The Ducky Boys
Chemicals EP
“I ain’t ashamed to say, I’ve had a
pretty bad year.”
Jesus… Where was I on this one?
I guess 2012 is the year that The
Ducky Boys make up for the 6 year hiatus they took after The War Back
Home. After already releasing a comeback LP at the start of the year with
Chasing The Ghost, they dropped this four song EP back in May… and NOBODY TOLD
ME!!! Nice job, The Internet.
Anyways, I maintain that The Ducky
Boys have never put out a bad record. They have albums that I enjoy more than
others. But at their worst, I still couldn’t call this band anything less than
“solid.” There’s just something about Mark Lind’s raspy yet melodic voice and
their ability to write vaguely aggressive sounding working class punk anthems
that wins my heart every time. I mean, It’s not like the city of Boston is suffering
from some crazy shortage of working class punk bands, but I’d put The Ducky
Boys up against any just about any of them any day of the week.
So, what does this EP bring to the
table?
Chemicals offers up 4 more tracks
of polished, melodic punk rock. This band has been refining their sound for
years now, and have tightened up to the point that they are really not like any
other street punk band. I can’t think of any way to describe it other than mature. Which
is good because there are plenty of street punk bands that are basically
caricatures at this point. I’m thinking of The Casualties and other mohawked,
day glo tinted bands like that. Nuttin’ wrong with that, but I’m a grown ass
man, dawg.
I wanna give a special mention to
the last song on this thing. “Pretty Bad Year” is a classic rock n roll tinged
track with Lind on lead vocals. It features the kind of sing along type chorus
that I love and would, I think, kill in a live setting. Besides which, it’s a fine
example of the sort of introspective, beer swilling, blue-collar punk this band
does so well. It’s really good.
Honestly, the fact that this band
isn’t HUGE is a fucking travesty. With they way people jock bands like Gaslight
& Dropkicks, getting into The Ducky Boys should be a goddamn no-brainer.
But, selfishly, I guess I like the fact that this is a band that still feels
special and unspoiled by idiots to me. They describe themselves on the Bandcamp
page as “your second favorite Boston band.” It’s self-deprecating, but pretty
much true.
That being said, I don’t want to
wait another six years for another LP from these guys. To that end, everybody
needs to toss these guys the 4 bucks they’re selling this thing for.
Totally worth it.
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