The Clarks

by Stacia Proefrock
Since their formation in Pittsburgh in 1988, the Clarks have been grinding out country-influenced garage rock. Though guitarist/vocalist Scott Blasey, guitarist Rob Hertweck, bassist Greg Joseph, and drummer David Minarik built their early reputation on college campuses, their straight-ahead rock sound seemed equally compatible with commercial radio and barhalls across the rust belt. Their debut album, I'll Tell You What Man, produced a regional hit, "Help Me Out," and gained unusually strong radio play for a self-produced album. Subsequent releases -- The Clarks, Love Gone Sour Suspicion and Bad Debt (with Hertweck now going by Robert James), and The Clarks Live -- each doubled the sales that had been earned by the previous album and developed the Clarks from a Pittsburgh phenomenon into a band that had great regional appeal and a small national presence. That presence was solidified thanks to the band's move to major label MCA with 1997's Someday Maybe; however, the Clarks remained silent for three years afterward, even as their back catalog became available nationally through the King Mouse label. They finally returned in 2000 with Let It Go, their first album for Razor & Tie. The label kept them on the roster, and the following year they stepped back into the studio to work with producer Justin Niebank on Another Happy Ending, released in the summer of 2002.