So...it's come down to this: the Dropkick Murphys have a new album coming out...

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
So, I'm presenting a paper on Maria Edgeworth at the American Conference for Irish Studies next month. In the session following mine, there is a panel on "Post-Punk Aesthetics in the Irish Arts," including the following papers:

"As One: Dropkick Murphys and the Complication of Modern Irish Drama" by Alan P. Blair
and
"No Future: The Sex Pistols' Influence on the Plays of Martin McDonough" by Michelle Maloney-Mangold.

Sounds like a great way to decompress and yet engage after what will be the biggest presentation of my academic career.
 
Just wanted to pop in and say that I think the album is great. There isn't, in my opinion, a bad track here. Both of the previously leaked tracks sound better in context. "Broken Hymns" is one of the best slow songs they've recorded, and the album (thankfully) lacks the arbitrary/obligatory "hardcore" song like "Shattered" or "Citizen C.I.A." Basically, it's possibly the most consistent record they've put out, even if its highs are not quite as high as some other albums.
 
i actually haven't bout it yet. i'll get it next week when i pick up the rem.
 
phanan said:
So Bruce showed up to play last night with the DMs for the finale of their three night stand at the House Of Blues.

IWB would've died...
Click to expand...


i would have indeed died. and am youtubing it right now. can hardly hear shit with the terrible cell phone recording i found there, but that is truly fucking awesome. i keep saying i'm done with seeing DKM live, but stuff like that makes me seriously reconsider. not cos holy hell i wish i was there for that show (of course i do, but i know with my luck if i was still hitting one st patty's show each year it would have been just my luck that i was at a different show), just because it reminds me how much fun DKM live used to be. not just dkm, though. i've been kinda not having as much fun seeing any bands live like i used to. spoiled myself, burnt myself out, whatever i did, pretty sure it's me and not the punk rock show that's the issue here. but i am rambling. awesome stuff has a way of making me do that.

and i still haven't heard the new album yet. i've heard parts of it. i happened to remember the local college radio punk rock show here on saturday nights a week or two ago, and the dj wound up playing the bulk of the album. there were a few songs i liked, and a few i hated. i can't remember what any of them were called or how any of them went, though. i was more or less irritated by the st patrick's day radio setlist, as all the marginally "irish" music the dj seemed to be aware of was DKM, the pogues, and big bad bollocks. she played a blood or whiskey song and i thought hey, we're going to get a few other bands into the mix. but i think it was an accident, and it quickly turned back into those three bands again. it was aggrivating from an elitist music snob perspective because there was no real rhyme or reason to the order or songs. 2 dkm songs. 3 pogues songs. a dkm song. 2 more pogues. 4 dkm songs. 5 BBB songs. 2 more dkm...yeah, i kept it on but mostly because my ipod was dead. even though it was annoying, it was still the best thing on the radio at the moment. but not even a flogging molly song to be heard. it just irritated me because i know i could have done better. i think i did come up with better playlists around this time of year when i was in college. wasn't even the whole anti-douchebags who claim to be irish in march just because their great grandfather once dated an irish girl. it was completely a playlist music snob gripe.
 
i really thought i'd be spending the bulk of thursday night cleaning green puke out of the back of the ambulance, but i think the college kiddies were still gone for spring break. i can't think of any other reason the city was so quiet. it was awesome. i didn't do a call til 4am. i've usually done 3 or 4 calls by then.

what does that have to do with DKM? absolutely nothing.
 
I downloaded Sing Loud, Sing Proud during my week of epic torrenting. Will give it a listen during my lunch break today.
 
I mean, I like celebrating it (spent the night drinking Jameson, Bailey's and Guinness), but I don't get why non-Irish people ever became interested in St. Patrick's Day.
 
PhilsFan said:
I mean, I like celebrating it (spent the night drinking Jameson, Bailey's and Guinness), but I don't get why non-Irish people ever became interested in St. Patrick's Day.
Click to expand...

I think you just answered your own question.
 
So I just finished Sing Loud, Sing Proud. This was a really fun listen. It's joyful, anthemic, but still snotty and punk rock. It's my favourite album of the year so far. So much fun.

Highlights: Heroes From Our Past, Good Rats, A Few Good Men, The Wild Rover.
 
:up:

the gauntlet is always gonna be one of my favorite songs on that album, if not one of my all-time favorite dkm songs
 
I loved all the songs. I can't pick a favourite at the moment. I listened to it three more times after I made that post. SO good.
 
it's an excellent album. the spicy mchaggis jig is probably the only thing on it i don't like (although i think i usually skip "the fortunes of war" as well), because the joke has long run its course. otherwise, it's a solid record.
 
IWasBored said:
it's an excellent album. the spicy mchaggis jig is probably the only thing on it i don't like (although i think i usually skip "the fortunes of war" as well), because the joke has long run its course. otherwise, it's a solid record.
Click to expand...

As is already documented, I despise "New American Way," and I also agree that "Spicy McHaggis Jig" is incredibly tired. I think those two things are what keep it behind Do or Die and Blackout for me. There are songs I don't care for on both of those records, but not in the same way. As for "The Gauntlet": If I were allowed only one DKM song from here out, that would be it. Closely followed by "Fields of Athenry."
 
yeah, i'm pretty sure that the gauntlet might even make its way onto a top 20 of all-time by anyone favorite song list for me, if i were to ever be able to make such a list without my brain exploding.

i want to like "new american way," always have tried to like it, but the thing holding me back is exactly what you described in your hatred for it. plus, they kinda can't get behind the whole "i drink in dirty bars cos they serve bigger drinks/i don't own 15 cars i take the train and man it stinks" part anymore. i mean, these guys seem like they're one payment away from getting themselves a private jet these days. i'm not holding that against them, but i get the impression it's about as accurate a representation of the band as a song like "front seat" is now. "liberal scum to the back!" uh...RIIIIIGHT.
 
I've tried to rationalize "Front Seat" by thinking about it along the same lines as Street Dogs' "Don't Preach to Me." I mean, I think there is more to DKM's inclusiveness, both pre- and post-McColgan, than just working class solidarity. It's kind of like the South Park creators, who said something along the lines of hating conservatives but hating liberals even more. And I think it has something to do with the preaching.

Of course, I could just launch into a diatribe about how eliminating oppression and privilege at any level, including the class level, involves challenging heterosexism, sexism, racism and every other assumed -ism, but that's for another thread in another forum where I never post anyway. (If anything, the "tolerance" decried in "New American Way" should be decried, because it's not enough and serves to reinforce the negative value attached to difference from dominant culture.
 
I agree with you both about The Gauntlet. Favorite DKM song, and probably one of my favorite rock songs in general. :up:
 
caps and bottles did not need to be re-recorded for that album. never really understood why that made it on there.
 
well, i like "deeds not words." i understand that saying that's the only song i really like on the album essentially puts a giant sign over my head that says i liked it better when dkm was a punk rock band which generally tends to translate to an accusation of the band selling out, but i don't care anymore. no, that sound wasn't what sold records ultimately whereas this stuff does, and while i still can't fault a band for making money more than i would fault someone else for finding a way to make more money at their non-music-related job, they were simply a lot better at that then this straight-up pogues crap. i don't hate "hang 'em high" or "peg o my heart" (but the latter i think i only feign some interest in because of springsteen, and the former because when i squint and turn my head sideways i can almost make myself think that it's a kickass show opener now, probably even with "for boston"--which i should mention was never my favorite song they've used at the beginning of a setlist, but it sure as shit worked well. i can't exactly call those great reasons to like a song, though).

if i never hear any of the other songs again, i won't be too broken up about it. in fact, there are a good number i'd prefer never to hear again. "cruel" is probably the worst flogging molly song i've ever heard. "sunday hardcore matinee" and "going in style" are also a couple of the worst songs the band has ever recorded. nothing is ever going to take the place of "shipping up to boston" as the #1 worst dkm song, between that song being the one that started all this and everything else being much more forgettable rather than a viable contender. i still hate "walk away," and won't be saying that this album contains tracks that make me wish that was the worst of their catalogue because that's even a little too much hyperbole for me. but i've convinced myself it wasn't completely awful, even been known to sing along just as loudly at shows when they played that as some others. even if i weren't completely finished with this band live (and very likely now on record), i can't see myself doing that with 90% of this album.

"sunday hardcore matinee" gets a pretty big chunk of my hatred directed toward this album. i can almost applaud them for taking off the token hardcore song, because at this point it would be ridiculous. they've even pretty much abandoned the anthemic guitar-based punk rock w/ bagpipes song in favor of repeat versions of "captain kelly's kitchen" ("deeds not words" being the only one here, hence the reason it's the only song i'd actually say i like). name-check agnostic front and bad brains all you like, there's no point. the people who know those bands know where the band originally came from, and the people who only know the last handful of albums don't know or give a shit about gbh. maybe i'm forgetting where i come from on this, because it was exactly stuff like that which got me into bands like AF in the first place, and that with the internet today vs. the internet somewhere between 10-15 years ago it would take even less effort for some kid to discover a shit load of music that had been either unknown or only partly known to them. but i'm too cynical now to actually think 1) that's really a good thing. certainly did me a lot of good. and yes, that's sarcasm. not that i'd trade the bulk of my music-enjoyment of well over a decade now for mainstream rock music or anything, but it's just kind of complicated. anyway.... or 2) even happens all that often. i've run into too many dumbasses who've never heard of social distortion for example, and understand that as soon as the bulk of them graduate high school they turn into wilco fans or whatever bullshit has replaced wilco by now because that's what's cool. and to be the first song on the album that al barr sings more than trade-offs or backing vocals sort of feels to me like it's mocking the one guy in the band with the biggest claim to that most-coveted "punk rock roots" thing the song is about. maybe his voice is shot. maybe it was his idea. maybe he's deluded into reliving his youth, and then i guess would be mocking himself. i don't know, it doesn't matter. it's just yet another song punk rock guys feel the need to write as they get older, reminding the kids that they were there too once, long ago. this is just another sign of my unbending, unwilling to accept that DKM now is not the same DKM i liked...i liked "a month of sundays" on the last sick of it all album. sure, my super cynical side cringes a little every time another band that's been around 20+ years put out another "we're still around" song. but this one just strikes me as the least honest of any recent ones i've heard. hence the hate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Headache in a Suitcase
New Album Discussion 9 - Larry needs new arms, ba rum pa pum pum
33 34 35
Replies
1K
Views
56K
clerks
clerks
dan_smee
U2 - the lost album
Replies
4
Views
1K
gvox
gvox
Headache in a Suitcase
  • Locked
Songs of Songs, Books & Fat Puns - New Album Discussion #8
33 34 35
Replies
1K
Views
53K
Headache in a Suitcase
Headache in a Suitcase
gump
Spellling - The Turning Wheel
Replies
5
Views
603
bono_212
bono_212
TheWanderer
RSD 2022 release: A Celebration 12" with unreleased studio outtake
Replies
1
Views
724
ascender_RS
ascender_RS

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom