Yo ho ho – punk and piracy from Clifton NJ. While Clifton is not really a place I associate with buccaneers – Celt punk’s who can drink for 3 seconds (The Skels) yes, but scallywags? Nope. Brine & Bastards have changed my impression of this gritty suburb of NYC forever with “Set Sail for Sodomy” (nod to The Pogues in that title) with their Captain Morgan inspired punk rock – lots of catchy ’77 style punk meets Green Day meets Jack Sparrow. Less folkey then the west coasts Wages of Sin though you can hear banjos, accordions and the kazoo(??) in the mix. As infectious as a good old dose of scurvy (I assume scurvy is infectious. Right?).
Kevin Flynn and the Avondale Ramblers play self-described “Chicago-Irish” music – this sound is very much rooted in the traditions of the Ol’ Sod but the attitude and the inspiration is very much in the underbelly of Chicago – on ” The Murderer, The Thief, The Minstrels and The Rest”, Kevin Flynn and his band of punks will take you on a tour of the dive bars of the North Side and will introduce you to drunks, killers and barroom hustlers, sleazy lawyers (Money Malone), musicians way past their glory days, crooked cops and pol’s and if you do make it back unscarred check your wallet – it’s gone.
Its been awhile since I’ve heard anything new from Shilelagh Law – maybe 6 or 7 years. Not that they haven’t been active – I just didn’t get to hear anything. So I’m glad to report I’m back on the mailing list. I’m also glad to report that nothing has changed musically. Shilelagh Law are still the best modern Irish ballad/trad-rock group on either side of McLean Ave. in fact maybe even the whole east coast! Dennis McCarty is still the finest fiddler in the NYFD and now he’s joined by Kevin McCarthy, NYPD’s best accordion player. Richard Popovicis still the finest Croatian-American singer of Irish tunes. Highlights for me are the full force trad cover of “The hills of Connemara” and the Tongue-in-cheek country/gospel tinged, “His Favorite”. If you like stuff like The Town Pants and Cullen’s Hounds you’ll love this.
BGG hail from Detroit-Folk-City and members are all 20 plus year veterans of that city’s music scene. Here BGG present to us for review 14 tracks of mostly high energy yet laid back electric guitar driven Celtic rock standards with touches of blue grass coupled with sea shanties. I said mostly didn’t I? Cos’ on their version of The Wild Rover they go all out Detroit ala a guitar sound that wouldn’t go amiss from The Stooges or The MC5 and I frigging love it. On the next release I’m hoping to hear more Iggy and less Jerry.
Tornado Magnet are an American alt-country super group featuring former members of The Beat Farmers, The Johnny Cash Band, Ricky Skaggs, The Bastard Sons Of Johnny Cash. Now with a resume like that I expect something special and while the songs are a very well written, very well paid slice of Americana I have to get all Simon Cowell on their asses ‘cos they are just too frigging polished in a CMT way. Authentic sounding outlaw country this isn’t – (disappointingly ) give me Pete Berwick for that.
One word – incredible! Two words – really incredible! Three – really fuckin incredible. You get the gist?. Seriously though, the 2nd release by Vancouver’s The Dreadnoughts just blows away every other Celt punk release I’ve heard this year. Fast, furious and tight as a Scottish Canadian’s wallet. Celtic punk with occasional touches of Eastern Europe (ala the late great Canadian band Siobhan – Ol Jimmy RIP, long live The Fang) that meets the Canadian maritime sea shanty sounds of Great Big Sea – on steroids of course. If your going to buy one CD this year ‘cos your totally hard up then this is it.
‘Once upon a time in Ireland’ is Ciaran Murphy’s full length follow up to “Verbal hand grenade”, the mini album Shite’n’Onions reviewed last year – not much different here – just more songs in the same style – so if your too lazy to look up the last review – Ciaran Murphy is an Irish protest singer songwriter – sort of Christy Moore with an armalight, a molotov cocktail and a deadly aim. One of the things I like most about Ciaran Murphy is he is the real thing – South Armagh raised , Belfast based (unlike some middle class protest signers from wealthy towns in Connecticut doing the rounds at the moment). Hypocrites lookout. Ciaran Murphy is armed and pointing his guitar right at you.
The Swaggerin Growlers could have done the safe thing on “Keep Your Head Held High” their sophomoric release and recorded another dozen or so tracks of riot folk – they didn’t. Sure the music is still aggressive folk punk but on their Celtic foundations they’ve added Bluegrass, Old Tyme, Ska, Swing, and Hardcore. Its nice to hear some originality and new ideas in a sometimes over crowd field and for the most part they hit the mark. I would though like to hear them work with a experienced producer to really tease out their ideas.
Nothing remotely Irish or Celtic here. What we have is a collection of rough and tumble, low class American country tinged with punk. Kind of the musical equivalent of a bottle in the face at a red neck honky tonk joint (and the occasional red neck comedy club – check out “Busted in Kentucky” and “Road Kill Blues” ) somewhere on the highway between Chicago and Nashville. A fine follow up to 2007’s “Ain’t No Train Outta Nashville”. Standout track for me is “Vacancy in My Heart”, mostly cos it rocks hardest. Recommended for fans of Johnny Cash, Steve Earl or Springsteen at his roughest.
The name is a little deceptive here. Yeah it Irish, very Irish in that over 60’s, your granny will love this music it sense. Mostly likely your granny won’t love this music unless she’s cool and enjoys dirty, rough-edged, bomb-chucking political, post-Pogues, Chicago/Irish influenced folk. Aaron Duggins from The Tossers guests on 2 of the 5 tracks and if that not an endorsement I don’t know what is.
Shite'n'Onions 