Category Archives: Review

Review

Ferocious Dog: Kleptocracy

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Red Ken and his band of merry men have returned with their sixth full-length album, ready to storm the gates of Downing Street. If you are unfamiliar with Ferocious Dog, where the hell have you been? In the last ten years, the band has risen to be arguably the biggest folk-punk band in the UK, mixing punk, Celtic, gypsy, and protest folk (and the first non-signed band ever to sell out the legendary Rock City venue). Kleptocracy is fast, fiddle-infused folk punk with a strong social conscience (they hate the Tories, really hate them). Influences I hear include The Levellers, McDermott’s Two Hours, and The Clash, yet the band still has its own distinct sound. My personal favorite tracks on Kleptocracy include Iron Mike Malloy, Merthyryr Rising (with its Follow me up to Carlow melody), and A Place We Call Home, a song in the spirit of Fairytale of New York (a possible hit single?)

Honestly, there isn’t one bad track or even a filler on the album. Here’s to hopefully seeing Ferocious Dog stateside someday.

Ferocious Dog

Review

The Go Set: Drink To The Night (Live)

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Drink To The Night (Live) is a 20-year live retrospective of one of the planet’s best and most original Celtic punk bands, Melbourne’s The Go Set. If you are unfamiliar with The Go Set, they are a bagpipe-heavy, alternative/punk outfit with a distinctive Aussies style – (old) AC/DC, The The, and Weddings Parties Anything all come to mind when I try to describe them. Drink To The Night is a best of live and a great introduction to the band unless you’re an old hand, then Drink To The Night (Live) is a great reminder of how good these guys are. Sadly, Drink To The Night (Live) seems to be a digital-only album. Hopefully, it gets a physical release, too.

https://snd.click/DrinkToTheNight

https://www.thegoset.com/

Review

UltraBomb: Dying To Smile

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Well, this is a surprise. As much as I loved the debut UltraBomb album, Time To Burn, I assumed it would be a one-off project, especially after the band’s problems with tour cancellations, COVID-19, and other serious illnesses. But no, UltraBomb is back with a second album, Dying To Smile, and a highly successful tour of the US East Coast opening for Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. 

If you are unfamiliar with Ultrabomb, imagine Finny McConnell from The Mahones at his punk rock best, hooking up with the legendary Greg Norton of the even more legendary Hüsker Dü and Jamie Oliver, the best drummer in punk rock, to make a punk rock masterpiece. Well, don’t imagine anymore cos Ultrabomb is the real deal. Punk rock at its very best. And you read it here first. 

https://www.facebook.com/ultrabombmusic/

Review

Dropkick Murphys: Okemah Rising

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Okemah Rising is the companion album to the Dropkick Murphys 2022 release, This Machine Still Kills Fascists, i.e. it’s the unpublished lyrics of legendary American folk singer Woody Guthrie as interpreted by the Dropkick Murphys. Al Barr is still absent from the band, so vocal duties fall to Ken Casey. Like This Machine…., Okemah Rising is more rooted in Americana than punk, though it still has that raw sing-along, punk energy. The Violent Femmes guest on Gotta Get To Peekskill, Boston folk-hooligan Jesse Ahern, guests on Ripping Up The Boundary Line, and the DKMs rerecord an acoustic, I’m Shipping Up To Boston. If you liked This Machine…, you’ll lap up Okemah Rising; if you didn’t, well, the Murphys will be back to being the Murphys soon.

https://dropkickmurphys.com/

Review

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes with Ultrabomb at Big Night Live, Boston

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First off, Big Night Live, is a high-end venue. Tucked into the legendary Boston Garden, the two-thousand-capacity music hall offers booths and bottle service to the punter with too much money. It’s not very punk rock, but it’s a fine venue. Tonight was a three-band bill, all punk super groups, Ultrabomb, The Defiant, and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. 

The reason I was there, Ultrabomb, opened. Ultrabomb is a transnational, punk-power trio featuring my pal Finny McConnell of the Mahones, powerhouse drummer Jamie Oliver of UK Subs, and the legendary Mr Greg Norton of the equally legendary Hüsker Dü. Despite being first on, Ultrabomb came on to a fairly full room and played a set of blistering punk rock with the energy and shapes of men half their age to a very receptive audience. While the set was short, the band played songs from both albums (album two, Dying to Smile, is being released real soon) and covers of Hüsker Dü’s Don’t Want to Know If You Are Lonely and New Day Rising. Ultrabomb won a lot of new fans in Boston. 

The Defiant were next, featuring Dicky Barrett of Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Johnny Rioux of Street Dogs. I hate to say it, but I was too busy chatting with Finny after his set to check them out. Sorry. Next time.

Despite being around since 1995, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are completely new to me. Punk rock covers of pop standards played by middle-aged men dressed in cheesy Vegas lounge act uniforms. Absolute genius, and the crowd loved it. 

Review

Bunch of Bastards: Drink, Holler and Dance

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Drink, Holler and Dance, the new album from Dutch, Celtic-punks, Bunch of Bastards, came about quite by chance. The Bastards had booked some studio time to record a couple of songs over a weekend. Well, drinks did flow, and songs did spill, and the boys two songs, ended up being an 11 track new album. Six new songs, a cover of, Tell Me Ma, and four older tracks re-recorded.

Drink, Holler and Dance, kicks off with the gritty, punky, mandolin led, Three Legged Dog, and continues along in a glorious, arm in arm, pub sing along style. While track three, Hand of a Bastard Son, reminds me a lot of Flogging Molly, the rest of the album is closer to the rough edged sounds of The Rumjacks and The Peelers. I love the high speed, punk-polka-pogo of, Pogo Never Ends, and the re-recorded, Sky over Rotterdam, is great. 

Drink, Holler and Dance is for fans of old school, dirty, Celtic-punk.

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Review

The Langer’s Ball: Hold Tight

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I have here the vinyl release of Hold Tight. Funded through a Kickstarter campaign, this is the thickest slab of vinyl I’ve ever spun. Nice job guys. The duo of Mike (guitar) and Hannah (whistler and accordion) who make up The Langer’s Ball are super tight; they have been playing together for 15 years. The 11 tracks on Hold Tight are split between traditional Irish, Scottish and Sea Shanties and originals which gel very nicely with the more familiar. Of the originals my favorites are the polka / blues drinking song, Whiskey From The Still and the hard boozing, Bottom of The Bottle.  

Always classy, The Langer’s Ball never disappoint.

https://www.thelangersball.com/

Review

The Go Set: The Warriors Beneath Us

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The Go Set who hit twenty years together this year, 2023, are celebrating with the release of The Warriors Beneath Us, the band’s eighth studio album. I still remember receiving in the mail, Sing A Song of Revolution, The Go Set’s debut album back in 2005. I remember thinking that’s an odd name for a band, and the doggy black CD sleeve gave nothing away.  Sing A Song of Revolution, almost ended up in the dreaded, to be listened to later pile. Fortunately for me, I played the sucker and it instantly blew me away, it’s still one of my favorite and one of the best Celtic punk releases “evah”! Every subsequent album by The Go Set has been superb. The Warriors Beneath Us reminds me most of the spirit and sound of the Sing A Song of Revolution.

West Into The Sun, kicks things off, with pipes, crunching guitars, a big brash course, and a tale of being press-ganged into the Royal Navy. Take Me Home and  Horizons are both catchy, catchy, sing-along, guitar rockers. Speaking of catchy, Opportunities could be a radio hit. The Warriors Beneath Us, is another guitar rocker with some very slick guitar solos. Drink to the Night is a melancholy pub ballad. Raise Your Hands gets things cranking again. Broken Bones and Hearts kicks things into punk-rock overdrive. We Got The Numbers is a pro-union rabble-rouser. Things slow down on Tomorrow, a dark, war ballad of a soldier writing a letter home on the eve of the big offensive. On Gallows Bay, the pipes go up above 11, and it’s an absolute classic. Sunnyside of the Street closes and The Go Set puts a grungy stamp on The Pogues classic.

Here’s to another 20 years from The Go Set.

https://thegoset.com/

Review

Kilmaine Saints: Same Again Tomorrow

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I’ve always thought of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania based Kilmaine Saints as a sort of junior Dropkick Murphys, a band with a huge sound, led by a wall of bagpipers. Same Again Tomorrow, the Kilmaine Saints fourth (as I count’em) full length album after repeated spins to these ears is the album to prove the Saints have stepped out of the shadows from behind the big boys and into their own light.

The album bravely kicks off with the infectious fiddle and pipe led, Fanfare, a bold statement of intent to who the band are today. The bagpipes wail on the intro to, Same Again Tomorrow, merging into some frantic fiddling and a chorus to kill for as the Saints recant the adventures of being a gigging band. Siobhan is catchy, more straight ahead Celtic rock that will be in the band’s live set for the foreseeable future. The Animals classic, The House of The Rising Sun, is a strange choice for a cover but the Saints pull it off and give it their own distinctive Celtic twist with fantastic vocals from Brendan Power and some slick guitar leads from Erich Arndt. Off The Wagon is a spunky singalong about you know what, somewhat reminiscent of The Peelers. McGowan’s Wake, builds and builds on dirty guitars into a piper’s farewell. Throwin’ Hands and The Plight are sing along, drink along, Celtic rockers. Nomad has a distinctly spunky eastern European sound. Rally ‘Round The Flag is a bagpipe rocker tribute to the legendary New York Irish brigade, the Fighting 69th, again with some nice leads. Things slow down with, State I’m In, a ballad of lost love, regret and the resulting drinking. Things crank up again to a neck breaking speed on Undivided. Same Again Tomorrow closes with the fine instrumental lament, The Blood of Cu Chulainn.

Kilmaine Saints, take a bow lads, this is a standout album. Now get back to AA.

https://www.facebook.com/TheKilmaineSaints/

https://www.kilmainesaints.com/

Review

Continental: Hello

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Hello, is the fourth (or fifth?) full-length album by New England based Continental. Fronted by Boston punk legend, Rick Barton, along with his brother, David Alex Barton, formerly of The Outlets. Rick was a founding member of the Dropkick Murphy, playing guitar on their legendary albums, Do or Die, and, The Gangs All Here. Like The Outlets, Continental is a family affair as Rick is joined by son Stephen Barton on Bass as well as drummer Andrew Dickson and Paul Yu on lead guitar. Continental play punk-influenced rock’n’roll. The Clash is an obvious influence but I hear the melodies of the Beatles, the sleaze of the Rolling Stones, and the pop sensibility of Cheap Trick along side some dirty blues guitar. Continental is a very fine band and Hello is a fine album that deserves your attention.

https://www.facebook.com/ContinentalBand/