Marcel has been noted as to playing the bongos, congas, drums, cymbals, Maracas, keyboards and shekere.

Since then he had been a constant member of the Mars Volta and the Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Group until TMV's dissolution in 2012, contributing percussion and keyboards.

He was also a founding member of El Paso band Zechs Marquise, which included his brothers Marfred on bass and Rikardo on keyboards and trumpet; he initially played keyboards and percussion but switched to drums after the band's original drummer left.

Marcel also played live with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2006 during their North American tour (for which the Mars Volta was the support act), contributing bongos to "Hump de Bump" and congas to "Charlie".

On the final night of the Amputechture / Stadium Arcadium tour, November 5, 2006, Marcel and the RHCP were joined onstage by Omar for the outro jam which went on for over 15 minutes.