The Pubcrawlers, for those whose don’t know, is a ten-headed, sonic hydra belching out briny pub-shanties with infectious enthusiasm and a loaded arsenal at their disposal.

This beast is fronted by a salty-voiced pirate of a vocalist whose spleenful barking resembles something closer to enraged spoken-word poetry than actually singing, for a result perfectly befitting the nautically-themed songs on this, the band’s second full-length CD.

One Too Many Again is a 13-track collection of Celtic folk-punk songs/tunes with a strong pirate-sounding influence, (including a paean to The American Hockey League team out of Maine, The Portland Pirates!) on a large and varied collection of instruments including bagpipes, accordion, drums, fiddle, mandolin, guitars, banjo, bass, and tin whistle.

The high-impact, energetic assortment of songs and tunes extolls the virtues and pitfalls of the bottle, Lady Luck and that ficklest of mistresses, the sea. And although the entire release moves along at a pretty good clip with no real ballads, the band does include a guttural, yet particularly emotional version of ‘Back Home In Derry.’

The ‘Crawlers may enter the fray with one metric sh*tload of traditional instruments, (everything shy of the Tibetan anus flute!), but, to their credit, they don’t try to stuff all of their sounds in together for every minute, but instead create a rich, multi-layered sound of convincing sea ditties, mug-swingers and fist-pumpers.

So if you like your buckles swashed, your sea-dogs scurvy and your Celtic folk-punk with the sting of sea-spray, you may want to get yer hooks into this release.

2008

Review by Christopher Toler, THE Blathering Gommel