The Ducky Boys - The War Back Home CD Review

Somewhere over the last decade the word “punk” has turned from a synonym for rebellion, a scene for do-it-yourself bands, and a sense of being underground into being synonymous with radio-friendly-ness (courtesy of that rat bastard subgenre pop-punk), churning out over produced tripe, and selling millions of records to scene kids. In that transition more kids suddenly knew about Fall Out Boy as opposed to Pennywise. What has happened to rootsy, dirty, tried-and-true punk rock since that disastrous scene shift? It went further underground, and in that underground you’ll see many classic acts still turning out stellar albums to smaller and smaller audiences (which is a crime if you ask me) but at least they haven’t disappeared altogether.

The Ducky Boys have a solid history of creating raspy, fun, and politically directed punk music. Sharing a very similar sound to Social Distortion, this is the type of stuff you won’t hear in modern “punk” circles. No, you have to hang out with the older kids and *gasp* some of us twentysomethings to find the people who still enjoy this type of integrity filled, authentically created music.

Truth be told The War Back Home is not going to revolutionize or revitalize the current stagnating bad haircut, girl pants wearing, pierced, and fakely depressed “punk” scene, but what it will do is give those listeners with actual taste a reason to keep trucking along instead of giving up on modern music altogether.

Everything you need to have a rollicking good time can be found within the 12 breezy tracks on this effort. There is the moderately paced, mid-tempo, straight up rocking first track. Throughout the middle of the disc you’ll hear a Dropkick Murphys inspired Boston punk anthem, plenty of bouncy & raucous tunes, the slowed down, yet edgy ballad, and more authentic, good natured attitude than almost any other band in whatever passes as popular in today's scene.

With all of that said, this release will probably still only be heard and experienced by a small circle of fans, which is a shame. I don’t think it matters how much a critic lauds a disc’s greatness, if it doesn’t get into the hands of new listeners, the system of critical analysis is failing its battle against the sheer force of marketing. Don't let hype win. Go with integrity. Go with The Ducky Boys.