Mark Lint on the Web

Idiosyncratic, classical guitar-playing, melodic-wailing, damn good tunes.

My most recent recordings/news/gigs are on the New People page.

To hear lots and lots of audio, check out the samples directory.

For info on recordings, look at a Mark's full discography.

Ruminate upon a random lyric.

Get on the mailing list and then tell a friend about this site!

Care for Some History?

Mark Lint, aka Linsenmayer, was born 8/4/71 in a suburb of Chicago. His father, Robert Linsenmayer (aka Lindsay), had been a folk singer in California in the 50's playing alongside the likes of the Kingston Trio, The Smothers Brothers, and Pat Paulsen. Both his parents listened to a lot of classical and elevator music around the house. From these folks, Mark inherited a love of classical guitar and a lot of irritating elevator-music melodies permanently etched into his brain. Unlike his father, Mark tends to express his love for the classical guitar by beating the crap out of it in an aggressive punked out style. By 15, he had written his first couple tunes which sported lyrics like "Girl from the Bayou, I really want you, and I still love you; oh, why do you leave me" despite his having never even kissed a girl and thinking that the Bayou was in Africa.

Many years passed, and many tunes piled up, most of which are available for purchase. First, there was The Backdrop, Mark's amateur high school endeavor. Next, Mark spent his four years of college in The MayTricks, an eclectic, psychedelic outfit from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Throughout all this, he was working up his solo act. In 1994, Mark moved to Austin TX for philosophy graduate school and created The Fake Johnson Trio (FJT), his attempt at distorted power pop. Mark's first well produced album (released in 1998) captured this experience, entitled Mark Lint & the Fake Johnson Trio.

In the fall of '97, Mark changed the name of the band to Mark Lint and the Fake, with a new sound to incorporate his Austin surroundings and take advantage of both his eclectic songwriting and his excellent new musical cohorts, with slick country-blues slide guitar lines and funky grooves. Rather than repress the goofy elevator-music-inspired tin pan alley melodies and the movie-soundtrack Latin jams that flow from Mark's guitar, the Fake embraced these shimmy beyond the bounds of straight-ahead rock. The result is accessible but unique, with more of an emphasis on grooves and on vocal harmonies, even while keeping to strict ethic of solid tunes and powerful, if sometimes enigmatic, lyrics. The final recorded product, So Whaddaya Think? was all recorded in 1999, but the mixing process dragged on until 2002.

Mark moved to Madison, WI in June, 2000. In the months leading up to that time, as the Fake stopped gigging and Mark waited around to become a dad and left Texas, Mark did the bulk of a recording-only project called The Sinking and the Aftermath under the name Mark Lint and the Simulacra with hyper-artistic guitarist Mark Doroba several local drummers. This featured lyrics that are honest to the point of subconscious (i.e. generally impulsive, occasionally embarassing) and music that is direct (i.e. mostly kind of poppy, sometimes angry, sometimes poignant). The full album has yet to be released, though songs have trickled out over the years since.

Through 2000-2001 Mark bult up his most powerful, versatile, professional-sounding unit yet, Madison Lint, which transplanted the Fake's ecelcticism to replace the country elements with with Chicago blues and R&B. The band made a nice initial splash, had some lineup changes, and fizzled out in May of 2004, with the last scheduled gig (for a very large motorcycling enthusiast gathering) getting rained out. Both the lead guitarist (the only other member consistent from gig-to-gig at this point) and the band's booking agent quit the music business entirely. Yet another partially competed album sits awaiting eventual completion, with several pieces of it released in EP form and on the web.

Burned out, Mark then took a two year break from playing shows with only occasional recording activity. In 2006, after finally escaping a soul-crushing five-year employment situation, Mark joined up with another singer/songwriter, Matt Ackerman, to form New People, intended as a really fun, direct rock outlet with little-to-no eclectic funny business. New People is currently mixing its first album and will be playing more shows in spring, 2008.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for any support you are now or have given to non-corporate, decent amateur music.

Check out the master index of sites by or about Mark.

Take the tour of Mark's fabulous guilt trip.

If you'd like to book the band, get ordering info, become our sugar daddy and/or sugar mommy, or just tell someone how much you LOVE this site and Mark's music and the whole stinking world, e-mail mark at mark@marklint.com.

Special thanks to Brian Casey and rootlevelservices for providing so much web space for my music over the last 10 years or so.

Mark's Band Lineup, December, 2005