FLatfoot 56 have a new CD out in March - Black Thorn - and they celebrate their 10th anniversary as a band this year (and I still don’t think any one of ‘em has hit drinking age yet). Check out the teaser Video below.
The Pogues, Phil Chevron just announced that despite previous facebook posting on the official Pogues facebook page, The Pogues will be staying home this coming St. Patrick’s day.
“I’ve just been informed we’ve been unable to find a suitable venue in London for St Patrick’s Day. We did actually have Hammersmith Apollo on hold but so too did another act and unfortunately they were quicker to the draw than we were and snapped it up just before we did. Sorry that I raised false hopes, I’m quite pissed off about it myself.
Just to circumvent the “why not the Dog and Sausages in Hackney?” questions, none of the alternative venues we pursued this week made sense either economically or in terms of crowd safety. ”
http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10647&start=45
The Wakes are the un-official musical wing of Glasgow Celtic FC - for American readers Celtic are a Glasgow, Scotland based soccer team with strong Irish roots and one of the biggest sports brands in the world.
The music of The Wakes clearly reflects the team they support - pub rock meets the Irish ballad tradition - sort of somewhere between The BibleCodeSundays meets The Wolftones -and though the rebel songs are toned down, scratch below the surface of football and drinking and Irish songs and it’s there.
While all Celtic and Irish sports fans will love this you don’t have to know the first thing about soccer to get carried away in the roar of the crowd (though Huns and Hearts fans will loathe).
Must hears include Drinkin’ Song, Pirates of the League and the cover of David Rovics St. Patrick’s Battalion
Glengarry county, Ontario is proving to be quite the breeding ground for Celtic-roots rock - obviously there are the mighty Glengarry Bhoys and Shite’n’Onions favs., The Peelers and now entering the fold is Bang on the Ear (Waterboys influence anyone?). The Peelers are the closest musical and style wise comparison to Bang on the Ear (and oh yeah The Waterboys). Good stuff though I blame the water in Glengarry County for all this great music - I think it may be spiked with a little whiskey and a lot of whisky.
http://www.bangontheear.webs.com/
Dropkick Murphys have just announced they will be playing 7 dates on 2010s Vans Warped Tour.
DROPKICK MURPHYS on the Vans Warped Tour:
8/7 Salt Lake City, UT Utah State Fairgrounds
8/8 Denver, CO Invesco Field
8/11 Pomona, CA Pomona Fairplex
8/12 Marysville, CA Sleep Train Amphitheatre
8/13 Nampa, ID Idaho Center Amphitheatre
8/14 George, WA The Gorge Amphitheatre
8/15 Hillsboro, OR Washington County Fairgrounds
Got the following message from Flogging Molly - personally I don’t associate punk and cruises but I guess it might be as close as you’ll get to being punk pirates of the Caribbean
All Aboard, Flogging Molly Fans!!!
We have a very exciting proposition to make to all of you. For the first time ever, we are considering joining our fans on a very special Flogging Molly Caribbean Cruise!
The cruise would be in late January, 2011 and would travel from South Florida to the Caribbean and back, with port of calls in Belize, Cozumel, and Cancun. This is your chance to get up close and personal with the band as they take the stage on the high seas in this unusually intimate venue! Besides Flogging Molly, there will be several other musical guests hand-picked by the band to keep the excitement rolling during the trip.
In addition to musical performances, there will be many other special events with Flogging Molly such as exclusive ‘hangs’ with the band, photos sessions with Flogging Molly, Q&A with individual band members, special bar time with members of Flogging Molly tending bar - and many more events that we haven’t even thought of yet.
Our cruise will be comparably priced with other 5-7 day Caribbean cruises, and take place on one of the premier international cruise lines. Don’t for a minute think you’ll be slumming it! Here’s the big question…how many of you are interested? It really comes down to the number of fans that choose to join us to determine if and when we ‘go for it’. Are you interested in attending? If so, please write us at floggingmolly@villamartists.com right away. We have to get a fairly accurate gauge of interest prior to locking in our cruise ship.
FLOGGING MOLLY
Shane MacGowan has pulled together a pretty impressive list of friends to record a cover of Screamin Jay Hawkins’, ‘I Put A Spell On You’ - Including Nick Cave, Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream), Glen Matlock (The Sex Pistols) Mick Jones (The Clash) and Johnny Depp. Keith Richards may also be involved. Finally a charity single that won’t suck musically.
Veteran Folk Rockers, The Men They Couldn’t Hang are back with some all new material in their newest release, Devil On The Wind, their fifteenth since the band’s formation way back in 1985.
The Men They Couldn’t Hang have always created a vaguely dream-like atmosphere with their music, going from toothy and aggressive, with songs like the foreboding title track, and the scary, campfire-appropriate monster tale, The Beast of Brechfa, to melodic, sweet stories of times past, like Mrs. Avery or Heartbreak Park.
The years have not changed the band’s cleanly identifiable sound, either, and all of those elements are in full effect here. The subtly country/alt. rock, peppered with folk instrumentation and all done with crystal clear production that allows every note, word, and beat to be heard with perfect clarity.
That aforementioned instrumentation, augmenting the band’s regular line-up, consists of guests on violin, squeezebox, banjo, harmonica, trumpet, Uilleann pipes, piano, mandolin and dulcimer. And although TMTCH’s punk edges and burrs seem to have been worn into a more seasoned and polished sound over the years, this variety of instruments gives a greater depth to the assortment of sounds and moods on Devil on The Wind.
It is difficult to categorize or classify the sound of The Men They Couldn’t Hang with any accuracy, unless one has heard TMTCH. If you have, then Devil On The Wind may be something you should look into. It is (yet another!) strong addition to this long-running band’s impressive catalog!
Review by Christopher P. Toler, THE Blathering Gommel
Before anything else, I think it needs to be acknowledged that “Firkin” is a great name for a band. It has an great, antiquated, British Isles pedigree. As a unit of measure, (meaning roughly nine gallons!) it has a vague “mass consumption” reference. And, of course, all that Firkin’ wordplay just Firkin’ waitin’ to be employed!
But a great name doesn’t mean a firkin’ thing if the band can’t back it up.
And Firkin? Yeah. They bring it. Intense is probably the most appropriate word to describe these rowdy Hungarians. The CD, “A Firkinful Of Beer” (Firkinful?) is a 17-track release, (Yes, I said SEVENTEEN!) comprised of almost all covers, (with two or three originals, added in for color!) But these covers are different from your phone-in album-filler, there is effort made to make these songs the band’s own. A lot of effort.
The covers vary from traditionals like “The Galway Races,” “Irish Rover,” and “The Drunken Sailor,” to a number of songs from the Flogging Molly catalog! And all of the originals, traditionals and FM covers get the same Firkin’ treatment, (see how well that works!): A ripping, King-esque vocals, traditional instrumentation such as flute, fiddle, and whistle bringing in the Celtic sound and all of that hanging on for its dear life on top of a straight-up heavy metal rhythm section that is, in my opinion, the real star of the show. This is what gives these firkers an identity that really stands out in a field like this!
As far as covers go, the Budapest-based septet does the job right. But I would really like to see a full-length release of original material from these guys! I think it would be something really unusual, in a good Firkin’ way.
Review by Christopher Toler, THE Blathering Gommel!
With a name like Gartlonely Rats its easy to assume a fast and spunky trad-rock band in the vein of The Pogues song of the same name from 1989s “Peace and Love”. The Aussie quintet are not, sure The Pogues influence is there but it’s more Steve Earle and The Pogues or even Johnny Cash and The Pogues with the great man in the drivers seat and Shane riding shotgun on the way to a redneck roadhouse.
