other students, which led to the youngster's refusal to join his peers on the school's playground during recess.