Well Christmas is over and I hope you all had a festively good time. If you are still in need of some good cheer though then wait no more as we have four brand new stonking 2019 Christmas-ish Celtic-Punk songs for you to delight over.
Craic open the Jamesons!
PEAT & DIESEL- ‘Fairytale Of Stornaway’
The story began when three Stornoway Cove’s (Innes, Uilly and Boydie) met up in the house to have the craic on a Saturday nights playing music with just the dog and cat watching. After a few tunes getting thrown across the room Boydie stated muttering a few sentences. As he is a man of few words not attention was really given to him until he shouted ‘Quick, line me out!’ Not a second to spare a set of old broken headphones were cable tied to a guitar amp and out came a few cobwebs followed shortly after with a sound nobody had ever heard before. What came next was five gallons of lyrics, verse after verse, song after song – PEAT & DIESEL WAS BORN! The songs won’t make much sense to the average person, but the person behind the lyrics isn’t your average man so if you have a listen and you can relate to it you are a special breed! Peat & Diesel take you on a journey to the heart of the Western Isles, where #peatlemania was born. You might have time for a brandy in the ‘Airidh’ but don’t miss your ride in Calum Dan’s Transit Van, we ain’t stopping till we lose the water!
Contact Peat & Diesel WebSite Facebook YouTube
CALICO STREET RIOTS- ‘Going Home’
In the summer of 2008 Calico Street Riots were born. Having formed immediately after the summer, Calico Street Riots wrote and recorded an EP, and were gigging by the end of the same year. After numerous gigs and plenty of praise in the folk-punk community, a second EP, From The City to the Shores surfaced in 2011. This EP showcased the band’s eclectic tastes coming together, flawlessly forming their own unique sound. The band would continue to play sporadic gigs and festivals throughout this time. Now, after an eight year hiatus from recording, Calico Street Riots have bounced back with some of their most unforgettable material to date. Most frequently compared musically to Flogging Molly meets The Dreadnoughts via The Pogues, Calico Street Riots draw their influences from a multitude of sources, fusing them into a satisfying blend of beer-fuelled, riotous and lively, folk-punk.
This track has been with Calico for a very long time, and we finally got round to recording it properly. They were fortunate to win studio time as part of a charity fundraiser in aid of Dementia UK so it felt like the right thing to do to help raise some more funds with this track. The single will be absolutely free, however we’d really appreciate it if you can spare anything at all, and make a donation to the charity via the link below. Dementia is a horrible illness, one which some of us are currently experiencing first hand, and hope to help the charity by raising funds into further research and prevention. www.justgiving.com/fundraising/calicostreetriots
Calico Street Riots WebSite Facebook YouTube
LEXINGTON FIELD- ‘Christmas At The Pub’
Formed back in 2009 in San Diego, southern California the band have previously released five albums, Old Dirt Road, Poor Troubled Life, No Man’s War, Greenwood and Dreamers as well as a bunch of quality EP’s as well. All have came garnered the same critical praise from both the celtic-punk and wider punk/rock music media. They have played and toured solidly and to call what they do unique is no way giving them enough credit! Lexington Field play a mixture of music blending genres from country and Americana as well as punk rock and not to be forgetting a massive dose of traditional Irish music with a expert fiddle player right slap bang in the middle. The band call what they do ‘fiddle rock’ and is as good a description as you could give them two words.
Contact Lexington Field WebSite Facebook YouTube Bandcamp
GRASS MUD HORSE- ‘Christmas Time In China’
Lao Wai punk rock based in Qinhuangdao China. Singing about our lives in one of the strangest, most amazing and sometimes horrible places on Earth. We sing in both English and Chinese, all our music is tongue in cheek and we hope it makes you smile! Grass Mud Horse are a punk band based in Northern China fronted by Chris Barry, who also writes all the songs. Originally from Liverpool he now lives in China and was also a member of the Canadian Rock band The Strange. The music is an eclectic mix of various punk styles, including Skate, hardcore, Ska, Celtic and features a diverse array of musical instruments (most also performed by Chris Barry). The lads are currently working on their debut album, Beijing Bikini.
Inspired by ugly Christmas jumpers (featuring llamas on them) the idea for a Christmas single formed. Now the reason for the bands name Grass Mud Horse is that it is the literal English translation of the Chinese term for the animal known as a llama or an Alpaca. In Chinese the llama is named 草泥马 (pronounced Cao Ni Ma.) As Chris says
“Now the reason we chose this for our name, is because if you say “Cao Ni Ma” with the wrong tones…you don’t say Alpaca at all, in fact you tell somebody to go fornicate with their mother. In addition to this being quite funny, China is of course a land of extreme censorship and to avoid getting in trouble for swearing, young Chinese angrily exclaim “Llama!”, when in fact they mean something else entirely.”
And that is why some ugly Christmas jumpers with lamas on them inspired a Christmas single which could in turn act as a really nice lead-up to the bands debut album due soon. You can buy the single here.
Grass Mud Horse WebSite Facebook YouTube
Welcome to the third and final instalment of our yearly Round-Up of Celtic-Punk, and related, releases from the past twelve months. As the scene becomes more popular we are finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with everything so for a week in December we give a short mention to those bands that have slipped the net. Each and every band here are worthy of your time so please be sure to check them out. To start with in Part One we featured releases from North America (
The Cherry Coke$ may have one of the daftest names in Celtic-Punk but they are far far far away from being any kind of joke band. Celebrating their twentieth anniversary with the release of their ninth (!!!!) album Oldfox Japanese Irish rockers The Cherry Coke$ were probably the first band in the scene from outside of one of the ‘traditional’ Celtic-Punk countries (the ones with substantial Celtic diasporas) to become famous. Basically playing fast as hell trad Irish folk they became as close to superstars as is possible in the Celtic-Punk scene for a while and though their star may have waned a little over the years that they are still producing the goods recording wise is testimony to how good a band they actually were and still are now too. They have got a bit faster and a bit punkier but the unmistakable sound of Irish music can be throughout Oldfox. With a multitude of members playing every imaginable Celtic instrument yet it always seems, just like the band that influenced them the most- The Pogues, to always be leading the way.
A few years ago Brazil was the leading country in South America when it came to Celtic-Punk but slowly and surely the balance of power has slowly been moving to the country that is Brazil’s great rival in everything- Argentina! With several bands on the go at the moment (more on them below) Aires Bastardos have released their debut album onto the scene and it is a corker as we say in England. We get eleven songs clocking in at almost forty minutes and though the majority of the songs are Aires Bastards originals their are a smattering of inspired covers as well. Lets get them out the way first with two great versions of The Ramones ‘We Want The Airwaves’ and Cock Sparrers ‘Because You’re Young’ which adds fiddle and banjo to these great songs while Pablo’s gravelly voice is perfect for belting out these numbers which are definitely in the Celtic-PUNK scheme of things. Singer Pablo is also responsible for most of the lyrics here and is a well known member of the Celtic-Punk scene networking across the web and promoting not just his own band but in the spirit of Celtic-Punk all the other Argentinian bands as well in #OneBigCelticPunkFamily ! The third cover here is the auld traditional Irish folk song ‘Drunken Sailor’ and to say it is well covered is a bit of an understatement with just about everyone having a go at it at sometime. Assisted on vocals here by Zeta Vaccaro from Angry Zeta And The Hillbullys (more below) and Gabriel Leão from their Brazilian next door neighbours the Celtic-Punk band 
With Celtic-Punk releases from the ‘Rest Of The World’ being a bit thin on the ground in 2019 I have had to cast my net a bit far this year to reel in some bands that will interest you all. I actually came across this band while writing the review for Aires Bastardos above and with one click of a button I found a new band to love from Argentina! Angry Zeta & The Hillbullys are from Buenos Aires and Live is the bands second release. The band play mostly Country-Punk (it use to be called Cow-Punk back in the day) versions of famous C’n’W and Cowboy songs like ‘Rawhide’, ‘Sam Hall’ and ‘Cocaine Blues’. The music is intense acoustic music with the spirit of the west throughout. Male and female shared vocals compete with some absolutely astounding banjo plucking and fiddle work as well as some double bass pounding. Their debut album is available as a ‘Name Your Own Price’ download on the Bandcamp link below if you want a taster of Live go check that out. The band have toured Europe before so keep an eye for them appearing at anytime. Here’s a stripped down version of ‘Glory’ taken from Live but as gloriously ramshackle as could be!!
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