Though the members of the band regularly played live shows together in the decade that followed,
the Marked Men
stopped recording new music after 2010. It's not exactly a tragedy since the band's two songwriters and singers,
Mark Ryan
and
Jeff Burke
, continued to make music with bands (
Radioactivity
Lost Balloons
for
Burke
,
Mind Spiders
Ryan
) that carried on
the Men
's timeless garage punk with snappy melodies and sound. Bassist
Joe Ayoub
also carried on with the like-minded
Low Culture
and drummer
Mike Throneberry
was in
, too. Putting that aside,
On the Other Side
is a collection of the group's singles released between 2003 and 2010 for labels like
Dirtnap
Swami
No Idea
, and
Shit Sandwich
along with two previously unreleased songs. The 16 songs serve as a reminder of how great
were and also show that their sound hasn't aged at all.
's songwriting is hooky and insistent, the band plays as if being chased by wild dogs, and the sound is rough and ready. Listing highlights from the set would basically just be listing everything, but there are a few moments when
hit an extra gear that shoots them so far past the competition they can't be seen anymore. "Lost It All" and "Oh My Pretty Face," two songs that shared a 2009 single, are like punk bombs that detonate in a cloud of rousing choruses and spiked riffs; "Wait Here, Wait for You" leans just a touch toward the pop side of punk-pop and sports a hook big enough to land a shark; "The Other Side" shows that
weren't just crazed rockers, and could reel off a heartbreaking ballad that
Johnny Thunders
would be proud to call his. The two unreleased tracks, "Disappear" and "Go Cry," aren't major discoveries, but they are ripping rockers that add a little more fire to the set. Not that it needed it. This is music made from the basic building blocks of rock & roll, then set ablaze by four guys who really knew how to do things right. It's a shame that
may never record again, but if they don't, this will work as a fitting epitaph to one of the greatest garage bands to knock the stuffing out of three chords. ~ Tim Sendra