22
COVER THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK Carolyn Mark applied the scientific method to her Dionysian new disc T o prepare for recording her third solo CD at home with bandmate and man of cunning Tolan McNeil at the controls, Carolyn Mark bought six white lab coats, stitched six hand-embroidered namepatches above the left breast and filled the pockets with cigarettes, money, phone cards and 2004 calendars. Satisfied that would keep her rambling min- strels stationary for a while, she talked some friends into rotating chef duties for two weeks, rationed the hooch to one two-four of Pilsner and a bottle of wine a day (give or take a few) and leapt into a Dionysian home experiment in music and merrymaking. Mark hypothesized that while she may lack the cash to pay her collaborators what they were actually worth, she could make up for it by injecting the experiment with compensa- tory doses of tomfoolery and amusement. The results, The Pros and Cons of Collaboration, credited to “Carolyn Mark and the New Best Friends” and released this month by Mint Records, proves what we always knew: the little farm girl from Sicamous is truly mad and that we all wish we were her new best friends. “I made it fun and they liked that—and I think they like the music,” Mark says over the phone from her rental in Victoria, the sound of children playing in the schoolyard across the street audible in the background. Mark spies a photographer setting up benches and a tripod for “picture day,” a sight that sparks shared memories of awkward adoles- cence and teenage stints working at McDonald’s. That’s Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel us to hang on her every word. Pros and Cons, like Party Girl and Terrible Hostess before it, is full of the sinfully clever tales we’ve come to expect from Carolyn Mark. She is, I swear, the secret love child of Charles Bukowski and Loretta Lynn: Seattle’s The Stranger once dubbed her “Drunk of the Week” and Pros and Cons claims to have been brought to you by FACM- PUS, the Foundation to Afford Canadian Musicians the Privilege of Uncontrolled Substances. But she’s deeper than the endless jokes and one-liners that issue from those lip- sticked lips. This new CD should finally dispel the notion that Mark is just a novelty act and prove her worth among Canada’s premier songwriters. Pros and Cons starts with an overture—a brilliant old-fash- ioned, big-screen col- lage containing riffs and choruses from each of the disc’s 10 songs— and ends with that same overture over- dubbed with the best album credits I’ve heard. (“You know,” the stentorian announcer says at one point, “it’s been said, behind every good woman, you’ll find six to 10 men working their nuts off. Or to put it another way, it takes a village to make an idiot.”) In between are naughty ballads, drink recipes, country blues and advice for the gals (steer clear of white wine drinkers). It contains the usual peppering of Edmonton references, including a chorus at the end of “Hangover” supplied by our very own Black Dog Freehouse Choir. Edmonton, it so hap- pens, is where Mark finds her most ardent fans. She’d consid- er moving here but doesn’t think her liver could take it. “My doctor has advised against it,” she says. “Jody and Sue,” a tribute to a couple of Edmonton friends, is a slower tune but one of the disc’s most engaging tracks. Describing the familiar drive from Vancouver to Edmonton, she croons, “A grey and gold road is a filmstrip fed through the windshield ’neath a sky of Dream Whip UFOs.” The chorus aptly captures the drone of being on the road too long: “We are still and yet still we are moving.” We talk about the journey: “There’s the way it gets flat after the mountains,” she says, pausing to recall the elements. “The way the light changes. People in Edmonton, they wait up all night with their liquor cabinets open and their beds made for me.” To round out the E-town theme, she covers “Slept All Afternoon,” a song by old chum and mentor Mike McDonald who introduced her and her old band, the Vinaigrettes, to Edmonton about 10 years ago. She’ll never forgive him for that. The recording process took about two weeks. Besides her new best friends—Ford Pier on keyboards, Tolan McNeil on guitar, Paul Rigby on bass, Gregory Macdonald on percus- sion and Diona Davies on violin and cello—Miss Mark lured more than a half-dozen other singers, ukulele players (ukulelists?), guitarists, string players and drummers to her basement lair to fill up the extra places with twangs and shouts and da-da-das. The re-release of “Not a Doll,” for instance, includes a winsome closing chorus which layers harmonies one by one before a fade-out. A faster version of the song appears on the 1998 live Corn Sisters CD The

Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

  • Upload
    others

  • View
    6

  • Download
    0

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

COVER

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

Carolyn Mark applied the scientificmethod to her Dionysian new disc

To prepare for recording her third solo CD at home withbandmate and man of cunning Tolan McNeil at the

controls, Carolyn Mark bought six white lab coats, stitchedsix hand-embroidered namepatches above the left breast andfilled the pockets with cigarettes, money, phone cards and2004 calendars. Satisfied that would keep her rambling min-strels stationary for a while, she talked some friends intorotating chef duties for two weeks, rationed the hooch to onetwo-four of Pilsner and a bottle of wine a day (give or take afew) and leapt into a Dionysian home experiment in musicand merrymaking.

Mark hypothesized that while she may lack the cash to payher collaborators what they were actually worth, she couldmake up for it by injecting the experiment with compensa-tory doses of tomfoolery and amusement. The results, ThePros and Cons of Collaboration, credited to “Carolyn Markand the New Best Friends” and released this month by MintRecords, proves what we always knew: the little farm girlfrom Sicamous is truly mad and that we all wish we were hernew best friends.

“I made it fun and they liked that—and I think they like themusic,” Mark says over the phone from her rental inVictoria, the sound of children playing in the schoolyardacross the street audible in the background. Mark spies aphotographer setting up benches and a tripod for “pictureday,” a sight that sparks shared memories of awkward adoles-cence and teenage stints working at McDonald’s. That’sCarolyn: always ready with a good story.

It’s her stories, really, which compel us to hang on her everyword. Pros and Cons, like Party Girl and Terrible Hostessbefore it, is full of the sinfully clever tales we’ve come toexpect from Carolyn Mark. She is, I swear, the secret lovechild of Charles Bukowski and Loretta Lynn: Seattle’s TheStranger once dubbed her “Drunk of the Week” and Prosand Cons claims to have been brought to you by FACM-PUS, the Foundation to Afford Canadian Musicians thePrivilege of Uncontrolled Substances. But she’s deeper thanthe endless jokes and one-liners that issue from those lip-sticked lips. This new CD should finally dispel the notionthat Mark is just a novelty act and prove her worth amongCanada’s premier songwriters.

Pros and Cons starts with an overture—a brilliant old-fash-

ioned, big-screen col-lage containing riffsand choruses from eachof the disc’s 10 songs—and ends with thatsame overture over-dubbed with the bestalbum credits I’veheard. (“You know,”the stentorianannouncer says at onepoint, “it’s been said,behind every goodwoman, you’ll find sixto 10 men workingtheir nuts off. Or toput it another way, it takes a village to make an idiot.”) Inbetween are naughty ballads, drink recipes, country bluesand advice for the gals (steer clear of white wine drinkers). Itcontains the usual peppering of Edmonton references,including a chorus at the end of “Hangover” supplied by ourvery own Black Dog Freehouse Choir. Edmonton, it so hap-pens, is where Mark finds her most ardent fans. She’d consid-er moving here but doesn’t think her liver could take it. “Mydoctor has advised against it,” she says.

“Jody and Sue,” a tribute to a couple of Edmonton friends, isa slower tune but one of the disc’s most engaging tracks.Describing the familiar drive from Vancouver to Edmonton,she croons, “A grey and gold road is a filmstrip fed throughthe windshield ’neath a sky of Dream Whip UFOs.” Thechorus aptly captures the drone of being on the road toolong: “We are still and yet still we are moving.”

We talk about the journey: “There’s the way it gets flat afterthe mountains,” she says, pausing to recall the elements.“The way the light changes. People in Edmonton, they waitup all night with their liquor cabinets open and their bedsmade for me.” To round out the E-town theme, she covers“Slept All Afternoon,” a song by old chum and mentor MikeMcDonald who introduced her and her old band, theVinaigrettes, to Edmonton about 10 years ago. She’ll neverforgive him for that.

The recording process took about two weeks. Besides hernew best friends—Ford Pier on keyboards, Tolan McNeil onguitar, Paul Rigby on bass, Gregory Macdonald on percus-sion and Diona Davies on violin and cello—Miss Mark luredmore than a half-dozen other singers, ukulele players(ukulelists?), guitarists, string players and drummers to herbasement lair to fill up the extra places with twangs andshouts and da-da-das. The re-release of “Not a Doll,” forinstance, includes a winsome closing chorus which layersharmonies one by one before a fade-out. A faster version ofthe song appears on the 1998 live Corn Sisters CD The

Page 2: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

Other Woman. This version, one of the CD’s strongesttracks, is slower, allowing choice lines like “Everythinghappens either not at all or at the same time” to breatheand linger.

So how did the lab coats go over? Not everyone worethem right off, but eventually Mark’s collaborators suc-cumbed to the spirit of science. McNeil needed noprompting, completing the ensemble with pyjama bot-toms and cowboy boots, says Mark. Every day. SinceDavies was absent in the beginning, Mark did have toendure a house full of boys and a lot of jokes about fartsand testicles. When Davies arrived, she says, the twoladies tried to fight fire with fire and crack a few boobjokes, but they just didn’t have the same impact.

Composing the overture was no piece of cake—and if itweren’t for the youthful exuberance of GregoryMacdonald, it might never have been completed. Marksays she made the mistake of idly mentioning her over-ture idea to Macdonald who then asked almost dailywhen they could start work on it. Modulating keys andarranging song samples took the better part of a day witheventual help from Rigby and Paul Pigat who, afterfeigning disinterest, shouted out transition chords fromanother room whenever Mark and Macdonald got stuck.

Mark is currently primping her sexy self for an upcomingtour, having just returned from a stint in Ontario playingwith Kelly Hogan and Corn Sister Neko Case for theopening of Lipstick and Dynamite, a film about femalewrestlers. (The three ladies contributed a song to thesoundtrack.) Mark was a tad anxious about learning theoverture for her upcoming shows and trying not to fret,like she does after every new recording, about whetherthe songwriting well has finally dried up. “I always think,‘That’s it. Maybe I have no more songs left,’” she says.“It drives me crazy. But I always do.” It may soon getmore difficult. Mark says she can only write songs whenshe’s alone and reflective. With the throngs of peoplenow wanting to ride her coattails (or just nail them tothe floor), some future “quiet time” seems about as likelyas a bored bartender at a Carolyn Mark show. V

Carolyn Mark and the New Best Friends With theRamblin’ Ambassadors and the Silver Spurs • SidetrackCafé • Fri, May 21

Vue Weekly, Edmontonwww.vueweekly.com/articles/default.aspx?i=226

Carolyn Mark and the New Best FriendsThe Pros and Cons of CollaborationMint Records

It is time now to con-sider Carolyn Mark's

qualifications fornational-treasure status.The Pros and Cons ofCollaboration is herthird album and theVictoria native shows nosigns of reducing heralcohol consumption orlosing her songwritingtouch. Mark pens someof the funniest ('cause they're true) tunes about boozingyou'll ever hear, and some of the most poignant tearjerk-ers as well. In the latter category, the lonely, dusky "Not aDoll"--which appeared previously on The Other Women,Mark's album with fellow Corn Sister Neko Case--is sobittersweet it should come with a warning for the manic-depressive.

Many of the songs on Pros and Cons make good drink-ing companions. "2 Days Smug and Sober" is, as the titleimplies, about Mark's familiarity with the proverbialwagon, while "The Wine Song" asks the universal ques-tion: "How can you love a man who drinks white wine?"The music on Pros and Cons is Mark's usual intoxicatingblend of country, rock, and pop, with ukulele, cello, andpiano adding to the recorded-in-a-bar ambiance.

The only worrisome revelation about her drinking habitsis the admission, on "Vincent Gallo", that Our First Ladyof the Bar Tab has a crush on the auteur behind the pre-tentious indie flick Buffalo 66. The twangy-voicedchanteuse easily redeems herself in the CD insert,though. After all, when was the last time you came acrossan album that came with its own drink recipe?

Georgia Straight, Vancouver BC

Page 3: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

DRUNK AND HUMBLEThe Charms and Chops of Carolyn Markby Nate Lippens

Carolyn Mark & Her Roommates w/the Kitchen Syncopators, Purty Mouth Sat May 29, Tractor, 9 pm, $8.

"I've never really enjoyed recording, so we recordedthis one at home. I got everybody together under one

roof, had guest chefs, and made it fun," says countrychanteuse Carolyn Mark of her newest album, speakingfrom her Vancouver, BC, home. "We made it in threeweeks. It was like a reality TV show."

It's not surprising that such a cozy atmosphere would becultivated for cutting a record, considering the woman inquestion called her two previous albums Party Girl andTerrible Hostess (obviously Canadian self-deprecation).The Pros and Cons of Collaboration, her latest, is all pro,opening with an honest-to-God overture involving piano,mouth harp, and fiddle, setting the stage for the songs'keen sense of play. The track "2 days Smug and Sober" (atitle worthy of Skeeter Davis) follows, and includes arecipe for Bourbon Decay (it's delicious, but do stop attwo).

Mark is a natural storyteller and wisecracker, talents shewas planning on parlaying into a career as a high schooldrama teacher. "Can you imagine those poor kids? They'dbe doing Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," she jokes."Lucky for them, I reached a fork in the road and chosemusic."

She formed the Vinaigrettes in 1990, a band that changedfrom all-girl to coed over its seven-year life span. Werethey country? "No, not really. Well, sort of. I was," shesays. "We had crappy equipment, so we played loud andpeople thought we were punk."

Inspired by Peggy Lee, Mary Ford, and Bobbie Gentry, theGarbo of country--"Any time she's mentioned it just saysshe's a successful businesswoman. It's so mysterious"--Mark pursued a different kind of music and found rolemodels who suited her voice. "They didn't have high,squeaky voices," she explains. "I think that's somethingLucinda Williams said about Bobbie Gentry, too."

Mark finds her earliest recordings a little brassy, though."When I hear old recordings, it's all just loud," she says.Like Ethel Merman or those endlessly melisma-ing singerson American Idol? "If I could do all those squeaks I'dprobably never stop," she laughs. "But I work better withlimitations. I had this piano where every second key wasbroken and it made me play without overplaying, whichI'm known to do."

Mark is a consummateentertainer with her wrystage banter. "I likewhen you see a bandand they acknowledgethe audience," she says. "I don't understand pre-tending the audienceisn't there."

She points to fellowCanadian RufusWainwright as anotherperformer she enjoys. "Isaw him in Montreal,and he had a large band with him on a little stage and theband was sort of grumbling and he turned to them and said,'It's the only stage we have.' I loved that. I stole at least threeof his lines from that night."

Since much of her subject matter involves booze, our conver-sation eventually turns to the skid, a subject addressed--alongwith the issue of self-righteousness--on the song "2 DaysSmug and Sober." "I'm on day one," Mark laughs of being onthe wagon. We discuss drunk-dialers, next-day apologizers,and AA amenders calling, leading to the suggestion of outfit-ting the phone with a Breathalyzer. After which she laughs,and asks, "Will we ever get it right?"

Marks returns to the subject of self-righteousness. "Last yearthe Buddhists really pissed me off," she says. "They're allabout harmony, but most of them live alone and can affordgood food. Try living with six people and getting along. That'sa spiritual accomplishment."

Along with touring with her quintet (called Her Roommatesat the Tractor show), Mark has been on the road with NekoCase, with whom she performs as a duo called the CornSisters, as well as with Kelly Hogan. Mark and Hogan alsobacked Case, whom Mark has known since 1996, for a livealbum with the Sadies. "It was love at first sight," says Markof Case. "I heckled her band. Her band heckled back."

So what is Mark's dream project? "Stage cues, lights, cos-tumes, a theater show," she quips. What about a TV varietyshow like the Mandrells had? "TV sucks your soul," she says."I have a live album of Barbara Mandrell and she's playing thebanjo, the guitar, and, like, eight instruments. It's awful. It'slike, have some dignity."

The Stranger, Seattlewww.thestranger.com/2004-05-27/music5.html

Page 4: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

High MarkCanadian country crooner Carolyn Mark drinks,lives, and laughs hard – and writes songs about the fallout.

By Jimmy Draper

WHEN IT COMES to friends in low places, GarthBrooks has nothing on Carolyn Mark. In fact, you'd

be hard-pressed to find any country artist of late who cancapture the travails of a hard-knock life quite like Mark:since the late '90s, the former Vinaigrettes member has beenturning her and her pals' desperate, down-and-out days intotunes that make her sound like a randier, rowdier PatsyCline. What distinguishes Mark from the overly seriouscrowd is that she packs self-deprecating humor and witunmatched in today's country music.

"The thing is, if it was just me in front of a brick wall witha glass of water, like in a standard comedy setting, I would-n't be funny," Mark insists, speaking over the phone fromher home in Victoria, British Columbia. "The funny partabout my show is that I'm holding a guitar and I'm sup-posed to be playing it [instead of making people laugh].That's what makes it funny!"

Mark's humor, at least in her songs, however, is less ha-hafunny than it is of the melancholic, laugh-to-keep-from-cry-ing variety. Her albums are full of big-hearted losers (herselfincluded) who overindulge their vices – booze – to escapethe depressing, dead-end aspects of their lives. "Half-aspira-tions and a deep love of wine keep me down," she sings on2002's Terrible Hostess. "I'll be loungin' and scroungin' 'tilthe day that I die." But Mark doesn't romanticize or mockthe unfortunate souls in her stories; instead, she uses humorto make the best of their bad situations. Listen to"Chumpville" and "Dirty Little Secret," both rollicking,tongue-in-cheek odes to years-long losing streaks, and it'sclear she's enjoying herself far too much to wallow in hermisery – an enthusiasm that comes across best in her liveshows, which find Mark serving up sidesplitting, between-song stories.

"I'd wanna see someone having a good time if I went to see'em perform," Mark continues, then laughs dryly. "Ofcourse, there's also the thing that if you look like you'rehaving any fun at all, then people think that you shouldn'tbe paid. Like that Cat Power girl, she probably gets paid'cause she doesn't look like she's having fun – it's an inter-esting trick I'll have to learn. For now, I pretty much getpaid in laughs."

Mark's comedic joie de vivre, it turns out, isn't only part ofa stage persona. Throughout our interview, she tosses off

sarcastic one-liners worthy of Sophia Petrillo, laughsheartily at her own self-effacing jokes, and transforms theQ&A into a gut-busting gabfest. By the end of our oft off-topic chat, we've discussed everything from Los Angelescall girls and smoking pot on the job to the perils of datingguys who drink white wine and her poorly attendedLadyfest Olympia performance in 2000 – where, lookinglike a C&W Olive Oyl, she wandered over to me andasked straight-faced, "Do the young gays like the newcountry music?" Bluntness, it also turns out, becomes her.

So does multitasking. Not only has Mark kept an incessanttour schedule in support of her own albums, but she alsoteams up with Neko Case in the Corn Sisters, singing orig-inals, traditionals, and cover songs. Occasionally the Sistersexpand the lineup to include Kelly Hogan, as they did atthis year's Noise Pop festival. And Mark has a weekly sologig at an outdoor Sunday beer bust back home. "The sunplus beer equals acid!" she cackles. "Holy moly, people getrowdy!"

There's more: Mark has also put out a recipe book, MC’dfolk festivals across Canada, and lent her vocals to recordsby the Buttless Chaps and Frog Eyes, and she's currentlyfinishing an album of duets with such north-of-the-borderpals as Dave Lang, Corb Lund, and the Silver Hearts. "Idon't think anyone [outside of Canada] will have heard ofthem," she says of her collaborators. "I should probably getsomeone famous and American to sing so it can sell."

That's undoubtedly the lesson she learned from 2002's ATribute to Robert Altman's Nashville, her highest-profileproject to date. On that homage – which, remarkably, wasalso staged for a one-time-only performance – Mark enlist-ed such established American talents as Case and Hogan,along with Canadians the Sadies and New PornographerCarl Newman, among others, to cover songs from thesoundtrack to Altman's 1975 classic film. The resultingalbum was an uproarious good time that, while neverprompting a response from Altman, became a cult faveand gave Mark some much deserved recognition – andsales – in the States.

"I actually got more response from San Francisco [aboutthe tribute] than from anywhere else," she says. "Therewere many concerned letters, like, 'What are your inten-tions? Is it coming from a place of love, or are you makingfun of Nashville?' But, you know, it'd be pretty funny tospend a year doing something that you're making fun of –you'd have to be pretty sick."

Mark's third solo release, The Pros and Cons ofCollaboration (Mint Records), should only further her suc-cess. As in the past, Mark primarily indulges her favoritetheme, escapist drinking – titles include "2 Days Smugand Sober," "The Wine Song," and the inevitable"Hangover" ("Oh, the horror and pain!" she laments) –

Page 5: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

but now her clever, self-effacing songwriting allows more roomfor poignancy and emotional heft. Amid the yuks, people faceidentity crises, take contemplative drives alone in the country-side, and get blotto in their lovers' times of need. The implica-tions of the album's title, then, are as personal and romantic innature as they are artistic. "I was having a vision quest, if youwill," Mark explains. "I was trying to determine if the horror ofbeing alone outweighed the discomfort of being around otherpeople."

Mark may claim she never came up with an adequate answer,but Collaboration makes a strong case – at least artistically – forteamwork. After all, with nearly 20 musicians contributingeverything from ukulele and drums to bird noises, the chaoticrecording session yielded Mark's finest work to date. "It was likea reality TV show," she says of the three weeks in the crowdedstudio. "I wish we could've filmed it – there were some funny,funny moments – but the camera would've wrecked every-thing."

Accurate documentation has long been a thorn in Mark's side –"Do you know how hard it is to make something sound like theway it sounds [live]? It's fuckin' retarded!" – but Collaborationmarks the first time she's fully captured the quirky, off-the-cuffcharm of her live show. It's also the first time she's translatedher hilarious onstage storytelling into song format: the endear-ing "Yanksgiving" details a rainy, real-life Thanksgiving inWashington state, complete with rounds of Yahtzee and bitch-ing about Toby Keith's scary patriotism. "Chantal and Leroy"finds Mark and her friends stumbling around the East Bay, piss-ing under overpasses and passing out during sex.

If they sound too mundane and matter-of-fact at first, thesewinsome, slice-of-life songs ultimately capture Mark's spiritbest. Unlike so many country singers who romanticize the hard-knock life as some kind of greater, more authentic existence,Mark is simply writing what she knows. And if there's one thingshe's learned from years of living on the cheap, it's that you findpleasure and meaning in the simple things, be they holiday din-ners or just wandering around with your closest, drunkestfriends.

"Well, someone's gotta be the documenter when everybody'sdrunk!" Mark says, laughing, when asked about the narratives."Besides, if I didn't write these songs, I'd wake up and think,'So I went out and was a drunk maniac last night; what do Ihave to show for myself now?' "

Carolyn Mark performs Fri/11, 9:30 p.m., Starry Plough, 3101Shattuck, Berk. $8. (510) 841-2082. Also Sat/12, noon,Parkside, 1600 17th St., S.F. Call for price. (415) 503-0393;Sun/13, 8:30 p.m., Make-Out Room, 3225 22nd St., S.F. $6.(415) 647-2888.

San Francisco Bay Guardianhttp://www.sfbg.com/38/37/art_music_carolynmark.html

Carolyn Mark and the New Best FriendsThe Pros and Cons of CollaborationMint Records

Following up her livelyand lovely Terrible

Hostess sophomorealbum, Ms Mark offersup her third and mostpolished album to date.For those of you who'veheard her alongside goodpals Neko Case and KellyHogan, you very wellknow that she has no dif-ficulty working with others. Indeed on their recent tourtogether, the trio of witty chanteuses charmed the pantsoff one and all in attendance. In both song and laughter,their voices go so well together. Actually if you were atone of their shows you just might've heard a song or twofrom this album. Pros And Cons reveals her broadest sty-listic range yet -- honky tonk, ragtime, twangy balladry -- and as opposed to past recordings which had somewhathaphazard mood changes, she shifts much more smooth-ly from one to the another, and with no loss in thesparkling personality department. She clearly knows thebenefits of collaborating with like-minded, talentedfolks. Ms Hogan lends her angelic backup vocals to thesong "Jody And Sue" which along with the followingdouble-whammy of nocturnal themed tunes "BiggerBed" and "Slept All Afternoon" make for the high pointof the album. The album closes with a beautiful starkvoice and piano number "Hangover" that devolves intoan intoxicated singalong and on into old style radiodrama announcer credits. Splendid!

Aquarius Records, San Francisco CA

Victoria's main dame of country has made one hotand hilarious third album, a vibrant caboodle of

rowdy boot-stompers and sweet weepers aided and abet-ted by about 21 friends, among them B.C. scenestersFord Pier (keys) and Tolan McNeil (guitar), andChicago's Kelly Hogan (vox, piano), the third CornSister. Speaking of which, there's no Neko Case, asidefrom a namedrop in "Vincent Gallo," Mark's lightheart-ed exploration of subconscious crushes. Whether she'sdissing Toby Keith, gibing white wine-drinking men orbeating herself up over a bottle of red, Mark sings itsmart and savvy. 8/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2004/051304/disc.html

Page 6: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

CAROLYN MARK is multi-tasking, doing an inter-view while speeding down the highway on her way to

a gig in Waterloo. "I've become one of those people!" shesays with mock horror and a loud cackle. "I'm driving ared effing town car and talking on a cell phone!"

When your timetable is as full as Mark's is this summer,juggling the phone and the steering wheel (and no doubtthe occasional cigarette and red lipstick as well) is prettymuch a necessity. The Victoria singer/songwriter is pro-moting her third album, The Pros And Cons OfCollaboration, with a two-month cross-country tour thatincludes stops at the Calgary and Regina folk festivals, PopMontreal, the Fred Eaglesmith Picnic, the MaberlyMeltdown, the Hootenanny On A Boat in Kingston andour own Toronto Island Jamboree, not to mention a slewof club shows.

"It's lots of fun, but I wish I could pause to appreciate thesplendour instead of feeling so crazy," she says.

Mark says The Pros And Cons Of Collaboration turnedout to be a bit of a concept album, starting with an over-ture ("I always wanted an overture!") and a song called 2Days Smug And Sober and finishing with a song calledHangover and a spoken Outro. In between are trave-logues, lots of songs about drinking red wine, a wonderfulJr. Gone Wild cover called Slept All Afternoon and a songabout not drinking white wine inspired by English singerNick Lowe.

"I love him!" she raves. "Until last year's Calgary FolkFestival, when he was on the bill and I got to introducehim. He was hanging out with Robyn Hitchcock andFairport Convention in the pub, and I was stalking him,and as I got closer I saw he was drinking white wine."Bummer! As her song says, "Even if he's handsome, writesgood songs and has the time/ I could never love a manwho drinks white wine."

"But you know, your rules can sway at any time when itcomes to love," she adds sagely.

Mark plays the Horseshoe tomorrow night with drummerGarth Johnson, guitarist Tolan McNeil and pianist Ford

Thu, August 26, 2004

Carolyn makes a markSINGER/SONGWRITER TALKS ABOUT THE PROS AND CONS OF TOURING THE COUNTRY INSUPPORT OF HER NEW ALBUM

By MARY DICKIE

Pier, and maybe Tolan's mom on bass. NQ Arbuckle andThe Priscillas open. And on Sunday, they play theJamboree on Ward's Island with Dottie Cormier, Atomic7 and the Cameron Family Singers.

McNeil and Pier both contributed to the smashing pick-ing and playing on Collaboration, as did Po Girl's DionaDavies, drummer Gregory Macdonald, bassist Paul Rigby,backup singer Kelly Hogan and Mark's dad Oliver on vio-lin.

"It was awesome," Mark says of recording in her base-ment. "We had lab coats with our names on them andphone cards and cigarettes in the pockets. It was like areality show, but everyone stayed," rather than beingkicked off the island.

Toronto Sun

Page 7: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

Anything but white wineParty Girl Carolyn Mark is cultivating a tight-knit musical family

During a phone conversation with undergroundcountry-sweetheart Carolyn Mark, she takes her

glass of red wine out to the porch so as not to disturb thegirls who are over for a little grape and gossip. Maybe thisporch party and song titles like "2 Days Smug andSober," and an album entitled Party Girl, suggest livingnear Mark would be like living down the street from oneof those houses where washing machine parts lie like art-nouveau in the yard, the trucks that never met a mufflerroar up and down the street to the all-night beer store.Well, think again. With her self-deprecating humour andthrift store savoir-faire, Ms. Mark is elegant and timeless,not ignorant and trashy.

For instance, on her recent release, The Pros and Cons ofCollaboration, she had the great taste to cover JuniorGone Wild’s "Slept All Afternoon," a song many sur-vivors of the 1980s Can-rock renaissance will recall as thesoundtrack they woke up to after doing just that.

In her liner notes, Mark credits the song with wreckingher life. "It’s my favourite song. When I heard it, that’swhat I wanted to do: write songs. Then I became friendswith [the songwriter,] Mike McDonald," Mark says, sip-ping her Bacchanal delight, and adds they nailed the songin two takes.

As a result of her infatuation with Junior Gone Wild,Mark ended up with a part in their "Where The Hell AreYou?" video, alongside another bit player–TV producerJoel Stewart. Thus Mark began a friendship and journeythat would lead her to a segment on Stewart’s currentUndiscovered Country TV series.

Mark reflects,"Joel has this power to put people he likeson TV. He wanted it to be me, alone and natural, andI’m thinking it has to be you and me talking on thecouch, or I’ll look like I’m taking everything I do serious-ly, and it will make me look like an asshole."

While McDonald was a positive inspiration, Mark’sencounter with Nick Lowe at the 2002 Calgary FolkMusic Festival inspired her in the other direction, whichled to the "The Wine Song" ("I could never love a manwho drinks white wine," she sings). "Me and my friendwere stalking him through the veil of FairportConvention and through the beard of Robyn Hitchcock,and we saw he was drinking white wine and it was like,‘Oh.’ But [a friend] and I have this theory that you haveto own real estate to drink white wine."

But any other form of alcohol seems to work, according tosongs like "Hangover" on Pros and Cons. Does thewoman who was once billed "Drunk of the week" bySeattle’s The Stranger ever wonder if she has a drinkingproblem, or is it all just shtick?

"Good old wine-drinker me," she says. "There’re people inmy band who drink less than me, and there’re people whodrink more than me–so by that standard I figure I’m OK.But then I have this friend with a theory that people hidetheir drinking by becoming a musician."

Which might explain how "2 Days Smug and Sober"came to be. "I tried it [not drinking] for two days. That’swhy I wrote it. I really got smug, look at you, needing adrink. I tried it again in January. I was so slow–it affectedmy brain."

Regardless of whether or not they’ll get group rates at AA ,Mark says her band is her support group while herboyfriend of several years–whom she mysteriously refers toas "The Narrator" because of the voiceover he performs onher new album–also reduces the pressure.

"I’d never want to date anyone in my band. We’re themodern family. We don’t really have a family family. So,with the band, you drive with them, play with them, livewith them–we’re the modern family, and other peoplework out all kinds of family arrangements. So why can’twe work it out?" she asks, adding that bandmate TolanMcNeil is also her roommate.

Having just returned from a tour with Neko Case andKelly Hogan, Mark finds that The Narrator helps her putaging in perspective. "He just turned 40, and he’s beenlooking forward to it his whole life. When he was 37, hewas like, ‘I’m 40 fucking years old, I can do whatever Ilike.’ I’d say, ‘You’re 37.’ He’d say. ‘I’m practicing.’"

Mark prefers being older and wiser to practicing for 40."[When you’re young,] you don’t even know that yourboobs aren’t drooping. You feel fat, you don’t know howgorgeous you are."

See, Edmonton AB

Page 8: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

Q&A Carolyn Mark

"Idon't understand people who don't drink," FrankSinatra once said, "when they wake up in the morning,

that's as good as they're going to feel all day." It's easy topicture brassy Vancouver-based alt-country songstress andunabashed boozer Carolyn Mark responding with an"Amen!" while draining a snifter of brandy. Her latestrecord, The Pros and Cons of Collaboration, features Mark'skeen eye relating true stories of boozing and musing, drink-ing and thinking, nights out carousing with friends and thepainful mornings after, decorated with life's amusing minuti-ae ("Leroy, he was pouting so we grabbed his shadow's ass"from the Oakland escapade "Chantal and Leroy"). The partygirl, terrible hostess and Corn Sister (along with Neko Case)is currently travelling the Canadian folk-festival circuitbefore beginning work on a duets album due out next year.

Why is the theme of the Pros & Cons of Collaborationimportant to you?

Not to sound like a West Coast flake, but last year was kindof a "vision quest" for me to find out whether the terror ofbeing alone outweighed the discomfort of hanging aroundwith others. I didn't come up with an answer except thatyou need time together as well as time alone to make a bal-ance. Most of the pros and cons fortunately are pros, such aswhen you play with great people like I do, it can onlyimprove your music. But on the other hand, spending everywaking moment with the same people, you end up gettingon each other's nerves. I used to think that was a characterflaw, but now I think it can happen to anybody.

Your look and sound are somewhat of a throwback totraditional country music. Do you ever feel like you wereborn at the wrong time?

I like that music and that fashion so I've kind of gravitatedtoward that era, but I never really consider us to be a coun-try band-- until we go to Montreal and they tell us we are.Don't ever say you're a country band in Montreal, though,because that will keep people away from coming out to seeyou since country doesn't go over well there. I see us more askind of a cabaret act, but I shouldn't call us that eitherbecause that'll probably keep people away too.

Why did "Slept All Afternoon" [a Pros & Cons coveroriginally recorded by Edmonton roots-rockers Jr. GoneWild in 1986] "ruin your life," as you put it in the linernotes?

I was on course to become a high-school drama teacher in

the Okanaganand then I start-ed to go seebands and heardthat song and Iknew I couldn'tbe a teacher afterhearing thatsong. I wantedto play musiclike that song.So that "ruined"my life, thankgod -- can youimagine the poor children? I'd be staging lunch-hourproductions of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf -- it justwouldn't work out.

RYAN WATSON

Carolyn Mark plays the Horseshoe Tavern (370 QueenW.) Aug. 27. $8. She also plays the Toronto IslandJamboree, Toronto Island, Aug. 29, 3-10pm.

Eye, Toronto

Page 9: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

Carolyn Mark and the New Best FriendsThe Pros and Cons of CollaborationMint Records

Ireally wasn't sure whatto make of Carolyn

Mark's third and newestalbum, The Pros andCons of Collaboration,when I first heard it.Though impressed, by theend of the cursory listen, Ifound myself leaningtoward "not quite genius,not overwhelmingly enter-taining but not just. . .good." I tried to think of something to describe her style,one word to describe it all. . . but nothing came. Even now,as I listen closer and strain to seperate the strings of perfectbeats that weave together, mixing, entwining, creating noth-ing but enormously arranged and catchy songs . . . I findmyself even more impressed by Mark's talent, but still curi-ous as to what it was exactly I've just heard. But here we goanyway.

Pros and Cons of Collaboration may just be her mostdiverse and impressive record yet. It's melodically simple,unmistakably country, coyly romantic and, just as everygreat artist has something that not many around them uti-lize, wonderfully crude. Carolyn exudes sex with her voicebut also demands respect for her obvious-as-day talent andtrue blue country heart.

Though "2 Days Smug And Sober," following the cleverinstrumental overture, certainly isn't to be completelyignored, it is with "Chantel and Leroy" that Carolyn reallyhits upon something great. Carolyn's lyrics are smart andcrazy and they command you to go back and hear the lineagain: "We checked out the starry plough and the band wasshit, no smoking allowed/ So we stood on the corner awhile/Trying to get the bouncer to smile." The mouth of a truckerat one moment and the mouth of a forlorn lover, completewith heart on sleeve, at another. It's a duality that is foundin all the record's best material -- from the upbeat shuffle of"The Wine Song" ("Don't torture me with funky home-made U-brew discount shit") to slower numbers like "Not ADoll," the wonderfully structured "Jody and Sue" and thepiano-centric "Hangover."

Comparisons can be, and surely will be, made to Neko Case(who she even jokingly mentions on another highlight,"Vincent Gallo") -- though only for the achingly beautifulway both women can create mood with vocals alone -- aswell as Loretta Lynn, Tanya Tucker and Maria McKee. TheNew Best Friends, meanwhile, have a terrific big-band ele-

ment to their sound -- which is impressive when you con-sider the type of instruments they use -- while still main-taining a traditional country and blues backing with traceelements of edgier hard rock.

The Pros and Cons of Collaboration is one of the bestalbums I've heard so far this year, but nobody can reallyescape criticism, if even by a little. At times the recordlacks the kind of unpredictable edge that someone likeCase has in spades, and though standouts like "Jody AndSue" certainly help to prove me wrong in that respect,Collaboration does have a small shortage of tracks like it.That said, however, Carolyn Mark has more than provenherself a talented lyricist, vocalist and songwriter with thisrecord, one that definitely shows her quickly steppingtoward something truly great. And so, here I sit, anxiouslyawaiting the next to come from the talented and promis-ing Miss Mark and The New Best Friends, knowing that Iprobably won't know quite what to make of that, either,other than knowing that something very unique and spe-cial is going on.

www.cokemachineglow.com/reviews/mark_collab2004.html

Carolyn Mark and the New Best FriendsThe Pros and Cons of CollaborationMint Records

Ah, that whiskey voice. The fulfillment of our expecta-tions that this album, like her previous two, will be

filled with booze-adled verses. Stellar production with ahost of "new best friends" including Ford Pier, KellyHogan, and a passel of wailing drunks from the BlackDog in Edmonton. Tolan McNeil is back in the controlroom and making guitar and standup bass contributions.Gregory Macdonald of Pepper Sands is in for GarthJohnson (who has since moved to Toronto). Paul Rigby(bass) and Paul Pigat (ukelele) are in from Neko Case'sband, they also help with the arranging of the medleyintroduction to the CD and "Yanksgiving".

On first listen, it sounds like Carolyn Mark is picking upexactly where previous albums Party Girl and TerribleHostess left off. Songs about drinking and touring andparties are a now-familiar theme. We expect that Carolynwill have a few drinks, write a few songs, and wax roman-tic about her drunken escapades in such a way that eventhe soberest among us will desire a glass or twelve. Lookat all those happy drunks on the cover of "TerribleHostess"! My sober life is no competition for that!

Page 10: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

But it's not just howling and boozing. The first tracksounds like the result of Mark's experiment with sobri-ety. Very short-lived experiment. An experiment thatfound her "two days smug and sober, two days nothungover..." This is followed by the ribald ode to a cou-ple who let her crash at their place in Oakland. Track 7is about another guest house (this time in Edmonton)where she "hope[s] there's booze at Jody and Sue's" cuzthere sure ain't nothing there to eat. In Lilliwup,Washington another time, there's plenty to eat onThanksgiving and the afternoon unfolds all AmericanaNorman Rockwell-like sorta.

It was nice to see Jr. Gone Wild's (Edmonton punkcountry legends) "Slept All Afternoon," spiked withsome necessary ukelele, but staying pretty close to theoriginal. With lines like "slept til afternoon was over,cigarettes and scotch all night, all that rum and all thatrye" it's no wonder that upon hearing this song in 1989Carolyn was motivated to put her own hangovers tomusic. The final track is even called "Hangover" withthe great chorus "what a waste what a waste what awaste of a day."

But she's not just the life of the party. "Jody and Sue" ismore about the observations she makes while travellingo'er this huge continent of ours. "A grey and gold roadis a filmstrip fed through the windshield" and "I knowmost of this road with both of my eyes tightly closed"and other fleeting thoughts provoked by those longdrives between shows. Is the lament in "Not a Doll"about the "five long years" it's taken her to get a decentturnout to her shows after the being the "other CornSister"? In "Vincent Gallo" she has a dream about thatstar of indie film Buffalo 66 where "he was hanging outwith me and Neko and then Neko had to go (ThankGod!!)". Even the album title is more introspective.

Maybe someday the party will be over and Carolyn willcover Mike McDonald's (Jr. Gone Wild) post-recoverylament "Alcohol", and she'll get a job driving truckscross-country and still be writing songs. Either way, Iwant to hear about it.

Gabino Travassos [May 2004]

www.moregoatthangoose.com/cds/carolynMarkProsCons.htm

Carolyn Mark and the New Best FriendsThe Pros and Cons of CollaborationMint Records

Carolyn Mark's latest album The Pros and Cons ofCollaboration continues the old-time country and western

drunken party-mood delivered so successfully on her lastalbum Terrible Hostess. This time her backing band's calledThe New Best Friends, last time it was the Room-Mates...bothnames further the feeling you get from her albums that you'relistening to a bunch of friends hanging out, getting drunk, androlling through some songs. That said, The Pros and Cons hasan especially crisp, professional sound to it that tells you atleast the studio engineers were sober. Then again, maybe theyjust have the ability to come off like pros at what they do whilestill convincing you that they're just messing around. That'swhat Mark and band do on every song - in other words, thisalbum's filled with perfect melodies and finely wrought songsthat'll bounce around your head, but it also sounds like aparty, with a ton of people (at least 20 in all) picking up anyinstrument they can get their hands on and joining in, whetherit's a guitar, a violin, a ukulele or a garbage can lid.

The Pros and Cons... opens like musical theatre, with a goofyrun-through of the album's melodies (that's "The Overture"),and closes in a similar way (but with a funny faux radio-announcer farewell). And there is a real theatricality to Mark'ssongs and the rambunctious way that they're performed...in afew places that side is pushed almost too far and the albumthreatens to turn into a cheese-fest (to cite the most obviousexample: "The Wine Song" starts with the cheeky count-off"Wine, two, three, pour..."). But what makes this album workis the way it treads that line between goofy fun and somethingmore substantial. The silliest moments are balanced with reallymoving, beautiful ballads like the introspective "Not a Doll"and "Jody and Sue." But more so than that, even the uptempo,'strictly fun' songs are genuine. On the whole, The Pros andCons...'s songs are no-holds-barred silly and touch-your-heartsubstantial at the same time (that's counter-intuitive perhaps,but true). Even a song like "Vincent Gallo" - a trifle whereMark remembers dreams she had about the song's rebelliousnamesake - still gets at something real about people. Thenthere's "Yanksgiving," where Mark and her fellow Canadiansvisit the U.S. for Thanksgiving and poke raucous fun at all ofthe flag-waving on the TV. Besides being a deft mix of acousticfolk and barroom-shaking blues-rock, the song also capturesthe feeling of community that embodies parties and holidaysand slyly opposes it to humanity's more arrogant tendencies.That sort of many-things-at-once approach is that ultimatelymakes The Pros and Cons... so rewarding. There's simply a lothere - a lot of heart, a lot of humor, a lot of melody - yet it allholds together under the banner of party music.

www.erasingclouds.com/0519mark.html

Page 11: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

No Depression Magazine

Carolyn Mark, the rootin'-tootin' roots musicdarling of Victoria, BC, does little to dispel

the longstanding myth that booze consumptionand creativity go hand-in-hand. Roughly half thesongs on her third full-length address drinking,from a tongue-twisting diatribe about men whofavour white wine ("The Wine Song," inspired byNick Lowe) to the repentant finale "Hangover,"complete with banged-up piano and a head-hung-low sing-along. Mark even includes a recipe in theliner notes, for those who wish to sample theBourbon Decay, the libation mentioned in therollicking "2 Days Smug and Sober."

But there's more to Mark than just the smartasswho can fire off internal rhymes for"gewurtzraminer." Pros and Cons, which featureslively accompaniment from the New Best Friends(which includes longtime cohort Tolan McNeilon guitar as well as violinist Diona Davies ofPo'Girl), also doubles as a scrapbook of Mark'smisadventures. "Chantal and Leroy,""Yanksgiving," and the stripped-down "Jody andSue" (with backing vocals by Kelly Hogan) arecharming autobiographical episodes illumunatedby Mark's seasoned voice and off-the-cuff deliv-ery.

"I don't know what I'm doing or where I shouldgo," admits the artist on the disc's catchiest origi-nal, "Not a Doll." No worries. Whether she landson her feet, or ass-over-teakettle, Mark alwayssounds like she's having fun.

–Kurt B. Reighley

No Depression Magazine

Carolyn Mark and the New Best FriendsThe Pros and Cons of CollaborationMint Records

Third album fromVictoria’s queen of off-centre country featuresmusical contributionsfrom Tolan McNeil,Ford Pier, Kelly Hoganand Neko Case.

Her thrift-storekitsch somehow

gets translated into hersound, giving hersongs an aura of being from some rare era that never quitehappened, but should have. She makes enough referencesto wine, whiskey and hangovers to qualify as the femaleDean Martin. And as a singer, Carolyn Mark manages tobe fun and funny and sad all at the same time in a waythat makes her wistful, charismatic and human.

Listening to Pros and Cons of Collaboration is like run-ning down the back alleys of youth, glimpsing vignettesof mundane middle-class Canadian life skewed by lust formusic, travel and wine. "The Overture" begins the albumin a medley of showbizzy riffs, proving that Mark issecure in the dedication of her audience. It’s just weirdenough to intrigue listeners new to Mark’s style, and sillyenough that her long-time fans will lean forward and waitfor the punchline. They needn’t wait long – on the secondtrack when Mark delivers the knockout "2 Days Smugand Sober" with lines such as "Lower your standards andI’ll lower mine" and "I’m more in love with this cigarettethan I’ll ever be with you."

"Not A Doll" is instantly recognizable as the deservingcentrepiece in Mark’s recent segment on TheUndiscovered Country TV series and there are poignantsongs about hangovers, the United States, Vincent Galloand not dating a man who drinks white wine. There arealso a couple of average tracks, as if she runs out of songsjust before she runs out of album. The inclusion of JuniorGone Wild’s "Slept All Afternoon" all dolled up in pedalsteel and melancholy, plus a cover of "Bigger Bed" doesmuch to address any sins.

Overall, Mark remains the same slurrin’ country sweet-heart we fell in love with on Party Girl and who contin-ued to romance us with Terrible Hostess.

4/5

FFWD, Calgary AB

Page 12: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

Anything but white wine

Victoria’s Party Girl Carolyn Mark is cultivating a tight-knit musical family

During a phone conversation with underground country-sweetheart Carolyn Mark, she takes her glass of red

wine out to the porch so as not to disturb the girls who areover for a little grape and gossip. If this porch party com-bined with such song titles as "2 Days Smug and Sober" andalbum titles such as Party Girl suggest that living near Markwould be like living down the street from one of those hous-es where the trucks that never met a muffler roar up anddown the street to the all-night beer store and washingmachine parts lie like art-nouveau in the yard – well, thinkagain. With her self-deprecating humour and thrift storesavoir-faire, our Ms. Mark is elegant and timeless, not igno-rant and trashy.

For instance, on her recent release The Pros and Cons ofCollaboration she had the great taste to cover Junior GoneWild’s "Slept All Afternoon," a song many survivors of the1980s Can-rock renaissance will recall as the soundtrack towaking up after doing just that. Mark credits the song withwrecking her life on her liner notes. "It’s my favourite song.When I heard it, that’s what I wanted to do, write songs.Then I became friends with (the songwriter) MikeMcDonald," Marks says, sipping her Bacchanal delight,adding that they nailed the song in two takes.

Through her infatuation with Junior Gone Wild, Markended up with a part in their video for "Where The Hell AreYou?" alongside another bit player – TV producer JoelStewart. Thus Mark began a friendship and journey thatwould lead her to a segment on Stewart’s currentUndiscovered Country TV series.

"Joel has this power to put people he likes on TV. He want-ed it to be me alone and natural, and I’m thinking it has tobe you and me talking on the couch, or I’ll look like I’m tak-ing everything I do seriously and it will make me look likean asshole."

While McDonald was a positive inspiration, Mark’sencounter with Nick Lowe at the 2002 Calgary Folk MusicFestival inspired her in the other direction, resulting in "TheWine Song" ("I could never love a man who drinks whitewine," she sings). "Me and my friend were stalking himthrough the veil of Fairport Convention and through thebeard of Robyn Hitchcock, and we saw he was drinkingwhite wine and it was like, oh. But (a friend) and I have thistheory that you have to own real estate to drink white wine."

But anything else seems to go, according to songs such as"Hangover" on Pros and Cons. Does the woman who was

once billed "Drunk of the week" by Seattle’s The Stranger everwonder if she has a drinking problem, or is it all just shtick?

"Good old wine drinker me," she says. "There’s people in myband who drink less than me and there’s people who drinkmore than me, so by that standard I figure I’m OK. But thenI have this friend with a theory that people hide their drink-ing by becoming a musician."

Which might explain how "2 Days Smug and Sober" came tobe. "I tried it (not drinking) for two days. That’s why I wroteit. I really got smug, look at you, needing a drink. I tried itagain in January. I was so slow – it affected my brain."

And whether they’ll get group rates at AA or not, Mark saysher band is her support group while her boyfriend of severalyears, whom she mysteriously refers to as The Narratorbecause of the voiceover on Mark’s new album, also takes thepressure off. "I’d never want to date anyone in my band.We’re the modern family. We don’t really have a family family,so with the band, you drive with them, play with them, livewith them – we’re the modern family, and other people workout all kinds of family arrangements so why can’t we work itout?" she says, adding that bandmate Tolan McNeil is also herroommate.

Having just come back from a tour with Neko Case and KellyHogan, Mark finds that The Narrator helps her put aging inperspective. "He just turned 40 and he’s been looking forwardto it his whole life. When he was 37, he was like, ‘I’m 40fucking years old, I can do whatever I like.’ I’d say, ‘You’re 37’.He’d say ‘I’m practising.’"

Mark prefers being older and wiser to practising for 40."(When you’re young) you don’t even know that your boobsaren’t drooping. You feel fat, you don’t know how gorgeousyou are."

CELEB TOP FIVE

The Top Five ways to kill time between sound check and theshow, according to singer-songwriter Carolyn Mark (This is avery tricky time as we try to avoid the leghold trap of earlybooze and pray for longevity. Pacing!):

1. Go thrift shopping for the night's gown (sometimes,veryrarely, the vintage store is beside the venue!)

2. Find dinner

3. Go for a walk to offset vehicle inspired ass-spread.

4. Check e-mail

5. Phone mother

FFWD, Calgary AB

Page 13: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

Carolyn Mark and the New Best FriendsThe Pros and Cons of CollaborationMint Records

Carolyn Mark's new album iscalled The Pros and Cons of

Collaboration, but I propose analternate title: The Pros andCons of Inebriation.

"It's like fuel," says Mark of alco-hol. "It fed the band and provid-ed inspiration for the material,for sure."

Recorded at Mark's home in Victoria, the often hilarious,sometimes sobering but always honky-tonkin' Collaborationwas a group guzzle from the start, involving Tolan McNeil,Ford Pier, Kelly Hogan, Greg MacDonald, Paul Pigat, PaulRigby and Diona Davies.

"We had 24 Pilsner and one bottle of wine a day, for six orseven people," reports Mark. "The men like the Pilsner.... Iwent every day to get the booze, because I know they could-n't go to sleep with a closet full of beer. On the last night,there was no Pilsner left so I got them Old Stock or Pacific orsomething, so they were off their formula and didn't performwell. You couldn't tell on the album, though."

They wore lab coats with their names on them to mark thestart of the "work" day. With a guest chef aboard for the ses-sions, things were going great one day until the guy pluggedin a rice cooker and blew out the power during one take ofthe sassy 2 Days Smug and Sober. From start to finish, thealbum sounds like a vaudeville-country cabaret.

Friday at Richard's, five of the collaborators take the stagewith Mark as The New Best Friends.

"I've opened there," says Mark, "but this is our own night soit's really exciting."

It's an early, pre-DJ show, which leaves plenty of time forpost-show drinks, of course.

Says Mark: "I really like Bosman's, where I can smoke. Butdon't put that in. Scratch that! I don't want it to get too full-. Or there's the Railway, where the two Pauls are playing-Icall them Pigby. Or the Brickyard, for Luther Wright and theWrongs. Lots of options."

With guests Ford Pier and Tolan McNeil & the Guv'ners ofGiv'ner, 7:30 p.m show Friday, May 14 at Richard's, 1036Richards. $10, Ticketmaster.

Westender, Vancouver BC

Just who is Carolyn Mark?Sometimes you hear her refer to herself as the other CornSister, a self-deprecating reference to her work in the duoThe Corn Sisters, with Neko Case.

The Corn Sisters were joined by Bloodshot Records artistKelly Hogan at the Horseshoe recently for a special gig atthe end of April. That no doubt drew lots of attention.But Mark has been drawing her own crowd running asteady solo career.

But there’s that question again: Just who is CarolynMark? Considering her three records, Party Girl, TerribleHostess and The Pros and Cons of Collaboration, youstart to wonder. She’s as kitschy as early k.d. lang –maybe less cowpunk – but she’s also a winsome wit and,occasionally, a sincere storyteller.

Her latest record doesn’t clear the waters but muddiesthem further. Pros and Cons opens with an breakneckoverture that lets you know that there’s a bumpy roadahead.

After a trademark Mark tune, “2 Days Smug and Sober,”Carolyn Mark rambles through “Chantal Leroy,” a coun-try-rock tune that sounds so good you don’t want Markto go back to her calling-card smarm. But, after theacoustic solo “Not a Doll,” she returns to the same oldground with “Vincent Gallo.”

She doesn’t hit this newer and welcome stride again until“Slept All Afternoon,” a classic Jr. Gone Wild tune. Thischoice is perfect for Mark. And one feels she can writetunes on par if she just lets go of the act a little and getsa little more serious.

umbrellamusic.com

Page 14: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

Carolyn Mark and the New Best FriendsThe Pros and Cons of CollaborationMint Records

Between Neko Case and, her sister, Carolyn Mark, thereis only one real firebrand saloon chanteuse. Surprisingly,

it’s Mark that would more likely be seen at the bar chainsmoking cigarettes and pounding whisky than leaning for-ward provocatively over pool tables. Mark is no clean,cavorting saloon floozy—she’s a heart-for-the-American-Southwest Canadian with the temperament of MarleneDietrich from Destry Rides Again.

On her debut, Party Girl, and the follow-up, TerribleHostess, Mark’s penchant for boozy old-time country songsabout wine, wanderlust and woe were evident, but neverbefore have they been executed with as much rousing gustoand down-and-dirty country soul as on The Pros and Consof Collaboration. Brimming with romping numbers whichwouldn’t be out of place on Blazing Saddles, Mark’s brandof country via Canada is one shot traditional Bobbie GentryNashville with a helping squeeze of spur tapping honky-tonk wit.

Which is perplexing. Though she’s a Canadian, Mark’sworld of Southwestern Americana is more country thanmost of the stuff coming out of Nashville nowadays. At thesame time, with one foot firmly planted in the dingy hovelsof the Southwest and the other in the star-studdedHollywood Hills, Mark is almost the anti-country girl. Ormaybe new country? If she is, then veggie-burger eatingVancouverites who sing about chance-meetings withVincent Gallo in one song and a Nick Lowe inspired tuneabout how men who drink white wine aren’t worth a dimein the next are going be gobbled up by record labels likeambiguously related two-piece blues bands.

Never would I have imagined a rousing country tale ofcouch-hopping to name-check Waylon and Willie with BobOdenkirk, but that’s exactly what “Chantal and Leroy” does.It typifies Mark’s brand of hodgepodge country: meldingthe genre’s tried-and-true tenets of old with slices of con-temporary nouns. On the prosaic “Yanksgiving,” Mark takessome quick (and all too easy) lyrical jabs at Toby Keith’sseemingly blind patriotism and Sheryl Crow’s leather pantst-ed Farm Aid performance over an acoustic turned electricalguitar bar-room jam.

There’s little to say about Mark’s new band, The New BestFriends, other than that they play eclectically, and they playcleanly, with enthusiasm and heart for stomping romps.Starting out with a sopping love-song to inebriation andclosing with a somber piano ballad not-so-subtly entitled“Hangover,” which has Mark borrowing lines from TrueGrit, the record comes full circle lyrically, as well as musical-ly. Beginning and ending with overtures giving a sample of

the array of sounds on the record, The Pros and Cons ofCollaboration plays somewhat like a concept record detailingthe pros (friends, alcohol) and cons (friends, alcohol) ofMark’s roaming throughout America and Canada. Roamingsthat are bawdy, witty and more fun than most contemporarycountry and a nice alternative to her sister’s more indie-styled country glossing.

Stylus Magazine, Winnipeg MB

The Pros And Cons Of Collaboration is a good naturedand entertaining collection from Canadian alt. country

observationalist and all - round everywoman Carolyn Mark.There are songs filled with pop-culture references, like thehighly descriptive "Yanksgiving", which retells, with greatdetail, the activities of a Thanksgiving affair at the home ofJon Rauhause. A partial list includes a game of Yahtzee thehalf-time show, playing from Mel Bay songbooks, eatingolive bread and Chex mix, and the dinner ...

www.milesofmusic.com

Victoria's main dame of country has made one hot andhilarious third album, a vibrant caboodle of rowdy

boot-stompers and sweet weepers aided and abetted by about21 friends, among them B.C. scenesters Ford Pier (keys) andTolan McNeil (guitar), and Chicago's Kelly Hogan (vox,piano), the third Corn Sister. Speaking of which, there's noNeko Case, aside from a namedrop in "Vincent Gallo,"Mark's lighthearted exploration of subconscious crushes.Whether she's dissing Toby Keith, gibing white wine-drink-ing men or beating herself up over a bottle of red, Marksings it smart and savvy. 8/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

Montreal Mirror, Montreal PQ

From the opening serio-comic Overture to the goofballOutro/Credits closer, Victoria's Carolyn Mark proves

alterna-country is alive and well and has a sense of humour.With tongue planted firmly in cheek, Mark delivers a stellarset of mostly original tunes. On a CD filled with smart-assone liners - "I'm more in love with this cigarette than I'll everbe with you" - Mark still manages to convey an irreverent rev-erence for country music. Songs like Not a Doll could be offa Roseanne Cash CD, but most are spiritual children of theHoly Modal Rounders. With superb backing and an overallsound closer to Patsy Cline than Mark's close friend NekoCase, this release will have you pondering whether "the deerwhistles work or did the dollar store dupe us again?"

Mark Tremblay

Montreal Gazette

Page 15: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

ENTERTAINMENTFri, May 21, 2004

'First place to like what I did'Whenever an artist - especially a country artist - struts up onstage and yells the name of our city, pretending they thinkit's "the greatest," I get really annoyed. So you're saying, hon-estly, that Edmonton's the very best city. Like, in the entireworld. I mean, it's aces and all, lots of nice trees and bridges,but talk about an overused compliment; the ultimate guiltyextension of "I bet you say that to all the girls."

These are hallucinatory times, which require at least a littlesincerity. Cheap lip service is equivalent to anonymous junkmail telling us we're a winner, and who wants more of that?

But up behind Carolyn Mark's candy-red lips churns anappreciation for our grassy berg that's truly bona fide (sheplays the Sidetrack tonight).

Having emerged from Victoria a decade back, now into theJedi training swamp of Mike McDonald, Mark has sincespent a considerable amount of attention on Edmonton,including naming a song after us on her first solo album,Party Girl (which pretty much sums up Mark's overt behav-iour in a nutshell)

Having evolved well beyond the Vinaigrettes and CornSisters, The Pros and Cons of Collaboration is Mark's third"solo" CD, though as usual she's accompanied by the samesort of churning musical circus you would expect circling thedevil on a mirage-hot highway. And, yes, on the new record,again with the Edmonton obsession.

"I made other records that go to the other cities," Mark jokeson the phone from the Island. "It's my marketing campaign."

This is, of course, a lie, and I love Mark for it. Because,unlike safely saying to a large crowd that Edmonton's thebee's knees, she's joking that she doesn't care at all.

But ... "It was the first place to like what I did," she laughs."In the Vinaigrettes days, Mike McDonald hooked me upwith Luann Kowalek (of Ramblin' Roses Revue), who's alifelong friend. And I'll always remember that first time weplayed there, up in RATT, and people bought 11 tapes. Wewere so grateful!"

Besides covering McDonald's beautiful Slept All Afternoon asa thank you on Pros, there are more connections to E-ville.Namely, just as the clever, self-exploring album's gettingready to end, a chorus of maniacs from the Black Dog can beheard lamenting "all the horrible pain" of life.

The singer explains how the chorus came about, starting witha call to the Dog's lovely bartender. "I phoned Irish Sue, yousee," Mark says in a Blarney Stone accent, "and - I left thison her machine - I said, 'If there's anyone with a guitar and

some get-go hanging around, could you do this?' thinkingshe might get back to me about it later. Instead, she goteveryone together and they did it live, onto my answeringmachine, which was perfect, because I had just left her amessage. So we never actually talked about it before it hap-pened."

There's also a song called Jody and Sue that has some of theprettiest lyrics on the record, and it follows Mark's long tra-dition of name-dropping people most of us have never heardof, kind of the opposite of Dan Bern's obsession with celebri-ties. Mark, in her own way, makes celebrities, given that herlabel distributes around the world.

"The way I see it is my friends have had to put up with mybull- - - - for years, so I include them. If your friend wrote abook, wouldn't you look for your name in there?" she says.

And while the Collaboration title of the album seems toexplain things well enough, Mark elaborates, revealing a hintof the depth beneath the "party girl."

"I went to San Francisco on my own and it turned into thisvision quest. I had to ask myself, does the terror of beingalone outweigh the discomfort of hanging around other peo-ple? I used to think I needed new, fresh people all the time tokeep engaged, but the best part of getting older, despite thewaning energy and the swelling, is realizing that it's OK tobe alone sometimes. It's looking at what you have and beingthankful for i

She's right, of course. Which, when it comes down to it, iswhy it's crucial to appreciate what we have here, without anyhelp from some grinning Nashvill-er in an Oilers jerseythey'll wear exactly once in their life.

Edmonton Sun, Edmonton AB

Finally Carolyn Mark, Neko Case's Victoria crony,shows off as much as she should. This aptly titled

record, full of Coastal alt-country scene co-conspirators,listens like a diary of Mark's West Coast world ofdrinkin', couch-surfin' and heartbreak. Rippers like 2Days Smug and Sober (punctuated by superlativePo'Girls fiddler Diona Davies) ought to put one of ourcountry's best country songwriters in the pantheon forgood. The lyric sheet begins with a cocktail recipe (for aBourbon Decay). Yes, Carolyn Mark is your kind of girl.

4 stars

Ottawa Xpress, Ottawa ONHour, Montreal PQ

Page 16: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel
Page 17: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

Queue, Vancouver Sun

Page 18: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

I'm drinking hangover beers with Carolyn Mark at LaHacienda on Queen Street as we wait for her veggie bur-

rito to arrive. For someone who was up singing until dawnthe night before, Carolyn Mark is in a good mood.

Mark was in Toronto recently along with Kelly Hogan tosing backup vocals for friend and collaborator Neko Case asshe recorded her first live DVD at Lee's Palace and latersang at the infamous after-hours club, The Matador inToronto.

"It was a real flesh casserole!" she exclaims about the capaci-ty crowd at Lee's with her trademark brash humour. "It'samazing what people will endure to see live music! I don'tknow if I'd be that hearty if I wasn't directly involved. Like,last night [at the Matador], it's eight in the morning, theplace is being raided, there's no booze, they're not that niceto you — and still people go! It's so weird."

These gigs ended a two-month tour for Mark, which sawher in doing stints with The Buttless Chaps and also withKelly and Neko. This new collaboration has sprung up inthe place of the previous Case/Mark project, The CornSisters.

"It started in Pittsburgh about two years ago when theCorn Sisters opened for Kelly," explains Mark. "But TheCorn Sisters went to New York and this was when Nekogot signed to Bloodshot Records — Kelly was the publicistfor Bloodshot... and she was hiding the fact that she was asinger!

"But she said, 'I could sing a third part any time,' and I waslike, 'Yeah, OK' and then I heard her sing and it was like,'Oh my gawd!'" Mark groans, "She's the best singer I'venever heard in my life!"

The trio's first gig was at the opening for the ExperienceMusic Project in Seattle last year and things have only pro-gressed from there. As of yet, they don't have a propername.

"We need one!" exclaims Mark. "The Qualifiers is sort ofwhat we're tossing around right now. We were 'Neko Caseand Friends' in L.A.! They wouldn't let me and Kelly in!"

Speaking of collaborations, Mark has released a new albumof her own, titled The Pros And Cons Of Collaborationwith a new band called The New Best Friends. It wasrecorded at Lucky Mouse Studios, owned by bandmateTolan McNeil in Mark's hometown of Victoria, B.C.

The list of collaborators on this amazing album of country,rock, torch and blues numbers is long: Ford Pier, GregoryMacDonald, Paul Rigby, Kelly Hogan, Diona Davies andeven Mark's own father, Oliver, who lent a hand on fiddleduties.

Despite the number of musicians dipping their toes intothis project, the songs are unmistakably Mark's, showcasingher gutsy and melodic voice and ribboned with her wryhumour.

I tell her that it sounds like she's channeling a bit of JanisJoplin's ballsy blues style and Mark makes a face at me.

"Ugh, really? I was aiming more for Dusty Springfield orBobbie Gentry, that kind of groove. Well, maybe I can seethat a bit. But I hate Southern Comfort!"

When asked if she's discovered the pros and cons of collab-oration (the title comes from the tune "Chantal AndLeroy"), Mark outlines her theory, or "vision quest."

"The comfort of hanging around with other people out-weighs the terror of being alone. I said that on stage onenight and people were like, 'Yeah! I feel that too!'

"I think everyone feels that," she continues. "It's nice tohave friends to hang around with, but sometimes I go outon tour to be alone."

Mark cracks up laughing. "Yeah, a nice, relaxing tour!"

Carolyn Mark’s The Pros And Cons Of Collaboration willbe in stores on May 4.

—Shannon Whibbs

Chart Magazine, Toronto ON

Carolyn Mark Has All The Right Friends

Page 19: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

Carolyn Mark and the New Best FriendsThe Pros and Cons of CollaborationMint Records

Carolyn Markhas moved

on...or up...orboth. But definitelyout. No longersharing digs withher Room Mates,she's now criss-crossing the USand Canada, visit-ing all of her NewBest Friends, crash-ing on their couch-es, and, it seems,writing songs with them while she's at it.

Mark's previous albums have cast her as the life of theparty, but this time around she's more subdued. Ratherthan hosting liquor-soaked after-bar parties at her house,she's drinking alone, or in small groups, or she's sharingcozy evenings with friends, and alcohol is no longer theportmanteau of personal entertainment. She's still riotouslyfunny, but she isn't trying as hard -- the humor is morefocused, more observational, more ironic than the "lifestylepratfalls" she has pulled in the past. Her songs disguisethemselves as earnest, heartfelt folk, but they wield theirwords like switchblades.

With the exception of its opening Overture (more on thatlater), The Pros and Cons of Collaboration presents us withthree basic song-types:

(A) Songs in which Mark describes specific experiences,events and interactions with real people

(B) Songs that may not specifically be about Mark, but,because they involve excessive drinking and relationshipangst, probably are

(C)More serious songs in which Mark does not appear atall (including covers)

The first of these is by far the most intriguing. "Chantaland Leroy" and "Yanksgiving" are basically travelogues,addressing Mark's adventures on the road with far morecandid detail than most artists ever offer. "Chantal andLeroy", details Mark's stay with the titular friends while onthe road. "I was a guest / in a sublet love nest / Waylon andWillie on the Harmon Kardon," she begins, spinning awarm tale of wine and cooking and more wine, of headingout to a local bar to see a terrible band and returning in thewee hours, suitably pickled. In the morning, heading to thebathroom, she passes the open door to her hosts' bedroom

and sees them sprawled together on the bed, naked...afterwhich her visit seems tainted, so she leaves. It's a fittinglyodd, asymmetrical tune about a discomfiting experience,and when she plays it live, it takes almost as long for her toset the scene as it does to play the entire song."Yanksgiving" is a happier story, in which Mark spendsThanksgiving at Jon and Jennifer Rauhouse's cabin inWashington (she even includes Jennifer's driving directionsverbatim). It's a cozy day of eating and playing and watch-ing crap TV, and it ends happily: "Last thing I rememberwas Sheryl Crow / in leather pants playing bass on theFarm Aid show / On a pillow and blanket on the orangeshag carpet / belly distended and pants undone." It'suncharacteristically happy by Mark's standards, but don'tworry -- darker tunes are coming.

"Vincent Gallo" almost fits into the previous category,thanks to a silent cameo appearance by Neko Case; Mark isdreaming of hanging with the Buffalo 66 star and her fel-low Corn Sister, and she's clearly relieved when the Nekeducks out. Have we seen Carolyn Mark this openly lustfulbefore? She's opening up a bit more, but the expected emo-tional pratfall never comes. ("Gallo" also deserves props forTolan McNeil's excellent, borderline-metal melodic solo --Mark's music needs more moments like this and"Yanksgiving"'s extended, unexpected rock-out!) In "TheWine Song", the first track in a out-of-sequence trilogy ofalcohol-related tunes, Mark reels off one liners at theexpense of men who drink white wine. Flash back to "2Days Smug and Sober (Bourbon Decay)": she seems tohave found herself some red wine, and copious quantities ofbourbon. It's possible that a relationship has driven her todrink, breaking the 48-hour alcohol fast (a record?), andthere's a hint of bigger, more sinister problems on the hori-zon. One of the short-term consequences closes the disc:"Hangover", a spartan piano/haggard vocal piece, is actuallyfar too loud to play or listen to when you're hung over, butits lyrics ("Last night let a thief in through my mouth / tosteal my brain / oh the pain / oh the pain / oh the horrorand pain") land on the accurate side of fanciful. You'll sym-pathize.

If you're jonesing for something a little more serious, oreven profound, try "Not a Doll", a coffeehouse-folk con-coction of violin, guitar and resonant organ. Mark rolls outher best Natalie Merchant inflection for this song aboutdecisions and roads not taken, and its chorus -- "Everythinghappens either not at all or at the same time" -- is The Prosand Cons' single most memorable moment; it'll stay withyou longer than any of the drinking shtick.

The disc includes a pair of covers -- The Movie Stars'"Bigger Bed" and Mike McDonald's "Slept All Afternoon"-- squeezed together medley-style. The boisterous "BiggerBed", another collapsing relationship/love triangle song, isthe catchier tune, rivaling "Not a Doll" for sheer catchiness

Page 20: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

(you'll remember "She calls your name," but probably notthe various words that come after it), and "Slept AllAfternoon" sounds like its title, a featherbed of steel guitartwang and languorous violin. Both tunes fit in well withMark's original material -- you probably won't even realizethat they're covers.

Finally, we can't ignore Pros and Cons' most inventiveinnovation -- an opening Overture (aptly titled "Overture")straight out of a high-school musical theater production,cycling through the album's various themes in double time.It's reprised after "Hangover", with the addition of an over-the-top "announcer" voiceover by Calvin Dick. Furtheringa concept we first encountered on The BarmitzvahBrothers' The Night of the Party, Calvin burbles throughtwo and a half minutes of credits, quips and mock sponsormessages ("Guests of Carolyn Mark stay at the luxuriousLast Resort -- why clean when you can dim the lights?"). Asthe music fades, he even thanks us for listening.

Pros and Cons could truly be Carolyn Mark's breakoutalbum. It doesn't seem like the slightly over-eager shtick ofa compulsive performer -- there's more connection and lessbrusque bravado, as if Mark has finally decided to let theaudience get to know her rather than a larger than lifeCarolyn Mark character. Perhaps, in the eighteen monthsor so following the recording of Terrible Hostess, Mark hada crisis of faith. Maybe she had cause to question the pathshe was following, just as she does in "Not a Doll", andafter a lot of soul-searching, she decided that she was on theright track, and is definitely doing what she's meant to bedoing. Pros and Cons, then, heralds her renewed commit-ment.

Or not. Maybe it's just another album about drinking. Ifso, it's a better album about drinking -- one that will touchyou more deeply and make you care more about Mark, tothe point where you'll hope she finds another little pocketof "Yanksgiving"-style happiness before she happens acrossa fresh bottle of wine.

-- George Zahora

www.splendidezine.com/review.html?reviewid=1084938168971226

Friday, May 28, 2004

Club Beat: Carolyn Mark brings her humor and a stun-ning voice to the Tractor

By TIZZY ASHER

SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER

If Neko Case is the reigning diva and sex symbol of alt-country, Carolyn Mark is the witty best friend who would,in a just world, get all the attention. Sort of a countrifiedJaneane Garofalo or Joan Cusack, if you will.

Sharing a stage with Case as one half of the tongue-in-cheek country duo the Corn Sisters in the late 1990s,Mark proved herself a capable comic foil, throwing outsnarky remarks and witticisms and displaying just as muchvocal prowess.

Mark's latest album (with her current backing band theNew Best Friends) is "The Pros and Cons ofCollaboration" (Mint) and it showcases her strong sense ofhumorous narrative, as well as her stunning voice. Hercharacters struggle with the banality of life and relation-ships, adding the sort of spitting hatred that only truelovers can know.

Mark releases the record tomorrow at the Tractor (9 p.m.;$8). The Kitchen Syncopaters and Purty Mouth are alsoon the bill.

Seattle Post-Intelligencerhttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/pop/175261_club28.html

Page 21: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

Carolyn Mark and the New Best FriendsThe Pros and Cons of CollaborationMint Records

Which is saying a lotsince her last,

Terrible Hostess, was one of2002's finest. This timearound her band TheRoommates undergo aname change to The NewBest Friends but we're pret-ty much looking at thesame cast of characters -Tolan McNeil, Ford Pier,and guests like KellyHogan. Despite surround-ing herself consistently witha pretty high caliber of talent, the focus never shifts from Mark'ssinging and songwriting.

To add to the overall storytelling within The Pros And Cons OfCollaboration, things open with an "Overture" and end with abizarre and very funny "closing credits" track. In between are odesto alcohol, loves lost and found, alcohol, and there's even a song orseveral about alcohol.

Country music and booze serves up certain woeful connotations,but Mark's songs go from celebratory to finger-pointing to regret -all without the car-wreck-endings. There's correcting being "2 DaysSmug And Sober" with bourbon decays (recipe in the lyric booklet)and singing the praises (correctly!) of red over white in "The WineSong". Mark accompanies herself on piano on "Hangover". Whatshe coveys is done so convincingly that you'll swear you mumbledthis song to yourself the last time you woke up and staggered forthe AC&C (at least that's my remedy of choice) in the medicinecabinet.

The Pros And Cons Of Collaboration isn't all about gettingsmashed, though. Mark delivers one of her pretties melodies, andfinest vocals, in "Not A Doll", while going from rockin'-folk tojust-plain-rockin' within the fun "Yanksgiving". As is often thecase, Mark delivers these party songs in such a way that you end upresponding with, "Hmm - wish I was there." Mark also makes aninspired choice for a song to cover here as well, making the mostout of "Slept All Afternoon" by the woefully unsung Jr. Gone Wild(from their Less Art, More Pop LP no less!).

Carolyn Mark flatly deserves more recognition than she gets andThe Pros And Cons Of Collaboration should send more than a fewnew fans her way. If it doesn't, well then the world just ain't right.

8.0

www.powerpop.org/shakeitup/mainframeset.htm

Page 22: Carolyn Mark applied the scientific dubbed with the best ... › bands › carolyn › Carolyn... · Carolyn: always ready with a good story. It’s her stories, really, which compel

Carolyn Mark and the New Best FriendsThe Pros and Cons of CollaborationMint Records

Surely every review written about Carolyn Mark makesreference to Neko Case, like it's an unwritten or peer-

pressured rule to always name-check both singers in thesame breath (note that articles on Case rarely mentionMark). Whether it's a necessary evil, or a lazy set-up device,it's unfortunate that it continues to be this way -- good grief,look at me perpetuating the very partiality I've confessed toabhorring. You see, both Mark and Case are kindred spirits:sometimes duet partners as the Corn Sisters, sometimestouring pals, and mastheads of the Pacific Northwest alt-country scene. While Case has progressed into a realm ofsemi-notoriety on an international scale as a member of theNew Pornographers and queen of country noir (so much sothat she was even asked to pose for Playboy, subsequentlyturning it down), Mark has stuck close to her roots, specifi-cally the "country" in "alt-country", known to a significantlysmaller crowd.

What a shame. Mark has proved herself to be a sharp-tongued, tough, funny songwriter, able to stand comfortablyon her own wiseacre merits. She's released strong albums onthe Mint Records label every two years: 2000's Party Girl,2002's Terrible Hostess, and the new The Pros and Cons ofCollaboration, which finds her revising her backing band'sname from the Room-Mates to the New Best Friends. Shespins yarns like an old pro, jostles and joshes with deadpansincerity, all with a candid, homey voice that's equal partsNatalie Merchant, Janis Joplin, and Loretta Lynn. If you'vespent your time at the bar of anti-Nashville country-westernhunting down the little cup of peanuts and haven't yetnoticed Mark tossing off side-splitting jokes while awaitingthe next round, now's the time to perk up.

The Pros and Cons of Collaboration whisks by like a salooncabaret: think the women of The Triplets of Belleville snap-ping their fingers in the valleys of the Blue Ridge Mountainrange. Mark's New Best Friends are a plentiful bunch of vir-tuosos, including frequent collaborator/producer TolanMcNeil, who turns in a number of blistering Django-fiedguitar runs. Mark's songs are three parts alcohol and twoparts bon mot, a traditional style that owes multitudes toNashville's past and seems to flaunt a middle finger towardsthe contemporary incarnations of Music Row.

As a songwriter, Mark is most effective when she reads atipsy riot act; you can almost see her eyes rolling with a no-nonsense, endearingly cynical attitude. "I know how much itkills you / When I tell you what to do," Mark matter-of-factly smirks in "2 Days Smug and Sober (Bourbon Decay)","But read my lips you fucker / Chew that gum again, we'rethrough". The delivery is confident and sincere, the words

wickedly delightful.Drummer GregoryMacDonald poundsa Gene Krupa beaton the skins,emphasizing thesong's barrelhousepiano track andMcNeil's insane fretacrobatics. In "TheWine Song", whichcould in fact beMark's romanticmanifesto, she won-ders, "How can you love a man who drinks white wine?"While the band hustles through an acoustic bluegrass blitz,Mark confides, "I keep him in the cellar hoping he'llimprove with age" and brutally calls 'em like she sees 'em:"While we're on the topic if I may digress a bit / Don't tor-ture me with funky homemade U-brew discount shit.""Vincent Gallo" is a grinning ditty of obsession with the tit-ular actor/director, smothered in CSN&Y harmonies and anod to Ms. Case ("He was hanging out with me and Neko /And then Neko had to go -- thank God!").

Elsewhere, Mark exhibits a gift for verbose Desire-era Dylansong-stories; whether she's "the guest in a sublet love nest"("Chantal and Leroy") or a participant in a Thanksgivingdinner set to a backdrop of bloated, commercial patriotism("Yanksgiving"), Mark is a captivating, jocular teller of tales.When the road story is rendered sober, as it is in the dreamywaltz "Jody and Sue", Mark can effectively paint states ofmind, devoid of her typical irony: "We are still and yet stillwe are moving". Likewise, covers of obscure songs by theMovie Stars ("Bigger Bed") and Jr. Gone Wild ("Slept AllAfternoon") naturally fit the album's swift progression, neverfeeling like they're born from another's pen.

From its tongue-in-cheek opening overture (which seems tospoof everything from Aaron Copland to Tommy) to theeven thicker tongue-in-cheek "Outro/Credits" (completewith narration by a man who doesn't sound unlike Seinfeld'sJ. Peterman: "It's been said that behind every great womanyou'll find six to ten men working their nuts off"), The Prosand Cons of Collaboration is simply a delight. Mark and herNew Best Friends intuitively ooze the spirit of Golden Eracountry and western, before commercial sap panderersdrained it of character and wit. These are the stories youwait up all night to hear, anticipating a phone call from afriend on the road or a roommate's return from the trenchesof barroom warfare. "You won't believe this," they'll say, andyou'll smile, knowing that you're in for a treat.

www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/m/markcarolyn-pros.shtml