ALBUM REVIEW: 13KRAUSS- TheEnd Is Nigh’ (2016)

Part Dropkicks, a wee part Molly’s but always 100% celtic-folk-punk!

The End is Nigh is the follow up album from 13Krauss  to their excellent debut album, Seguir En Pie, which was released to great acclaim back in 2014. For our review of that grand album then check out here. Originally forming up as a straight up, no frills punk rock band but after a Real McKenzies show in their home town they were inspired to change direction and take the celtic-punk high road. So the boys went on to add an accordion player and a bagpiper and 13Krauss the celtic punk band were born! Hailing from Zaragoza in what is basically the dead centre of Spain they have become firm favourites on the Spanish scene, and further afield as well, and on the basis of these two albums it is no surprise why either.

The album begins with ‘Reza Por Tu Vida’ and the sound of an ocean and a toiling bell adds some nice touches to this blistering slab of fast and furious celtic-punk. One of only three songs sung in Spanish, the rest are in English, except for the one instrumental. Its a brilliant start with shouty gang vocals atop of acoustic guitar and bagpipes and its very Dropkicks sounding indeed. ‘Doomsday’ follows and reminds me of my current scene fave’s Ferocious Dog with the fiddle looming large and cranked up electric guitar and mandolin. Bodi vocal style is excellent. Shouty and strained but never unintelligible and you know that if pushed he could give it a real ‘croon’ with the best of them. The bagpipes are back out for ‘Flying Broken Chairs’, a catchy as hell track telling of a wicked and wild night down the boozer. They literally just released the video for ‘Flying Broken Chairs’ just yesterday featuring footage from this years St Patrick’s Day gig in Sala López in their home town of Zaragoza.

The best celtic-punk bands have the ability to slow it down and with the aptly named ‘Slow Down’ 13Krauss prove they can do it too. The story is of looking for leprauchauns and has quite the polka sound to it. Much like The Dreadnoughts use to play. Another thing a lot of non-celtic in origin celtic-punk bands are very good at is bringing new sounds and influences into their music and again ‘En Mi Ataúd’ has a sort of polka /Russian thing going on and its great. ‘Don’t Feed The Goblin’ is the only instrumental here and instrumental by name MENTAL by nature. A fast as hell ride through Dropkick Murphy’s style bagpipe punk rock. 13Krauss switch it up again and ‘Miserable Bridges’ has a skate-punk feel to it while again David’s bagpiping is absolutely superb. We are nearing the end now and ‘The Smitting Blow’ changes it up again with a country folk punk number that is unlike anything else here but equally as good and then finally we have ‘El Mañana No Espera’ and the end of the album. The bagpipes are loud and proud and the curtain comes down on this fantastic album with another piece of Murphy’s influenced celtic-punk rock.

The album was recorded and mixed in their home town and the nine tracks clock in at a very healthy thirty minutes. It was released just after St Patrick’s Day earlier in the year and is available for download as ‘name your price’ and only €9 for the actual physical compact disc which comes in a rather nice jewel case with all the song lyrics, credits and pictures in a extensive twelve page booklet. That there’s not a single cover version here is the first thing that struck me on hearing The End is Nigh. Just nine great slabs of celtic-punk that show the influence of other bands in the scene but always with the 13Krauss stamp of individuality on it. They have a great knack of switching it up and just as you feel your in for a ride of Dropkick Murphys expectations your off in another completely different direction. There are some outstanding celtic-punk bands from the region with Catalan bands The Drink Hunters and Sigelpa due to release new albums very soon, Bastards from Galicia still touring Europe relentlessly and The Fatty Farmers having also recently released a excellent new album too. 13Krauss deserve to be heard beyond Spain but also beyond Dropkick Murphys fans too as this album will appeal to all fans of the genre whether you prefer the punky or the folkier side of celtic-punk. 

(You can have a free listen to The End Is Nigh by pressing play on the Bandcamp player below. Follow the link below to buy)

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FromTheBand

Contact The Band

Bandcamp  Facebook  Twitter   MySpace   YouTube

* the guys from 13Krauss have also set up the ZARAGOZA CELTIC PUNKS group on Facebook so trot along there and join up here…

(Check out this full concert from 13Krauss. a unusual camera angle but you can see how much the crowd gets into as the gig goes along. Brilliant!)

LONDON CELTIC PUNKS PRESENTS OUR BEST OF 2015!

One of the best things about doing this here blog-zine is the end of year ‘Best Of’s’. This is our chance to reward, for what it’s worth, and recommend those releases that tickled our collective fancies over the last twelve months. Where as in 2013 the Best Of’s were dominated by local bands and releases and in 2014 it was international bands that stole the show this years is more of a mix of the two. No shocks at the top I’m afraid. It was always going to be a slug out between the big hitters of celtic-punk with The Rumjacks just shading it from the The Mahones by the slightest of margins. One of the team commented that the only difference was that ‘The Hunger And The Fight Part 1’ was slightly better than Part 2. In third place came 1916 out of New York who only just sneaked in with the December release of ‘Last Call For Heroes’. The album came out so late we didn’t even get a chance to mention it let alone review it nevertheless it blew us all away with their brilliant combination of rockabilly and celtic-punk. Another one to file in the ‘shamrockabilly’ category. Overall no major surprises and all four admins lists pretty much tallied up with each other but it’s especially great to see some non-English speaking bands in there as well as some bands that were new to us in the last twelve months. I was particularly happy to see Skontra and The Cundeez make the grade representing celtic-punk as played in the celtic nations. As ever we have reviewed some, though not all of these albums, so click (here) after the title and you will be re-directed to our review. If your album is not here do not be downhearted. These twenty album’s are the tip of the iceberg of what was released last year in what was an outstanding year for celtic-punk. Feel free to comment, slag off or dissect our lists. We don’t pretend to be the final word as that my friends is for you…

TOP 20 CELTIC PUNK ALBUMS

1. THE RUMJACKS- ‘Sober And Godless’  (here)

2. THE MAHONES- ‘The Hunger And The Fight Part 2’

3. 1916- ‘Last Call For The Heroes’ (here)

4. FEROCIOUS DOG- ‘From Without’

5. THE GREENLAND WHALEFISHERS- ‘The Thirsty Mile’  (here)

6. MR.IRISH BASTARD- ‘The World, The Flesh & The Devil’  (here)

7.  THE DEAD MAGGIES- ‘Well Hanged’  (here)

8. THE GO SET- ‘Rolling Sound’  (here)

9. MICKEY RICKSHAW- ‘No Heaven For Heroes’  (here)

10. HAPPY Ol’ McWEASEL- ‘Heard Ya Say’  (here)

 11. JASPER COAL- ‘Just The One…’  (here)

12. THE CUNDEEZ- Sehturday Night Weaver  (here)

13. THE FATTY FARMERS- ‘Escape From The Dirty Pigs’  (here)

14. THE SHILLELAGHS- ‘Bury Me At Sea’  (here)

15. JOLLY JACKERS- ‘Sobriety’  (here)

16. MALASANERS- Spanish Eyes’  (here)

17. SKONTRA- ‘Foguera’  (here)

18. THE WAXIES’ ‘Down With The Ship’  (here)

19. KITCHEN IMPLOSION- ‘Selfish’

20. THE TOSSPINTS- The Privateer  (here)

TOP TEN CELTIC PUNK EP’S

Now onto the EP’s. These are classed as shorter usually four to six songs long and around anything right up to 15-20 minutes long. No shock here at number one as a unanimous vote saw this years new band of the year Mick O’Toole walk away with the title. They have been a solid fixture during the year building up quite a reputation and following. At number two it’s long been a well known secret that Indonesia is a hotbed of celtic-punk and Dirty Glass are one of the best bands in their flourishing scene and ‘Drunken Summer Nights’ ran O’Toole very close while another English band came in third. Matilda’s Scoundrels really hit the heights in 2015 and just like Mick O’Toole bigger and better things await them in 2016. The rest of the list is made up from bands from across the globe with Slovenia, South Africa, Hungary, Catalonia, Russia, Holland, France and Yorkshire all making the list.

1. MICK O’TOOLE- ‘1665 Pitchfork Rebellion’  (here)

2. DIRTY GLASS- ‘Drunken Summer Night’  (here)

3. MATILDA’S SCOUNDRELS- ‘Split w/ The Barracks’  (here)

4. ZUNAME- ‘Pipes Not Dead’  (here)

5. THE HYDROPATHS- ‘Wailing Away’  (here)

6. SOUTH SHORE RAMBLERS- ‘Open Room Sessions’  (here)

7. O’HAMSTERS- ‘Kiss My Irish Ass’  (here)

8. LOCH NESZ- ‘Leave The Captain Behind’  (here)

9. CIRCLE J- ‘Year Of The Goat’  (here)

10. SIGELPA- ‘Ens Van Diagnosticar Un Transtorn’  (here)

11. THE MOORINGS- ‘Nicky’s Detox’  (here)

TOP TEN FOLK/TRADITIONAL RELEASES

As the blog is for (mostly) celtic punk so it is that we only review stuff that isn’t celtic punk if we really really (really!!) like it. All these rocked our boat and we loved each of them all to bits. If you like celtic-punk then you should not be afraid to give traditional folk a listen. Most of it is more punk than punk these days you know. It’s a direct link to the music that inspired celtic punk music and their are some amazing bands and performers out there. Hard to decide which order they should go in especially as O’Hanlons Horsebox could have just as easily won this years Best Celtic Punk Album as well! This is how the Top Ten ended up.

1. O’HANLONS HORSEBOX- ‘Songs And Stories From The Border’  (here)

2. BARRULE- Mannannans Cloak’  (here)

3. LE VENT DU NORD- ‘Têtu’  (here)

4. BRYAN McPHERSON- ‘Wedgewood’  (here)

5. THE RATHMINES- ‘Ramblin With The Rats. Stolen Songs of Struggle’  (here)

6. ANTO MORRA- ‘Boudicca’s Country’

7. JACK OF ALL- ‘Bindle Punk’  (here)

8. JOHNNY CAMPBELL- ‘Hook, Line And Sinker’  (here)

9. FFR CELTIC FIESTA- ‘Fresh Blood’

10. THE PROCLAIMERS- ‘Let’s Hear It For The Dogs’  (here)

11. SKWARDYA- ‘Domhwelyans/ Revolution’

TOP CELTIC PUNK WEB-SITE

Again Waldo over at Celtic Folk Punk And More walks away with this award. There is simply no better site on the internet. Everything you would possibly need to know is here with a HUGE range of bands covered and there is no doubt in my mind that the site you are reading here now would not exist without the inspiration of Celtic Folk Punk And More. Sadly Waldo published a post on January 3rd titled ‘New Year, New Life’ (here) announcing the suspension of the site for a while. We wish Waldo well and look forward to his, and his fantastic web site’s, return.

* The lists were compiled from the scraps of crumpled paper, and one beermat, handed to me by the other three admins from the London Celtic Punks Facebook page and tallied up over several pints of beer in a seedy working man’s Irish boozer in north London.

 Sláinte, The London Celtic Punks Crew- 2015

all the major players in celtic-punk do Best Of lists so click below to check out what they thought

CELTIC FOLK PUNK AND MORE

CELTIC-ROCK

PADDYROCK

MacSLONS IRISH RADIO

remember any views or comments we would love to hear them…

ALBUM REVIEW: THE FATTY FARMERS- ‘Escape From The Dirty Pigs’ (2015)

Spanish Flogging Molly style Celtic punk rock orchestra!

The Fatty Farmers were formed in 2009 and having now listened to all three of their albums I can honestly say they are one of the most infectiously fun bands knocking around in the celtic-punk scene. From the very first sound of the very first song what you get here is a joyful romp that must be surely a joy to behold to catch live as if their live shows contain a tenth of the energy as this album then that is more than enough! The Fatty Farmers hail from Toledo in central España, 70 km south of Madrid. The city is famed for its socialist values as well as its religious tolerance with Christian, Jew and Muslim communities existing peacefully side by side for centuries. It is perhaps that tolerance for other views and cultures that led eight young Spanish friends to form The Fatty Farmers and become one of the celtic punk scenes hidden delights.

The first thing you notice as the album plays is that the band are firmly from the Flogging Molly camp of celtic-punk and with the Molly’s showing no sign of releasing anything now for a couple of years I tells you this is very welcome. Lately its been the Dropkicks style that has dominated my stereo but I like my trad music and you get plenty of that here. The second thing you notice is how similar Rodrigo’s vocal style is to Dave King. Sung in perfect English it is at times uncanny. Now I must add at this point that I do not want you to think that The Fatty Farmers are some clone or covers band of Flogging Molly in fact they do sound like The Mollys if they had continued in the same vein as ‘Within A Mile Of Home’ but there’s more to their fiddle than that. They have released two previous albums, ‘Down In The Streets’ and ‘Refarmatory’, and have toured extensively at home as well as in Italy and Portugal and hopefully this album will deservedly get them plenty more recognition.

(2013)

(2011)

The first of the album’s 16, yes sixteen!, tracks is ‘Carrot Man’ and straight away you know you are in for a great ride. The accordion leads the song along and the fiddle adds a bit of a country feel and just a few seconds in and you feel like leaping about the place.

‘Dirty Tricks’ is next and with female backing vocals, by friend of the band Bea, the country-punk has it sounding a somewhat  like The Rumjacks and everyone knows how much I love them! With ‘Freddy’ we are in proper celtic-punk territory for the first time on the album and the boys ramp it right up with fiddle and accordion and mandolin all together with the entertaining tale of murder in a circus.

“What´s going on? All of this is so real. What´s going on? One kill list? Could it be sinister ventriloquist´s dummy?”

‘The Kings of Our Farm’ could be the bands anthem and the hilarious story of winning the lottery and turning their farm into a strip club.

“We´ll miss the races with our pigs now live at full speed,we hired some girls who cleaned our farm”

Eventually they tire of the life and wish to return to the simple pleasures of farming. The Molly sound is complete with added tin whistle and one of the albums stand out tracks. ‘Gafitaeh’ is the only instrumental and has a Greenland Whalefishers sound to it I suppose because of the tin whistle and The Poguesy feel too. The song rattles along at a grand old pace and shows they can really put a tune together. On ‘Grandma’s Drug Lab’ the band never sound so like Flogging Molly again I can promise you.

Without a doubt another of the album highlights and followed by ‘A Doubt in My Heart’, one of the slower album tracks, which has a cool acoustic sound before ‘A Letter to Beth’ explodes in yer ear holes and we’re settling in nicely but then we are thrown a curve ball and ‘Invictus’ shows the band get the bagpipes out and Javato’s piping is brilliant in the punkiest song of the album and the one that would be guaranteed to see me hit the dance floor. Superb both lyrically and musically proving their is much more going on here than the influence of The Mollys.

“Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit From pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed”

Based on a poem by the English Victorian poet William Ernest Henley. ‘Invictus’ was written in 1875 and published in 1888. Henley wrote the poem while recovering from life threatening surgery. Their is a lot more to The Fatty Farmers then their ‘fun’ persona would have you believe.

Don’t worry though ‘There’s a Treasure Everywhere’ sees the boys chuck out a pirate song before ‘Under Our Kilts’ the oddest song on the album comes on. The words are gibberish and a in-joke from the band while the music begins with the mandolin before again they take The Rumjacks sound a little further and a ska song wrapped round the accordion. The song develops making you think its going to turn punk rock any second but they stop just short and when the rest of the band join in the sound is actually really good. Just wish I could tell what they are on about!! ‘Drunk Fighters’ again shows how versatile The Fatty Farmers are and they turn their hand to this punk number and its a testament to them that even when they put songs in like ‘Drunk Fighters’ they don’t stick out uncomfortably and in fact seem perfectly at home.

“We’re the drunk fighters. These are our lives we chose and we know, ready to fight and ready for the show”

The Molly influence is back with both ‘Fanegas T.V. Show’ and ‘Queen of Drag Queens’ and to say they are catchy tunes would be a fecking massive understatement. We are getting to the end of the album. An hour’s worth of top notch celtic punk that will surely be challenging for the years best album if their is any justice. The bagpipes are back in ‘When Our River Was a Beach’ which begins slowly lulling you into thinking your in for an easy ride and then the whistle kicks in and we are off again. All great things come to an end and ‘Dancing Duels’ brings one of the best records I have heard this year to an end. A short song, only 71 seconds long, but stuffed to the gills in a live battle between the fiddle and the tin whistle.

The Fatty Farmers left to right: Javier (whistle, bagpipe) Juancar (drums) Javi (fiddle) Rodri (banjo, mandolin, lead vocals) Josemi (electric guitar) Lalo (acoustic guitar) Lamber (bass) Goyo (accordion)

With such a fantastic album under their belts I am sure that The Fatty Farmers will get the recognition they deserve. Fans of the band funded the making of the album so they do have a hardcore of support but they need to get around a whole lot more and introduce the rest of Europe to the glorious sound of The Fatty Farmers. They are of course indebted to Flogging Molly as their influence is clear on ‘Escape From The Dirty Pigs’ but to think they are just copying them couldn’t be further from the truth. The Fatty Farmers are definitely one of the best and original bands in the celtic-punk scene and deserve to be heard. A superb combination of traditional folk music and modern influences. Be sure to watch this band.

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FromTheBand -the album is available on PayPal for €10 (+ €4 postage) so email thefattyfarmers@gmail.com

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for another opinion on the album check out ‘Celtic Folk Punk And More’ (here) but they seem to have liked it just as much as we did!

ALBUM REVIEW: 13KRAUSS – ‘Seguir En Pie’ (2014)

Debut album from 13Krauss a new band from Zaragoza in Spain. Originally forming as a straight up punk band they were converted to celtic-punk after the boys attended a show by The Real McKenzies in their hometown. They added bagpipes and accordion into the band and hey presto 13Krauss were born! A year later and this debut album hits the shelves…

You get 9 tracks of which seven are in Spanish, one in English and an excellent instrumental The album clocks in at a bit of a measly 25 minutes and the songs fly by with an energy you’ll only find in the celtic-punk world. It is self produced by the band themselves so get onto Bandcamp and support them by buying the download (from only £2!). It was produced by Xavi Estivil together with the band and was mastered by Javier Roldón at “Vaccum Mastering” in Zaragoza.

Sounding at times like the folkier bits of the Dropkick Murphys but without losing the punky feel to it. They very occasionally go into Flogging Molly territory but don’t get me wrong, saying this in no way makes 13Krauss a copycat band. It’s the celtic instruments that lead the way and both the pipes and the accordion are excellently played. I bet they were a decent punk band too as the rest of the band play their parts well and together they have produced a great wee album that puts them at the forefront of Spanish celtpunk. It’s been quite prolific over there recently with The Drink Hunters, Brutus Daughter and The Fatty Farmers all releasing excellent albums recently. I don’t include Bastards On Parade for the obvious reason that they aren’t Spanish! Hats off also to Celtic Folk Punk And More which for those who don’t know is a fantastic Spanish based blog and the inspiration for us to start our own one!

Things are looking bright for the bands future having played this years main St Patrick’s Day stage in Madrid with Bad Manners and a forthcoming tour of mainland Europe taking in France, Germany, the Czech republic and Switzerland in April 2014. The band deserve credit for producing a album of purely original numbers that is also chock full of tight as f*k, expertly played, fast paced celtic punk rock that will appeal to all!

Contact The Band  Bandcamp  Facebook  Twitter   MySpace   YouTube

the guys from the band set up the ZARAGOZA CELTIC PUNKS group on Facebook so trot along there and join up here…

FREE DOWNLOAD: IRISH PUB SONGS COMPILATION

Destined to go down in history (well Celtic-Punk history anyway!) the Irish Pub Songs Collection. A download of the best music around today. 70 minutes long with 23 bands from 15 countries and available for nothing at all.

Every day’s St. Patrick’s Day according to Neck but a week today it actually is so to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day, we are super pleased to offer you this collection of some of the finest Celtic-Punk bands around today to download completely for *FREE*. Seriously this is as good a sampler as you’ll find of what’s alive and kicking and fecking brilliant in the world of Celtic-Punk. Download link below but you can follow the links to find out more about each band.

TRACKLIST

01. Celkilt (France)- Everyday’s St Patrick’s Day  WebSite

02. Drink Hunters (Catalonia) – Drinking Song  Facebook

03. The Ramshackle Army (Australia) – Boilermaker’s Hands  Facebook  WebSite

04. Auld Corn Brigade (Germany)- Day To Day  WebSite

05. The Vandon Arms (USA) – Streets Of Gold  Facebook

06. Sunday Punchers (South Africa)- Guinness – Facebook

07. Lexington Field (USA) – Crazy Eyes  Facebook  WebSite

08. The Lagan (London)- Fields Of Athenry  Facebook  WebSite

09. Fiddler’s Green (Germany)- A Bottle A Day  WebSite

10. The Detonators (Serbia)- My World  Facebook

11. The Tosspints (USA) – Blood or Whiskey  Facebook

12. Pint Of Stout (Ukraine)- We All Deserve To Die Facebook  Album Review here

13. The Fatty Farmers (Spain) – At The Counter Bar  Facebook

14. Cheers! (Czech Republic)- Cliffs Of Galway  Facebook

15. Fox’n’Firkin (Australia)- 1788  Facebook

16. 1916 (USA)- Wild Rover  WebSite  Facebook

17. Bastards On Parade (Galicia)- Drunken Haze  Facebook

18. The Tossers (USA) – Here’s To A Drink With You  Facebook  WebSite  Album Review here

19. Irish Moutarde (Quebec)- Farewell to Drunkenness  Facebook  Review here  Interview

20. LochNesz (Hungary)- Have Another Whisky  Facebook

21. Brutus’ Daughters (Spain) – 6 Beers  Facebook

22. The Scally Cap Brats (Canada) – Dress Sharp, Drink Hard  Bandcamp

23. The Irish Rovers (Canada) – Drunken Sailor  Facebook 

if any links go dead leave a comment please leave a comment

YOU CAN LISTEN TO THE ALBUM BELOW

you can download Irish Pub Songs for free if you wish but there is also an option to donate to the Justice For The Craigavon 2 campaign that we support. Brendan McConville and John Paul Wootton have been locked up unjustly convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Any donations to the campaign go directly to the campaign. Their are other albums on the Bandcamp site available. To find out more information on this miscarriage of justice please visit

jftc2.com    www.facebook.com/JFTC2/

CLICK ON THE ALBUM SLEEVE BELOW

So there you have it. The CD clocks in at a whopping 70 minutes and and its not even dominated by North American bands with 15 countries represented on the compilation. It’s a ‘name your price’ download so anything at all is acceptable from nothing to whatever you can afford. So get downloading, put the kettle on or open a beer and get listening…