Customer Reviews

Death Or Jail

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This is Mark Lind's debut solo recording, but he's the main man behind The Ducky Boys and Dirty Water and also teamed up with his brother Rob (Of Blood For Blood notoriety) for a great project called Sinners & Saints, so he's no newcomer. Through all of those bands I've been listening to Mark's writing grow and he just keeps getting better. There has definitely been a change over the years from the Doo-Wop inspired Street Punk of the early Ducky Boys sound all the way up to his more polished Springsteen meets Replacements sound that this record brings us. As might be expected from a solo record, Death Or Jail definitely strikes a more personal chord with the lyrics. Maybe for that exact reason Mark gives a brief note after the lyrics of each song about what was going on when it was written or an explanation of what he's really getting at with the song, which I enjoyed greatly.

Standout tracks for me are The Lonely People with it's great organ sound, and Times Forgotten and Damageproof, both of which have lyrics that really hit home for me. That by no means should be taken to imply that there are any throwaway tracks on this thing, because these are definitely some of Lind's best songs to my ear. There is an interesting cover of The Replacements' Sadly Beautiful, which manages to both remind the listener of the original and still sound like it could easily be a Mark Lind song at the same time. He does get a little songwriting help on a couple of songs from his long time collaborator Jason Messina, but this is clearly Mark Lind's effort and he did a great job.

Sailor's Grave Records, the new imprint from the Thorp Records people, did a great job here as with all of their releases so far. The artwork is top notch, the booklet is packed full of lyrics and the notes I mentioned earlier, and the quality of the CD itself is great. Sailor's Grave also released the Ducky Boys latest album simultaneously with this and I have to admit that I ordered both the day they were available. Both CDs are great, but I find myself drawn more to this than The War Back Home (the Ducky Boys record), although as implied earlier, I have been a fan of them since their first release about ten years ago.

I can't imagine anyone who really likes honest Rock And Roll having anything bad to say about this release, it's well worth whatever price is being charged wherever you can find it. This record would be in constant rotation if only the airwaves were run by people who love real music instead of money hungry record labels who push the latest trends and underdressed teenage girls.