maybe you should drive press kit

”Our last album had an outsider’s point of view, looking in on fame. This time, it’s
                         pretty much the other way around.” So says Ed Robertson on the stunning, slightly
                         surreal, creative and commercial success he shares with the other members of
                         Barenaked Ladies.
                         ”We were singing about pop culture and how it affects our everyday lives,” continues
                         Steven Page, the band’s other founding member. ”Now we know.”
                         In a musical world where words like ’eclectic,’ ’intelligent’ and ’uncompromising’
                         usually consign one to perpetual cult status, the amazing popularity of the Toronto-
                         based quintet is indeed a little surreal.
                         The multi-platinum Canadian album sales, multi-format radio hits and multitude of
                         concert-goers, on the other hand, are all very real. The history-making critical and
                         popular acclaim that greeted Barenaked Ladies’ Sire Records’ debut album Gordon
                         took them neatly out of the ’alternative’ column and into the realm of major musical
                         innovators. Far and away the most original arrival in recent memory, Barenaked
                         Ladies have found a widespread audience and surprised the skeptics. Here’s a band
                         with personality, potent songwriting, a point of view...and popularity.
                         Now with the release of Barenaked Ladies’ adept, amusing and adventurous new
                         album, Maybe You Should Drive, they have taken their success story one dazzling
                         step further. Defying the sophomore jinx, Barenaked Ladies – Page and Robertson,
                         along with Tyler Stewart and the Creeggan brothers, Jim and Andrew – have
                         delivered a dozen songs every bit as innovative and engaging as the hit-laden tune
                         stack of Gordon.
                         With k.d. lang stalwart Ben Mink at the production helm, Maybe You Should Drive
                         highlights the band’s knowing new single and video ”Jane,” along with originals
                         written, separately and together, by Robertson and Page (who also worked with
                         English songwriter Stephen Duffy). The result is an album that deftly captures the
                         heightened reality revolving around this unique collection of creative co- conspirators.
                         Barenaked Ladies’ extraordinary appeal was evident almost from the very beginning,
                         back in 1988 on the burgeoning Toronto alternative music scene. With a stylistic
                         blend that was more than the sum of their diverse influences, the group toured
                         extensively, even exhaustively, throughout Canada and England, steadily building an
                         enthusiastic fan base. The 1990 release of their independent EP signaled the group’s
                         popular potential with a certified Top 40 hit single, ”Be My Yoko Ono,” and sales
                         that made history as the EP became the first independent release in Canadian history
                         to go gold. A year later they landed honors at the CASBY awards (the ”People’s
                         Choice” of Canada) and signed a major label deal with Sire Records.
                         What followed is a matter of more music history, and history-making music. Gordon
                         would reach platinum status in just over a week, going on to top octuple platinum
                         sales in Canada. It would remain at number one on the album charts for eight
                         consecutive weeks in 1992 and in the Top 10 listings for over ten months.
                         By the end of 1993, Gordon had yielded no less than four utterly distinctive hit
                         singles – ”Enid,” ”Brian Wilson,” ”What A Good Boy” and ”If I Had $1000000” –
                         and earned Barenaked Ladies Group Of The Year honors at the Juno Awards
                         (Canada’s Grammys).
                         The acclaim accompanying the groundbreaking album soon spread beyond Canadian
                         shores. The UK was quick to embrace the band’s wit, warmth and razor- sharp
                         craft, making Gordon a certified transatlantic phenomenon.
                         Meanwhile, in the wide open spaces of America, Barenaked Ladies were building
                         bridges to the sort of discerning audiences they were enjoying in their home country.
                         First to get on the bandwagon were the critics, whose enthusiastic embrace of the
                         band was an early indication of their border-breaching reach.
                         ”It’s not easy being hyperactive, brooding and whimsical all at once,” wrote Jon
                         Pareles in The New York Times. ”But the Barenaked Ladies do just that, balancing
                         breezy melodies with unsentimental songwriting.” ”A winning blend of the humorous
                         and the serious filled with delightful surprises,” is how Paul Freeman of The
                         Washington Times put it, while The Los Angeles Times’ Mike Boehm called
                         attention to the band’s ”blend of solid musicianship, sharp harmonies, offbeat humor
                         full of allusions to pop music figures and wistful songs about the emotional upheavals
                         of post-adolescence.”
                         The glowing reviews continued but the band hardly had time to notice. The release of
                         Gordon prompted a crowded concert itinerary that took Barenaked Ladies back
                         and forth across Canada, the U.S. and the UK for eighteen months. Dubbed Mr.
                         Rockin’s All-You-Can-Eat Salad Bar Tour, the group’s schedule took them to over
                         seventy concerts during the winter and spring of 1993 on its Canadian leg alone.
                         Club dates in the U.S. alternated with consistently sold out halls north of the border
                         and, at each stop, the group’s reputation for engaging, high-energy performances
                         preceded them. ”Our concerts are a key component of what we do,” explains Ed
                         Robertson. ”We’re geared to giving people a good time. We approach it as an on-
                         going conversation with our audience.”
                         That conversation could be heard coast to coast, from a one-hour concert special for
                         Canada’s Muchmusic Network to a recent appearance at the twenty-fifth
                         anniversary of New York’s The Bottom Line.
                         Stumbling off the road earlier this year, the group took a well-deserved four-month
                         break, during which time Page and Robertson began assembling the material for a
                         follow-up to Gordon. ”We were so gratified from the success of the album and our
                         touring,” explains Robertson. ”It was a total vote of confidence for following our
                         musical instincts.”
                         ”There was a very natural progression from the last album to the new songs we were
                         writing,” adds Page. ”Having achieved so much of what we wanted to do, we had
                         the freedom to explore some more personal aspects to our music. I don’t like the
                         word ’maturity,’ but there’s no doubt that as a band we’ve been through a lot of
                         changes in the past two years.”
                         Changes have a way of multiplying and, as the band prepared to return to the studio,
                         they sought out a new producer who could capture the band’s growth without losing
                         the fundamentals of their creative chemistry. They found him in Ben Mink, the man
                         behind the boards for some of k.d. lang’s biggest hits. ”Ben had the virtue of a lot of
                         experience,” explains Robertson, ”and the flexibility to adjust to the band. We went
                         in trying to allow for surprises.”
                         Which, not surprisingly, is exactly what they got. When recording began early this
                         spring at Vancouver’s Armory and Greenhouse Studios, the group had a list of
                         twenty-one songs to choose from. ”All five of us made a list of our 12 favorites,”
                         explains Page. ”When we compared them, there were only three songs that made all
                         five.”
                         The process of sorting and sifting resulted in a final tune stack that explores a whole
                         new dimension of Barenaked reality. Along with a healthy dollop of inspired humor –
                         ”we enjoy making each other laugh” is how Page explains it – the music of Maybe
                         You Should Drive bristles with all manner of honest, insightful and, yes, adult themes.
                         ”In many ways, we’re the same band we always were,” concludes Page. ”In other
                         ways, we’ll never be the same again.” With the release of Maybe You Should Drive,
                         modern music may never be the same again, either.