Dropkick Murphys
Do or Die
Hellcat
This is Boston, not LA!
Great “Irish” HC punk rock via Boston. Previously, my favorite “Irish” American band was House of Pain. What H.O.P. was able to do for seriously belting out some sort of identity statement with hip hop, the Dropkick Murphys have more than succeeded with this intensely Irish album. (For the record, my great-grandfather was half-Irish, making me an eighth Irish, something that holds no meaning for me since I happen to be an American. However, had I grown up in the intensely Irish sections of Boston, I’d be chanting along with the Dropkick Murphy’s on their paean to the skinhead who never returned – “Skinhead on the MBTA.”)
To really appreciate the unique punk sound of the Dropkick Murphys, though, you have to put this record on at a pub filled with lots of good friends, grab a liter of Guinness, and bang your head along to their punk version of the Old Spice commercial, “Cadence to Arms.” Then everyone join in and dance a punk jig to “Do or Die,” “Never Alone,” and “Road of the Righteous.” For those of you who want the more ancestral tunes, they’ve included some traditional numbers like “Finnegan’s Wake” and “Far Away Coast.”
This is so great, it’s like getting in a time machine and going back to 1981, when HC was starting out. More proof that someone knows how to make punk rock in the U.S.A. Hellcat Records, 2798 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
