Rocker Comes Screaming Back to O.C.

Mark Davis knows what it’s like to be a prophet without profit in one’s own land.

In 1995, he went deep in debt to finance “You Came Screaming,” a superb album of folk- and Beatles-influenced rock that eclipsed the Wallflowers and Counting Crows in melodic appeal, thematic depth and emotional force. The record industry didn’t see it that way, and the Orange County resident remained unsigned and virtually unheard.

The indignity of it all drove Davis to France, home of his philosophy-student girlfriend. He has spent most of 1997 in Brittany, playing bar gigs and putting out feelers toward French record labels.

“It’s nice. I can make a living off the music there,” said Davis, who is back for about a month to record a batch of new songs at the Orange studio of his friend and guitar accompanist, Matt Walin.

“I’ve been putting a band together over there, trying to get some sort of career-angled stuff going.” Davis thinks France may afford the record deal that has eluded him here. “I think it’s going to be easier there, because it’s not saturated with musicians.”

He says he has found steady work without making any big adjustments. “I’ve learned some Serge Gainsbourg songs, and [French audiences] appreciate it, but they’d prefer me to sing in English.”

Soon Davis will be back in Brittany, where he intends to stay until another visit home at Christmastime. His strategy is to try for another year to establish himself in the French market, while his Los Angeles-based manager takes the new batch of recordings to American labels in hopes of kindling an opportunity here.

Fans of the singer-songwriter genre can check out Brittany’s newest would-be hit-maker as he plays tonight and July 26 at one of his old haunts, the Ugly Mug Cafe, 261 N. Glassell St. in Orange. Davis plays solo-acoustic from 9 p.m. to midnight, with free admission. (714) 997-5610.

JACK OF ALL TRADES: While Davis does the expatriate minstrel thing, his buddy, Matt Walin, has been digging in at home, learning hard-won lessons in the difficulties of grass-roots music entrepreneurship.

Walin started Bitemark Records last year to put out “LostSoulSuckerPunch,” the Trent Reznor-meets-John Lennon debut album of his band Twin22.

The results: “It got added to 14 college radio stations and sold basically a handful of units, I’d say about 500,” Walin said.

Realizing such figures weren’t about to sustain a musical career, Walin has put his band on hold and devoted himself to building up Bitemark, where he serves as in-house business magnate, record producer and song doctor.

Plans call for four new releases on the label in coming months. Down By 4, an L.A. band that includes other members of Twin22, has just released its first album, “Social Lubrication.” Also on tap are records by Jhene Canody, a San Francisco singer Walin met while playing with Davis in the Bay Area; he describes her as “Jewel meets PJ Harvey.”

Also on the label are Strange in the Pocket, a Long Beach/Orange County band, and Venis, a “song-oriented techno band” in which Walin wrote and performed music for a Fullerton-based singer who goes by the name Venis. The other Bitemark artist, Kit Smith, released a sober-minded album of singer-songwriter material last year.

Walin, 28, says that making his label succeed won’t be easy. He figures each release needs a promotional budget of about $2,000 a month, meaning he would need to sell nearly 5,000 copies of each title to break even. While he figures out how to muster that much capital, Walin makes a narrow living renting out his studio and production services.

“I’m hoping these [Bitemark acts] are aces for me, and that hopefully one will break out and somewhat pull all the other records along,” Walin said. “None of us is doing punk and ska. I guess we’d be better off if one of us was, but it’s not what we’re doing. It’s a good bunch of people, no ego [problems], and so far, none of the negative part of the music industry [has surfaced]. Money is what keeps us limited, but at least what I’m doing is creative and helping other artists musically and with promotion. It’s really helped me focus on who I am, and what I want as an artist.”

SWEET TOOTH: Incense & Peppermints, the monthly rock soiree devoted to “pure pop/mod/ear candy,” has some choice bonbons lined up for its July 26 outing at Fitzgerald’s in Huntington Beach. The bill includes Lunar Rover, as good a rock band as Orange County has ever produced, with its powerful Television/Neil Young amalgam, and the Flavor, whose endearing debut album bore a British ‘80s smart-pop imprint a la the Jazz Butcher.

Also performing are PG-13, Weezer offshoot Chopper One, Charlotte’s Bionic Blimp, and Kristian Hoffman, who emerged on the New York City avant-garde and underground pop scenes and now records for the Fullerton-based eggBERT label. The club is at 19171 Magnolia Ave., starting time is 8 p.m. and the cover is $5. (714) 968-4523 (club phone) or (714) 903-1465 (promoter’s hotline).