The catastrophes began last fall. Tufts' band theMark saw their many hours of work wasted when all but one of the tracks they had recorded digitally became the casualties of an ill-timed computer crash.
The next few months featured drummers dropping faster than flies and a lead guitarist who high-tailed it to New Zealand for the semester. This dynamic group, however, managed to get it together in time to win last spring's the Battle of the Bands, earning them an opening spot for Reel Big Fish and The Roots at Spring Fling, as well as recording and releasing their first full-length album, "The Catastrophist."
TheMark currently consists of juniors Alec Orenstein (guitar), Paul Farris (lead vocals), seniors Jason Autore (bass), Droo Porter (guitar), and newcomer senior Johnny Burlock (drums).
The band has gone through several lineup switches in their quest for the perfect drummer, and accounts differ on exactly how Burlock became part of the band. He remembers months of being courted (or, in his words, stalked) via e-mail, while Orenstein recalls a drunken Burlock insisting "You gotta let me play with you!"
However the current configuration came to be, the consensus of the group was well-expressed by Farris: "It's the longest-running lineup, the most stable lineup, and the best, obviously."
The fivesome are fresh from playing a show at ZBT last Friday night along with Connecticut-based band Murdervan. Members of theMark are now looking forward to taking their band to the next level by promoting their new CD and planning for upcoming gigs in NYC.
Although they love playing at Tufts, theMark doesn't really consider themselves a "campus band" per se, as most of their shows of late have been off-campus.
Shortly after finals ended last May, theMark made the long drive to Dorchester, Mass., where they ended up in a "somewhat shady" industrial park. After being shot at a mere dozen times (the boys have a slight tendency to exaggerate), they climbed to the top floor of a warehouse and found the beautiful Magpie Studios.
TheMark spent much of the next five days there, although Farris, ever the perfectionist, noted, "We could have spent twenty days." Work proceeded with recording, mixing, and mastering "The Catastrophist's" eleven original tracks.
This culmination came after months of work. The band practices three times per week, sessions which are productive because of the members' complementary personalities. Orenstein is the self-described "practice Nazi," while Porter never fails to lighten the mood when things get too angsty.
TheMark's creative process begins when a band member comes in with a riff or an idea for a song. Everyone writes the part for their own instrument, and the music dictates the tone of the lyrics, which are usually written subsequently by Orenstein. The band's lyrics are by turns mournful, cryptic, and ragingly political.
The five friends have disparate tastes in music: Nirvana-phile Orenstein confesses his love for "big dumb rock," while Autore prefers progressive, Pink Floyd, and technically-challenging metal. Porter is into punk, ska, and anything else that's hard, fast, and loud; Burlock, conversely, is a big acoustic fan who cites Carter Beauford, the drummer for the Dave Matthews Band, as the reason he has continued to lug around his weighty drum equipment for all these years. Finally, Farris is an indie-aficionado who has filled up his 40-gig iPod with music by artists most of us have never heard of.
The group's eclecticism comes through on their album. While they are hesitant to label their sound, theMark's pop-influenced rock, infused with the manic energy of punk, is rife with heavy beats and catchy choruses.
Though the collection contains songs written over the past two years, the band members see The Catastrophist as a showcase for their new material, which features odd time signatures and a slightly more experimental feel.
The highly-layered sound of the professionally-recorded CD, while still muddy in a few spots, is a vast progression for the group over their 2003 four-song EP1 release - hardly a catastrophe at all.
