Have You Been Drinking? is the third full-length from The Tosspints, a Celtic-punk band from Saginaw, Michigan, a struggling industrial city that the American dream long ago turned into a nightmare. The Tosspints are two brothers and a drummer, with brother Don a US Army combat veteran and brother Zack a union school teacher, the drummer is John. The music reminds me of the $wingin’ Utter$ but maybe a little more focused on the Celtic influences while the lyrics deal with the experiences of living in the rust belt – working class life, brotherhood, loyalty, the Union and the military and of course boozing and fighting. In all a very impressive release and the band to watch. Highlights include: Genocide is Painless, Your Name, Blood or Whiskey
A few weeks prior to the launch of The Lagan’s debut album, lead singer, Brendan O’Prey recounted the following conversation with his mother on Facebook…
Mum: “So, what is your album called?” (She already knew)
Brendan: “Where’s Your Messiah Now?”
Mum: “..and you’re releasing that during Holy Week are you?”
Religion: it sits at the heart of many of the songs and bands we love so well in this scene of ours. My own introduction came by way of Shane McGowan in The Sick Bed of Cuchulain;
“You dropped a button in the plate, and spewed up in the church”.
Religion, drink, the experience of the Irish exile, rebellion, violence and the lure of the sea…the music of Celtic punk has it all and so does the new album by The Lagan. Add all of these influences to a driving rhythm section, soaring fiddle, whistles, electric guitar, bass and ukulele and you’ve got Celtic Punk gold. What sets The Lagan apart from many bands of a similar ilk are their ability to support top notch musicianship with excellent vocal harmonies.
The album opens with its title track; a driving punk-sea shanty that rapidly becomes a conversation between the Devil and the sailor facing death upon the waves. Songs about the sea and religion are woven throughout the rest of the album. The Good Ship Lagan re-works the children’s classic “What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor?” turning it into a tale of battling pirates and the desperate need for a drink. The band continues to muse on religion in the more traditional sounding “Work Away”. Stan’s fiddle is given more room to play in this track and once again the band’s ability to harmonise lifts The Lagan above the shouty slurring that can often characterise Celtic punk. This fact is further evidenced in the bands cover of trad classic, the Fields of Athenry. What could easily have become a by-the-numbers cover is instead the poignant tale of loss, rebellion and exile that the song was meant to be. It is no accident that The Lagan’s version of Fields is played before every London Irish match.
A personal favourite of mine is the incredibly catchy “Same Shite Different Night”. A tale of drinking and dodging fists on the streets of their native Kingston, this is sing-along Celtic punk at its best; brashy, cocky and with a little bit of that ‘Last Gang in Town’ mentality that goes back to the early days of punk.
Go check out The Lagan live and definitely buy their debut album; worth ten quid of anyone’s money. This is a great debut and hopefully the start of a long and illustrious career. Any band who names an album after a Simpsons quote is worth a second look!
Seattle’s Meisce may have called it a day as of May but they have left us their swansong in the form of their 17 track final release “Spirits and Spectres” a collection of previously unreleased tracks and two tracks from the “Bored of the Dance “single from a while ago. Meisce play crusty folk punk mixing Celtic, Gypsy, and Klezmer and they do (did) it very well as evidenced on “Spirits and Spectres”. That said if the band had sent me a blank mangled c-60 cassette I’d still have given “Spirits and Spectres” high marks just for having a song titled “The Death of Michael Flatley” – feckin classic!
We’ll hang him from the highest tree
And break both of his fucking knees!
Drag the bastard through the rain
And kick him in the face again!
Great stuff indeed and a band that will be missed.
I always though Muirsheen Durkin went west to California to strike gold but it looks like he actually went east to Germany – maybe it was the fine Fraulein’s and the Furstenberg – picking up some mates to play the Irish pub(s) of Arnsberg. Like a lot of German bands playing Celtic-punk the tracks are almost entirely covers of traditions Irish standard (and a Skels cover!!!) given a Teutonic punk-rock kick up the ass – no complaints here as LAST ORDERS of full of energy and highly enjoyable.
Tom McSod is better known as front man for Indianan’s The Staggerers who put out the excellent Year of The Bastard a few years back (and some of you may remember Tom from the near legendary The Sods from the early days of the scene). Caution Wet Floor is described by Tom as “Janitor punk” which to me sounds like a lo-fi, growling Johnny Cash or Hank Williams gargling nails or even Tom Waits at his junk best – acoustic Americana. Its rawness drips of authenticity.
New York City based A Band of Rogues are a contemporary Irish American folk-rock group lead by the growling vocals of Sean McNally. The self titled A Band of Rogues is the Band of Rogues second full length and the songs are fast paced and very lively – sure to get the 8 to 80 year old set off their arses at Irish festivals up and down the East Coast circuit. The lyrical material while dreaming if the idyllic life on the Ol’ Sod doesn’t pull any punches with the reality of Ireland on Can’t Eat The Scenery and Christy Moore’s Ordinary Man
Vancouver’s Pat Chessell follows up on last years “Live & Lusty” with a collection of standards and originals. The covers included a great version of Brennan On The Moore as well as Steve Earle’s modern Irish classic – Galway Girl – which in now a wedding standard at every Irish wedding from Mizen Head to Bloody Foreland. Eric Bogel’s “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” is well done and believable though Shane MacGowan still owns this one. MacGowan’s “The Dunes” is also covered. MacGowan wrote Dunes about the Irish Famine for Ronnie Drew and when Ronnie “sang’ The Dunes you could believe Ronnie had witnessed the destruction of the famine and the aftermath – this is a tough one to cover for anyone.
On top of the covers Pat has included some originals which is a brave move when your covering some of the finest contemporary songwriters of the last 30 years. Pat does a fine job of meeting these standards though interestingly enough I would reference Johnny Cash as the influence on two of Pats original material and it’s not a stretch to imagine Johnny performing these. The third, Drunk In Exile, was released previously as a single and is much more party Irish folk reminiscent for fellow Vancouver based The Town Pants. Nice job.
21st Century Loser is the 3rd full length release from Swedish-Irish Celtic-punk band SIR REG. And as with the prior two releases from Sir Reg, 21st Century Loser is 12 tracks of first class, balls to the wall Celtic-punk. Dublin born Brendan Sheehy fronts the band and his singing voice is more than a little similar to fellow Dub, Dave King of Flogging Molly. What sets SIR REG apart from the Celtpunk masses is the authenticity of the subject matter of the bands lyrics that deal with the current state of the Irish economy and the greed of the Celtic Tiger era that caused the implosion of the country and the band don’t pull any punches as to who’ fault it is for the whole bag’o’shite.
I’ve said this before have experience putting together compilation albums – it’s not easy. It isn’t a job of slapping a few ol’ track on a disk and pressing. The music and the tracks have to flow and complement each other, so hats off to Black 47’s Larry Kirwan for a fine job. The idea of this compilation is to showcase various bands that Larry has featured on his Celtic Crush show on Sirius XM radio. The comp has a nice mix of Celtic tinged acts – most more radio friendly then the stuff we do at Shite’n’Onions. We have some big mainstream names like Hothouse Flowers, Runrig and The Waterboys with a phenomenal live version of “Savage Earth”. There is Black 47 themselves with Uncle Jim, Shite’n’Onions fav’s Blaggards (no The) with an almost metal version of “The Irish Rover” and a classic blast from the past in Pat McGuire’s, “You’re So Beautiful”. The rest of the album is given to showcase some fine less established banks like Barleyjuice, Celtic Cross, Peatbog Faeries, Garrahan’s Ghost’s and Shilelagh Law.
Across The Border, from the Karlsruhe area of Germany are one of Celtic-punks longest running groups releasing at least seven albums and E.P.s. I believe the band’s history goes back to 1991 which puts them into the same vintage bracket as The Mahones and Black 47 though unlike these two acts, FOLKPUNK AIRRAID, is the first album I’ve really heard from this band. What I’m hearing is energetic Celtic-folk-punk reminiscent of fellow Germans, FIDDLERS GREEN, and strong influences by THE POGUES and THE CLASH (obviously). Every track on FOLKPUNK AIRRAID is a winner but I need to highlight, AWAY, a tribute to THE CLASH, the full throttle, MARRY ME OR BURY ME and the BLACK 47 sounding, WHAT IF MEN. My big reservation is the vocals that just don’t do it for me – I can’t put my finger on it, maybe the accent but then again after 20 years together I’m sure they don’t give a shite if I like the vocals or not.
Shite'n'Onions 