Discography

The MayTricks - The MayTricks (Tenacious 001), 1992:
          This is the album that defined the MayTricks aesthetic of every song sounding like a different band.  These 16 songs (over an hour of music) were recorded with a variety of formats and line-ups (all on 4-track, but painstakingly mixed, mastered, and remastered for a warm, clear if not exactly industry-standard sound) in styles ranging from psychedelic to folk to metal.  One reviewer (Jam Rag, 1993) described it as "sort of like Public Image Limited playing in as pit orchestra for a musical, but not."  A very textured, "English"-sounding album.  Now available on CD with two bonus tracks, the so-called "Post-Mortem Double-Single," recorded by The MayTricks during a brief reunion in the summer of 1995.

The MayTricks - So Chewy (Tenacious 002), 1993: 
           While the MayTricks first album acted as sort of a songwriter showcase, this point of So Chewy is to display the band's prowess as a live act.  While not recorded strictly live (vocals, solos, and effects were overdubbed), these are the songs (well, 17 of them) that gave The MayTricks their reputation as Ann Arbor's best-loved unknown band.  The style is similarly varied, but with more emphasis on energy and less on texture, a more "American"-sounding album, to continue the anology.  Now available on CD. See the cover art.

Mark Linsenmayer - Spanish Armada: Songs of Love and Related Neuroses (Tenacious 003), 1993:
          Mark and his classical guitar, trying to lay out passion in all its ambiguities and subtleties, pounding and howling one minute, gently singing you to sleep the next.  Some songs just don't need a band.  This album is also 17 songs, clocking in at over an hour, chock full of some of Mark's best lyrics and most personal gestures.  This is presently being entirely remixed/remastered for CD; will be ready within the year. Available now on cassette.

The MayTricks - Happy Songs Will Bring You Down, Vol. 1 (Tenacious 004-1), 1994:
The MayTricks - Happy Songs Will Bring You Down, Vol. 2 (Tenacious 004-2), 1994:
          The trippiest, most strangely appealing, heftiest MayTricks batch of songs yet.  These two albums are each nearly an hour long with 28 and 17 songs respectively.  The depths of despair here are low low low, and the bursts of energy are on par with the brightest tracks of So Chewy.  Volume one sets a new standard in MayTricks songwriting, with great, often funny lyrics and lush instrumental textures.  Volume two is generally darker and more experimental.  This is the kind of music that rips at your subconscious and envelopes you in those brief moments that mark the barriers between sleep and waking.  Now available as a double CD.

Fingers - Fingers (Tenacious 005), 1994:
          This is a collection of recordings lifted from the Happy Songs albums released by the remaining MayTricks after Mark left for Texas to promote their new band.  If you're not sure whether you want to commit to the Happy Songs two hour extravaganza, this is a good way to check out most hi-fi of the material not written by Mark.  Not available for purchase here; go bug Steve Petrinko.

The Fake Johnson Trio EP (Tenacious 006), 1995:
          Six songs recorded in an actual professional studio, outlining the strategy for Mark's Austin career in power pop/alternative rock.  The sound is very raw, with Mark's classical guitar fed through heavy distortion, and the perfomances extremely caffeinated.  This is presently available on cassette, and will probably appear on CD within the year as part of a collection of Mark's demo material from Austin.  If you buy the Mark Lint and the Fake Johnson Trio CD, you can get this cassette for only an additional $2.50.

The New and Improved Fake Johnson Trio EP (Tenacious 007), 1996:
          Six songs home recorded to shiny 8-track digital tape by the line-up that played the majority of FJT's live shows in Texas, featuring Mark plus three members of the Ann Arbor group Violet Wine, all of whom moved down to Texas via a tour with Mark.  Some of these recordings were lifted and adapted for the Mark Lint and the Fake Johnson Trio album; all of the songs here appear on that album in one form or another.  This EP is presently only available on cassette. The versions not present on the Mark Lint and the Fake Johnson Trio album will appear on the upcoming CD collecting Mark's Austin demos if and when that materializes.

Mark Lint - Black Jelly Beans and Smokes (Tenacious 008), 1997:
          This collection of 22 tracks (over an hour of material) was culled from the MayTricks era, with a few extra songs recorded with the same impulsive 4-track aesthetic in 1997.  About a third of the songs fall into the category of "Spoo," a term used to label recordings conceived and executed in a very short period of time (usually less than an hour) just to be silly.  Other tunes were just too strange to be realized by The MayTricks (which is saying a lot, given how weird MayTricks recordings can get) or were comic collaborations with (not necessarily musician) friends.  This is by far the funniest of Mark's recordings, but is not solely a comedy album; it aims to deliver a platefull of emotional detritus, the urges that are too dark or embarassing or just weird for us to normally bring them to light.  Available only on CD.

Mark Lint and the Fake Johnson Trio (Tenacious 009), 1998:
          This is it, Mark's first "mature" album, 15 songs painstakingly home recorded with great musicians and nice equipment over a period of three years.  These are the strongest, most accessible songs Mark has written to date: definitely the appropriate album to pick up if you're not familiar with his other material.  You WILL like these songs; they will stick in your head without annoying the crap out of you.  Available only on CD. See the cover art.

Mark Lint and the Fake - So Whaddaya Think (Tenacious 010), 2000:
          Live instrumental tracks for this 18-song album were recorded April-August, '99, with vocals, keyboards, horns, et al. recorded into the summer of 2000. For various reasons, the took until November 2002 to finish mixing and packaging, but it's done now, and sounds pretty damn great. You can hear the whole thing here. The goal of this album was to match the songwriting quality of Mark Lint and the Fake Johnson Trio while emphasizing the funk, swing, blues, country, and Latin influences that were for the most part left off of that project.

New People - The Easy Thing (Tenacious 013), 2009:
          13 songs of loud rock goodness, with no acoustic guitars on the thing and lots of two-part vocals, including trading off between lead singer/songwriters every other song. We went into Paradyme Studios in Madison to do all the mixing and mastering, and to freshly record the first two songs on it, so it's by far the slickest-sounding thing on this page. Buy it here.

Mark Lint - The History of Lint (Tenacious 206), 2003:
          A 23-song collection of Mark's music spanning all of the albums listed here up through 2003, including recent work not yet housed on a full album. This is a deep, long look into a long, strange trip.

In-Progress Projects Planned for Eventual Release:
In most cases, completed tracks from these are on the music samples page.
        Mark Lint - Madison Lint: Instrumental tracks for a full album were laid down from 2001-2004 featuring a variety of line-ups, but some overdubs and mixing are still required. Apart from newer material, this is the #1 priority for finishing, which is not to say it'll happen soon.
        Mark Lint and the Simulacra - The Sinking and the Aftermath:  In the second half of '99 or so, Mark's wrote a whole new batch of songs about failure, depression, suicidal thoughts, rationalization, and recovery. Some straight-up rock, some relaxing atmospherics... perhaps the most accessible album Mark's done yet. This album was largely recorded in the first half of 2000 as an excuse to work with some great Austin musicians before Mark split town. Most of what still needs recording to date are Mark's own parts.
          Mark Lint - Tentative Title: The Cheese Stands Alone.  This will be considerably less mature. Or shall I say "mature?" About six recordings for this were completed in 1998 or so, with Mark playing all the instruments. During the second half of 2000, Trent Sinclair, Mark's first drummer in Madison, was good enough to record parts for about six more. The rest of the songs are all planned out, with the idea being to pick up a lot of the tunes that didn't fit the style of Mark's recent bands, be they ballads or pleasantly fluffy pop songs or dark, strange twisty things with little nasty teeth. .
          Mark Lint et al - Tentative Title: Languishing in Austin 1995-1998.  This will be a repackaging of the Fake Johnson Trio EP, some tracks from the New and Improve Fake Johnson Trio EP, some tracks from the concert from which the Fake Johnson Trio Live Demo was culled, the Mark Lint and the Fake '97 demo, some tracks from the live show from which the Mark Lint and the Fake '98 demo was culled, and the Mark Lint track previously released on the Talk Zack Talk Wound EP. The total will come to over 20 tracks, so it'll be worth purchasing even though most of these will be alternate versions of songs already available on other albums. This has already been compiled, but not yet packaged or remastered.
          The Best of the MayTricks:  A compilation of The MayTricks' most professional-sounding material will at some point be released, including unreleased recordings from the original MayTricks demo and off of the unfinished Fingers album, i.e. the digital recordings made by the MayTricks without Mark in the summer of '95, with new parts added at Mark's urging in subsequent years.
          The MayTricks - Tentative Title: Dark Tapes, 1991-1995.  This will also be a collection of rereleases and live material. The track listing is unclear at this point; potential inclusions are the original 1991 MayTricks demo (with a keyboardist and a guitarist who plays like David Gilmour), some live material from each of the four major line-ups, the 1995 Post-Mortem Double-Single, some unfinished (or finished in 2001) outtakes from the Happy Songs sessions, and the notorious 1991 three-song live session by Pakistan, an imaginary garage band featuring three MayTricks each playing the instruments they know least how to play and ranting amusing improvised lyrics.

Other Recordings Involving Mark:

          The Drunken Reggae Fucks - DRF.  This is a collection of humorous, incredibly low fidelity little songs by U. of Michigan East Quad dorm buddies Mike Wilson and Lee Ranieri recorded in 1991 or so.  Mark sang two songs on this and co-wrote one.  It is extremely out of print, but no more out of print than it has ever been before, as its means of distribution is by piracy only.
          Geoff Esty - Untitled?  From 1993-1994 MayTricks genius-guitarist Geoff borrowed a lot of Mark's recording equipment and recorded a bunch of bizarre, colorful songs that represented the culmination of nearly 20 years of bizarre, colorful songwriting (i.e. his earliest recordings that I've heard are from age 10 and he was 28 or 29 at the time).  Mark sang on a couple of these.  While this did undergo some limited release when it was finished, I don't know that he's producing more copies now.  However, if enough of you get interested in his MayTricks contributions to want to hear more, we're sure that Geoff could be persuaded pour out at least some cassette copies for your enjoyment.
          The Gargoyle Audio Product.  The staff of the Gargoyle (which included the DRF guys plus Steve Levinson, Sean Rhyee, and others), the student humor magazine at the University of Michigan, comprised from '91 to '93 the core of the most devoted MayTricks fans.  The MayTricks were their unofficial offical band.  Mark participated in putting together this compilation of 4-track recordings, which included one song of mine from Black Jelly Beans and participating in some sessions where Mark co-wrote and co-sang such standards as "My arm... feels like a leg."
          Violet Wine - Bitter Demos.  This was the second, cassette-only release from the band whose members subsequently all joined The Fake Johnson Trio.  Mark sang back-up on "Say Goodbye, Go Away," a song that later occurred frequently in the live set for the first FJT line-up involving these guys.
          Todd Love - Todd Love.  Mark engineered and played half the instruments on the seven song debut EP by an Austin singer with a smooth voice and an 80's atmosphere-guitar-rock aesthetic a la U2, Bryan Ferry, or Echo and the Bunnymen.  This was never released in any substantial form.
          Kevin Christopher - Tracks, Hills, and Skyways.  Mark engineered, played bass, banged some percussion, and sang some back-up vocals on this 16-song southern-folk-rock album.  This is definitely still in print (in fairly wide release) and has gotten some airplay on Austin radio.
          Talk Zack Talk - Wound EP.  Mark sang and played one of my otherwise unreleased songs "Undershirt," on this CD of songs produced and mostly performed/written by my friend and x-FJT keyboardist Jeff Rosenberg, one of the minds behind Violet Wine.  It is presently in limited release from Jeff.