Mark Mallman

Emerging from Milwaukee roots but long based in Minneapolis, singer/songwriter Mark Mallman first surfaced in the late 1990s fronting the trashy glam outfit the Odd, after earlier stints alongside future Promise Ring frontman Davey VonBohlen. The band dissolved almost immediately, prompting Mallman to pivot directly into solo work. His debut album The Tourist appeared in 1998, the same year VonBohlen’s side project Vermont cut Mallman’s composition “We Only Have Each Other in the Night” for a split 7-inch. On December 10, 1999, Mallman drew attention by staging his endurance piece “Marathon,” a nonstop performance lasting 26 hours that enlisted 28 rotating musicians and 312 pages of lyrics.

The follow-up, How I Lost My Life and Lived to Tell About It, arrived in 2000 and included cameos from Kat Bjelland of Babes in Toyland, Polara’s Ed Ackerson, and VonBohlen. A third record, the collaborative Mark Mallman & Vermont, surfaced the next year. Produced by Radiohead veteran Paul Q. Kolderie, his fourth LP The Red Bedroom reached stores in spring 2002. Two 2003 projects—the EP Who’s Gonna Save You Now? and the concert document Live from First Avenue, Minneapolis—preceded Mr. Serious, Mallman’s first self-produced effort and his debut release on Badman. Between the Devil and Middle C followed in 2006. Two years later Night Shot appeared under the Ruby Isle moniker, a project uniting Mallman with Kindercore Records co-founder Dan Geller and drummer Aaron LeMay. Solo releases resumed with 2009’s Invincible Criminal and 2012’s Double Silhouette.