The Marked Men “On the Other Side” 2018. Dirtnap Records. A punchy punky power-pop comp of all “non-LP tracks released by the Marked Men, originally released in the period between 2003 and 2010 on labels such as Dirtnap, Swami, No Idea, Shit Sandwich, and Mortville, plus 2 never-before-heard unreleased tracks” (“Disappear” and “Go Cry“). Dirtnap announced its 25th anniversary concert (festival?) scheduled for Labor Day weekend 2025 with 17 bands confirmed. I don’t think those have been revealed yet but I’m probably seeing Dirtnap Ken tomorrow night at our house so will try to get the inside scoop then. Maybe The Marked Men?? Possibly! They played at the (belated) 20th anniversary Dirtnap Fest in Madison in 2022 (video below, not mine).

According to the Bandcamp listing for On the Other Side “if there is/has been a “flagship band” for Dirtnap, Marked Men and their various offshoots are it. The band hasn’t released any new material since 2009 (the last album came out in 2008.), and they probably won’t, so this singles comp is as close to a new album as it’s going to get. Marked Men still plays a handful of shows every year, but has no plans to release any further new material.” My top picks on this comp are “Nothing’s Changed” from 2005 (on Shit Sandwich Records), the lightning fast punk’d out “Too Pretty to Fuck” and the mod-punk “Whip Myself” both from 2009 (on No Idea Records), the wicked-beated, power-chord crashing “Like Robots” from 2008 (Dirtnap) and “I Can’t Be Good” from 2003 (Mortville Records). We have several of the Marked Men’s releases (I’m pretty sure all on Dirtnap) but I think this comp might be my favorite in our collection of their material.