Review

Sir Reg: A Sign Of The Times

Leave a comment

October 25, 2011

I’m not sure if the FLOGGING MOLLY comparison are starting to bug the folks at SIR REG, but truth be said, A SIGN OF THE TIMES, sounds more like FLOGGING MOLLY then FLOGGING MOLLY does these days. Dubliner, Brendan Sheehy’s accent, vocals and pitch sound so like fellow Dubliner, Dave King, that it’s scary and the rest of SIR REG can knock out a racked as good as anything Flogging Molly has done – fast, trashy, jig punk and all done with a drunken smile on their collective faces. Compared to the very fine, FECK THE CELIC TIGER, Sir Reg’s last album that we just reviewed here on the hollowed html of Shite’n’Onions, it’s a even a step up on that, the band are tighter and the songs more finely crafted. Highly recommended.

Review

Sir Reg: Sir Reg

Leave a comment

October 18, 2011

Sir Reg is a new one to me. Heard the name float about a bit, John Bowles @ Paddyrock gave them a best of 2010 for their debut Sir Reg . I know they are Swedish. The band sent me on a copy of Feck a little while back. The title was the first thing that impressed me – it pretty much sums up the Irish attitude to life these days – pretty good observation from Swede’s.

I give the album a 1st listen to on the train home from work – as expect on an initial listen good Euro-Celtic punk, I get distracted and fade out of the music, the music wasn’t having any of my distraction and soon I thinking WOW the new Flogging Molly sounds really good, a real return to form – then reality hits me like a can of Red Bull bouncing off my head – I’m not listening to Flogging Molly but some Swedish crowd and bhoy can the singer ape Dave Kings vocals and accent – crap he sounds like he came kicking and screaming into life at the Rotunda Hospital at the top of Dublin’s O’Connell street. A little research later and I discover the singer has a good Irish name – Brendan Sheey – and did come kicking and screaming into the world in either the Rotunda or The Coombe or one of the other maternity hospitals in Dublin. Easily the find of the year, even if we are a year late. Good news is that a new album is out soon – A Sign Of The Times – and I already have an advance copy!!!!

Review

The Pokes: High Hopes

Leave a comment

October 10, 2011

Germany’s THE POKES (just to keep the recent German theme going) are one of those bands that year-over-year, release-over-release are consistently good, and High Hopes their 3rd release doesn’t disappoint. The Pokes name and main folk influence come from Polka and The Polks proudly play Punk’n’Polka – think of THE CLASH at Octoberfest with the The Pogues serving up good German beers (though The Pokes are NOT trying to be Irish just Polka with the attitude). Lots of good sing/shout along stuff, gruff vocals (mostly in English) and a tight, tight band.

http://www.thepokes.de/

Review

The Bleeding Hearts: Folk’n’Glory

Leave a comment

September 12, 2011

I’m confused. Wasn’t/isn’t there a German folk-punk band of the Pogues school of song writing also called The Bleeding Hearts. These Folk’n’Glory guys are quite clearly English and from reading their promo material, our new friends from the West Midlands have been around since ’95 or so. Maybe the same band? Maybe I just imagined the Germans?

Anyway Germans or no Germans, this bunch of Bleeding Hearts take a distinctly English approach to folk-punk and so like a lot of English bands in this genre they bow down at the alter of THE LEVELLERS. The Bleeding Hearts have roots in the whole anarcho punk thing – both in style and substance though with sometimes a slight metallic undercurrent along with highly caffeinated fiddles that bring to mind Cornwall’s BATES MOTEL. The only thing that doesn’t gell well with me is the vocals often hit the heavy metal register – but nothing that a daily habit of a few packs of cigarettes and a bottle of whiskey can’t cure. Bleeding Hearts are the type of band to best enjoyed on the festival circuit surrounded by white people with dreadlocks, painful looking piercing’s and BO problems, though if those logistics don’t work for you then Folk’n’Glory is a good substitute.

http://www.bleedinghearts.co.uk/

Review

The Skels: Heading For The Knackers Yard

Leave a comment

September 8, 2011

“Give us pints of Whiskey, you hear the bastards shout”

In one lyric, The Skels sum up their entire musical career and philosophy of life. In case you aren’t familiar with The Skels, they are a bunch of Irish whiskey swigging, banjo swinging, football hooligans from North Jersey, let loose in the recording studio (though I’d love to see them let loose on the Jersey Shore house….that would be great TV.)

The delightfully titled, “Heading For The Knackers Yard”, is the bands 4th full-length and first in 4 or 5 years. And I can proudly say that “Heading For The Knackers Yard” is exactly as I expected it to sounds – no chance of The Skels ever pulling a Flogging Molly – we have whisked soaked, rough and tumble, white trash, meth smoking, redneck, sing-a-long New jersey Celtic punk’n’ roll (and I mean that in the most loving and respectful way of course).

Beyond the bucket of blood bars of NJ, NYC and Brighton, MA, The Skels are an somewhat of an unknown quantity despite being the longest running Celtic punk band in the US – 15 plus years and counting – check ’em out before they end up in the knackers themselves.

http://www.theskels.net/

Review

Bastards on Parade: Death Shore Pirates

Leave a comment

July 24, 2011

Though we ran extensive (and very positive) review of Death Shore Pirates a little while back we had a request for an opinion from Mustard Finnegan himself – usually we don’t that but since the request was from our good friend Waldo @ Celtic-Folk-Punk we decided to oblige.

So from the pen of Mustard Finnegan:

Bastards on Parade are from Galicia (they say its part of Spain) and with a name like Bastards on Parade you know were the influence is coming from without even spinning the disk – Flogging Molly! Just pulling your plonker! When you do spin the disk the apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree – fast, loud punk with gritty vocals (and without the trace of an accent), Gangs All Here vocals and bagpipes of course – though I’m guessing the pipes are more regional to Galicia then the Highland pipes favored by the Murphys – giving the bands at least some individuality on a genre overflowing with similar and copy cat stuff (then again if originally was something your looking for your reading the wrong zine – we do traditional’n’TNT here) but if your looking for 1st class Celtic punk and from a proudly Celtic part of Spain then Death Shore Pirates will satisfy that need.

Review

Bang On The Ear: Tales from The Glen

Leave a comment

July 7, 2011

Tales From The Glen is the 2nd full length from Canada’s Bang On The Ear, following up on the excellent but somewhat overlooked Green Grass And Gravel Roads. Bang On The Ear are based in the hotbed of Celtic-rock that is the County Glengarry – home of people like The Peelers, The Glengarry Bhoys and Enter The Haggis – but their hearts lie across the broad Atlantic in the Celtic nations, with the Scottish tradition strongest.

So the album itself? Solid to very good, no frills, straight ahead Celtic-rock with no surprises (and none wanted). Similar to The Peelers and The Town Pants – good time, high energy, Celtic-rock that will keep Bang On The Ear busy on the bar and festival circuit of Canada and the US for the foreseeable future. Go seem play and go pick up this album – its money better spent then on overpriced burgers, soggy fries and undersized warm beer peddled at the festivals.

Review

Flogging Molly: Speed Of Darkness

Leave a comment

July 1, 2011

There are two types of bands that have long, successful careers. The bands that stick to the basics and the same tried and true formula that keeps the punters happy and screaming for more of the same – AC/DC, The Ramones, Motorhead – you always know what your getting from these guys. Then there are the groups that can reinvent themselves, change direction and bring along the fan base – U2, Bowie and Costello. Its a brave thing to try and change and its difficult to successfully bring along the fan base – Kiss, The Rolling Stones and even The Pogues faltered and stumbled when they did something outside the expected. So when FM put out “Don’t Shut ‘Em Down” as a teaser it was one of those “what the fu@k” moments as the entire FM army scratched their head. No pints! No pirates! More The Jam with a Celtic/industrial bent meets Billy Bragg and Michael Moore – the Detroit move must have really influenced Dave’s outlook on life.

So, what’s the rest of the album like – a mix of the newish stuff and stuff that would be more at home on Float or Within a Mile of Home. Unfortunately, if any of those oldish tracks did make it onto either of those album they wouldn’t be the memorable ones – and there lies the problem, good songs don’t just cut it for FM, they can’t be merely good and experimental, they need to be great (or have at least 3 great songs) and experimental to pull it off. They only get close once to great once on the track “Revolution”.

I’m going to give some of the benefit of the doubt to the use of new producer (Ryan Hewitt of Red Hot Chili Peppers fame) and blame him for the newish tracks and the dulled sound and I’m gonna claim Speed…would have been so much better with Ted Hult or Steve Albin behind the glass.

In the end of the day Speed the Darkness is a good album with some brave ideas but not a great one and Flogging Molly needs to do great

Review

The Fucking Buckaroos / Los Helldandys – Popular Romance (Split 7”)

Leave a comment

June 26, 2011

Side 1 is SF’s The Fucking Buckaroos doing what they do best – neck breaking country’punk’n’roll that’s as dirty as a whore in a gold rush mining town.

Side 2 is Los Helldandys and they are new to me. Track one is punked up old school rockabilly and track 2 sounds like they hired the whore from gold rush mining town to do the singing.

Review

The Go Set: Another Round in Melbourne Town

Leave a comment

June 23, 2011

For wee awhile The Go Set were a band that would annually put out a full length studio album and invariably that years release would land within the top 3 of Shite’n’Onions best of year list. The Rising making the cherished #1 spot in 2008. Then things went quite, very quite. So quite that I thought that the band may have departed this mortal world – it didn’t help that the web site was hijacked by a brand of designer jeans (weird eh?). Well, 2011 sees the band back and doing what they do best – playing really frigging raw and loud. Another Round In Melbourne Town is a 19 track, no frills, live album of punk-rock-n-bagpipes, distinctly Australian – old AC/DC, Weddings, Presents, Anything – that will smack you hard about the head and then stomp on your fingers when you try and pick up your teeth from the ground. The best way to hear the Go Set is LOUD and LIVE and since most of us are not in Ozz, this is the next best thing to experiencing ’em in the flesh. Mores the pity.

1. Intro2. MacPherson’s Rant (from Sing a Song of Revolution)

3. North of the 23 (from Rising)

4. Fortune and Gold (from A Journey for a Nation)

5. Bordeaux (from The Hungry Mile)

6. The Miner’s Son (from Rising)

7. The Rising Tide (from A Journey for a Nation)

8. Portland 3:15 (from Rising)

9. 1788 (from Sing a Song of Revolution)

10. The Old Dark Brown (from Sing a Song of Revolution)

11. 5am (from Sing a Song of Revolution)

12. Mainland (The Real McKenzies cover)

13. Fifty Four (from Rising)

14. Away Away (Weddings Parties Anything cover from Sing a Song of Revolution)

15. Union Man (from The Hungry Mile)

16. Power of Youth (from The Hungry Mile)

17. Eastside Burning (from Rising)

18. Roaring Forties (from Rising)

19. Davey (from The Hungry Mile)

20. Wide Open Road (The Triffids cover)

Potato-eating, Whiskey-drinking, Bog-trotting, CELTIC PUNK ROCK