Review

The Mahones: Here Comes Lucky

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Canada’s the Mahones along with the Tossers and the Rogues March are the founders of the Celtic-Punk scene in North America. I remember seeing these guys play a blistering set five or six years ago at the first (and last) annual Cambridge Celtic festival and later that same day the played another great set at the Cambridge House of Blues to a bunch of disinterested liggers who were too interested in looking cool then have a good time at a party for Dan Aykroyd’s (a fan of the band) awful Boston filmed movie “Celtic Pride”.

“Here Comes Lucky” is the Mahones fourth album and while they are still playing that finger blistering “punkier then the Pogues” sound they are famous for, they have like fellow veterans the Rogues March matured (a little) and have worked in a lot more influences then just Shane MacGowan, including the Replacements (Raise Your Hands), Tom Petty (One Last Shot), the Waterboys (Will You Marry Me), the weepie “Miles Apart” and my favorite the Cow punk of “Going Back to Dublin”.

A Great CD with not a bad track to be heard.

October 2001

Review

Perfect: Sickly Men of Thirty or So…

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Englishman Jamie Clarke first came to prominence in the 80’s rock group “Innocence Lost”, and had some minor success with that band. After “Innocence Lost” split Jamie was asked to play 5 live shows with the Pogues filling in for the sick Phil Chevron, 5 gigs turned to 5 years. Jamie was also involved in the songwriting (“The Sun And The Moon”) for the last Pogues album “Pogue Mahone”. After the Pogues, Jamie moved to Germany and hooked up with Padja Zaric, the highly regarded Bosnian high-speed accordion player and formed “Perfect”.

“Sickly men of thirty or so…” is the third full length from the band (and the first with drummer Andreas Schabinger) and what a widely diverse album it is, Punk, Folk, Country, Garage and classic British Pop influences from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. For the most part Jamie seems to have moved back to his 80’s roots. The music is acoustic based (but not always) Beatles influenced British pop mixed with a heavy doses of Padja’s accordion that gives “Perfect” it’s very distinctive identity.

“Adorable” is the best song, classic British Pop, a hit single if there was any justice (or taste) left in the world. Pogues fan should check out the cover of “I Fought the Law” the accordion makes it much more Joe Strummer with the Pogues then the Clash. “Sheer Perfection”, “Oh Man”, “Moving Up” and especially “Heart Shaped Sunglasses” (co written with Spider Stacy and James McNally) are all highlights.

October 2001

Review

Neck: Necked (A Few Odds From The Oul’ Sods)

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Neck is easily one of the best Folk-Punk bands presently on the scene today. Leeson O’Keeffe has almost the perfect pedigree, an ex-Punk right down to the authentic Cockney accent (the real thing not the phony Green Day accent), was raised on the same street as Johnny Rotten, in the same North London neighborhood as the Pogues and apprenticed under the master himself Shane MacGowan as a member of the Popes.
Necked (A Few Odds From The Oul’ Sods), is really just a compilation of tracks taken from the “Psycho Ceilidh” EP and various demo’s and out-takes recorded over the last couple of years, specially pressed to help finance the just completed US tour and as a stop gap till the first real album is released.

It’s really great to now have some of my live favorites on CD – “Hello Jakey!” is fast punkie and Irish, “Loud ’n’ Proud ’n’ Bold” is Loud ’n’ Proud ’n’ Bold, “Shite’n’Onions” (where I nicked the zine name from) is a frantic jig/reel and “I’m a Man You Don’t Meet Every Day” is played loud, fast and totally different from the Pogues version of the old Jacobite song. “Fields of Athenry” is good, but Brush Shields does it better – sorry guys. “Topless Mary Poppins” (the best song title of the year) is again Irish in a Flogging Molly style and the excellent and strangely titled “Here’s Mud In Yer Eye” is a tale of an old Rebel and a classic in the style of Luke Kelly or Shane MacGowan.

If you haven’t already picked this up at one of their recent gigs then I strongly urge you to get in touch and order a copy before they disappear.

October 2001

Review

Dogshit Sandwich: GGYFC (7″)

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Wow! Heavy shit here. Uncompromising early 80’s influenced punk rock . DSS are a Birmingham, UK based mostly Irish punk band – like the Exploited with an Irish touch. No chance of ever seeing these guys on “The Warped Tour” – and I doubt they want to be on it. Punk rock at it’s purest. The title track is about 70’s Glam Star Garry Glitter and how the pervert got himself in trouble.
Best track is “Wannabe” which contains the classic line ” I wanna be like Shane MacGowan – sing Billy’s Bones and The Dirty Old Town”
Not for the faint hearted or those easily offended

September 2001

Review

The Real McKenzies: Loch’d & Loaded

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Vancouver’s favorite pissy-drunk Scottish-Canadian sons are at it again with their third full-length LP “Loch’d and Loaded.” This marks the Real Macs debut in the spotlight, so to speak: on Honest Don’s Records, a subsidiary of Fat Wreck Chords. This is no surprise, as Fat Mike, the owner of both, once raved the Macs were “the best band I’ve ever seen.” For those of you unfamiliar with the Macs, I’d say that if, back in the 13th Century, William Wallace commissioned the Rezillos, the Skids or any other upstart, ’77-style Scottish punk band to march alongside his pipers into battle, this was what you would get: anthemic, melodious and fast-driven punk songs, propelled along by bagpipes, a healthy dose of Scottish pride, and fuelled by the water of life. Suffice to say, the troops would be pumped enough to fill Loch Ness with the bodies of invading Englishmen.

While their first two efforts were solid and, in several instances, brilliant, their third LP eclipses all expectations. The production is first rate and all the songs scream melody. Call-and-response vocals fill the songs and they stick to you like the spleen of the enemy you just hacked apart out on the Scottish glen. The musicianship has also vastly improved and the album rocks with a sense of Gaelic purpose on the verge of going AWOL. The Macs do the ’77-style so right, it’s scary and the pipe playing is top notch and utilized in nearly every track. Lyrically, the Macs deal with themes of rebellion, drinking and most other things Scottish and it works very well, in a more humorous and light-hearted tone than many other bands of the genre.

So, although the other two Macs releases seemed spotty, (and are harder to get anyway) this exceeded all my expectations. Favorite tracks include “Nessie,” “Pickled,” “Scots ‘Round the World” “Swords of a Thousand Men” and my favorite, “Wild Cattieyote.” Also included are the trads “Flower of Scotland,” “Bonnie Mary,” and the hilarious “Donald Where’s Yer Troosers?” (Once done to perfection by the Men They Couldn’t Hang.) Pick it up as soon as possible, by a bottle of Glen Fiddich or Glen Livet (any Glen will do) paint your face, put in “Braveheart” with volume down and throw this in and see if you have any furniture left in tact at the end of the night.

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September 2001

Review by Sean Holland

Review

Skanatra: Skanatra

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Not quite in the Irish-Folk-Punk-Whateverthefuck category is Skanatra.
Skanatra’s début self-titled CD could be reviewed in two words “this grooves”. If you haven’t guessed from the band name, Hoboken’s (where else could they be from) Skanatra are a Ska tribute band to the chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra. Ten tracks of Frank’s best know classics (“Lady Is a Tramp”, “Fly Me to the Moon”, “High Hopes”, “Witchcraft”, “The Coffee Song”, “Luck Be a Lady”, “My Kind of Town”, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, “New York, New York”, “That’s Life”), all catchy as hell yet still true to the originals. A great party album.

September 2001

Review

Siobhan: McGravy’s Iron Liver (CD-EP)

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One of the best things about running a zine is it allows me to be exposed to music I’d never otherwise have the opportunity to hear. Siobhan from British occupied America (Only Joking guys – they are from Ottawa, Canada) are a perfect example. Siobhan are a heavily Pogues influence Irish-folk-punk band with a good dose of Jewish/Russian Klezmer thrown in to spice up the mix.

“McGravy’s Iron Liver” is a six song CD-EP “recorded very live at home with a single microphone”, but nevertheless has excellent sound. Track one “Roll me to the Ground”, is very Poguesy, very “Red Roses for me”, “Canon in D” is that classical piece by Pachelbel usually heard on toilet paper commercials and the like, Siobhan merge it with some Russian jig type music to create an Irish-Russian-Classical-Jig-Punk™ instrumental type thing. “Augeline” is a mellower acoustic / Irish number and the traditional “Recruiting Sergeant” most of you will be familiar with from either The Clancy’s version or The Pogues “Medley”. “Rose of London” is a slower darker drinking number that’s a little too close musically to “Boolavogue”. The CD end’s with the fast Irish/Russian Jig Punk of “The Celtbot”, if you can imagine drunken Russian sailors on a Dublin pub crawl this is that sound.

A great introduction to a very enthusiastic young band from Canada (Only Joking guys – they are from British occupied America).

September 2001

Review

Darkbuster V’s Tommy & the Terrors: Split (CD)

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Darkbuster (5 tracks)
This is Darkbuster’s swansong (very Led Zeppelin eh?), who have sadly split up after their Middle East show last month. This is fast catchy Budweiser soaked party punk with balls. A little mellower then live; more a pub punk feel especially on “Good Times” with its boozy barroom chorus, also check out the bastardization of “Danny Boy”, where Danny moves to London and ends up on the skids.
Recommended.

Tommy & the Terrors (4 tracks)
First off apologies to T. & the T., last month I claimed they were now a four piece in my live review; actually Mike is now playing guitar and a new bass player has joined – must have been real drunk guys. T. & the T. play “Yobcore”; a cross between Oi, Street Punk with a good dose of old school Boston hardcore played with the f**k you attitude of a soccer hooligan. With the exception of the Oi-ish “Washed Up” with its fluid guitar playing the T. & the T. songs on offer here are tipping the needle towards the hardcore end of the scale. Defiantly music for those with more extreme taste.

September 2001

Review

The Rogue’s March: Chaser

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I remember being very surprised to read that The Rogue’s March had been asked to play “The Warped Tour”. Sure they were a very good bar band and “Never Fear” was a fine album, but that’s all they were was a bar band. That opinion changed upon hearing “Chaser” the band’s 1998 (and soon to be re-released nation wide) album. Not only should The Rogue’s March have been on the bill but a darn sight higher up it.

The Rogue’s March have matured both musically and lyrically over the 4 years between “Never Fear” and “Chaser” and now also have the excellent production of James Mastro to do full justice to the songs. “Chaser” is packed full of Joe Hurley’s tales of low-life on the big city (New York, London, Paris and Berlin), cheap whiskey, violence, psychos and whores.

The band are real musical magpies, sure it’s still the Irish-Country-Punk of “Never Fear” but your going to hear classic rock’n’roll, cabaret, post punk, some Nick Cave/Tom Waits style ballads and a couple of tracks that The Rolling Stones could have written when they were anygood. Hopefully Chaser takes The Rogue’s March to the next level.
Recommended.

September 2001

Review

Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros: Global A Go-Go

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The coolest man on the planet is back in action.

Joe and the Pesky Meskys are back with their second release on Hellcat records. Lest there be any illusions on my feelings for Mr. Strummer, the statement above alone should shatter them. Strummer and the Clash are, in my eyes, the most important figures in the history of punk rock. Well, at least in the Top 5. So, when Joe signed with Hellcat a few years ago and released his first album, “Rock, Art and the X-Ray Style,” I was ecstatic. I bought the album and liked it quite a bit. I got pretty much what I expected – an eclectic mix of styles and experiments with world music/beats (Caribbean, African, South American) glued together by that familiar Strummer vocal style.

I was, however, somewhat surprised by the backlash by some of the ‘fans.’ Joe has always pushed the Clash beyond three-chord punk rock into reggae, rockabilly, rap and numerous other musical style, to mixed-reviews, but as always, it’s the people’s vote that matters: They say when “Sandinista” was released, you could walk around in Brooklyn and hear strains of early rap pioneers alongside “The Magnificent Seven” blasting out from the ghettos and street corners. Joe isn’t going to remain stagnant and he isn’t going to release an album like the first Clash LP, so get over it.

That said, “Global A Go-Go” is a fairly accurate title. Global is the scope and also the musical style. The album encompasses the aforementioned different music genres and a wealth of musical instruments, mixes and dubs, as did its predecessor. Starting with the almost folksy “Johnny Appleseed” you can tell Joe and the boys are in top form. “Cool ‘N’ Out’ sounds like it could’ve come off “Sandanista” with it’s dubby overtones and almost techno-ish backbeat, with Joe dropping science over a horn section in the background. The title track rocks out again with a world-ish type beat, complete with the raging bongos. “Bhindi Bhagee” is an example of an African/Caribbean-style rocker. Joe mixes balladry, like on “Mondo Bongo” and experimentation and rockers throughout, closing with a 17:00 version of the old Irish song “The Minstrel Boy” which is a masterpiece. Joe’s vocals are ethereal, far in the background, almost ghostly, fitting the subject matter perfectly, while the tune itself gets a more dubby/techno-ish mix: A song and an album with a vision and a message – many messages. Just what you would expect from ol’ Joe. So it goes with this eclectic album.

Judging by the reviews posted on Hell-cat.com, most fans get what Joe is doing, but you have the occasional mug who posts something along the ridiculous lines of: “ok I really dont like this album cuz its like fucking folk and country and shit but I wouldnt talk shit about the Clash if I had fucking gun to my head the Clash was awesome” (an actual post.) Wow. How eloquent and introspective, considering the Clash loved and utilized both folk and country. Oh well, if the Offspring t-shirt wearing mall-punks don’t like this, than it’s all the more punk in my opinion. Before the release of his first album for Hellcat, Joe said “this aint no kiddie rockabilly” and he’s right. He’s older, more mature and shouldn’t be expected to re-write albums he wrote in his twenties. Tunnel vision is the enemy of good music, he believes. To quote Joe “Whether it’s jazz or punk or anything else, you have to fight against the purists who want to narrow the definition. That’s what kills music because it stifles it to death.”

http://www.joestrummer.com/

September 2001

Review by Sean Holland

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