ODDS’N’SODS. CELTIC-PUNK ROUND UP MAY 2021

That time of the month again! Odds’n’Sods our regular monthly feature of all the Celtic-Punk news that’s fit to print. Band news, record releases, videos, tours (not individual gigs though yet sadly), live streams, crowd funders etc., send it into us at londoncelticpunks@hotmail.co.uk or through the Contact Us page. All will get a mention but I need YOU to help if it’s going to work.

We kick off this month with some sad news that THE MAHONES are retiring from touring. Easily the busiest band in the Celtic-Punk world they’ve been just about everywhere there is to go… and several times too! I think for many out there they are the only out of town Celtic-Punk band people will have seen. They will pop up for the occasional local gig or festival but that’s yer lot.

“After 30 years, it’s time for The Mighty Mahones to stop touring. There will be no farewell or reunion cash grab tours. We are done the big tours. If you didn’t come in the last 30 years, ya snooze ya lose, but we still love you! “

Other Mahones news leads man Finny has his debut solo album out soon on TrueNorth Records titled The Dark Streets Of Love and is booking now for a solo acoustic World Tour in 2021 / 2022.

Justin Sullivan of Brit Folk-Rockers NEW MODEL ARMY releases his 2nd solo album Surrounded at the end of May released on earMUSIC. Sixteen original songs written through the lockdown.  Pre-order the album(s) here: https://JustinSullivan.lnk.to/Surrounded

You lot must have heard the new DROPKICK MURPHYS album by now and personally I think it’s bloody brilliant! Been playing it non-stop and boucing off the walls here in LCP Towers for the last fortnight. New video from the boys landed in the month and as usual top quality! Turn Up The Dial is out now and we are letting the hoo-har die down before our review which we are very lucky to be able to have a stalwart member of the American-Irish community and the American-Irish Celtic-Punk scene to write it so expect a perspective you won’t see anywhere else.

LONAN are a Folk trio from Leeds and have just released their debut release a beautiful new song with  the proceeds going to St. George’s Crypt who do excellent work in Leeds providing shelter, food and support to the homeless and vulnerable.

Formerly of The Dead 60s and a recent live guitarist for The Specials, MATT McMANAMON has spent a decade putting out his debut album Scally Punk. It is released May 28, 2021 and you can hear a couple of songs on the Bandcamp player below. It is available now for pre-order from Fretsore Records.

The collaboration between NICK BURBRIDGE and DAN BOOTH of Ferocious Dog now has a confirmed release date at the end of May 2021, with pre-orders (including a t-shirt and signed print option) available now from www.nickanddan.co.uk 

THE REAL McCOYS – Outlive Death

TEUFELSTANZ – Decennium

UNCLE BARD AND THE DIRTY BASTARDS – The Cellar Tapes

BODH’AKTAN –  Live From Both Sides Of The Atlantic

One of the more interesting bands around are TEUFELSTANZ. They hail from Russia and have put out a new live album, Decennium. Recorded at their 10th anniversary concert at The Glastonberry in Moscow. Their unique sound, they call ‘Alternative Medieval Music; is well worth hearing. 

THE SCALLY CAP BRATS formed in Ottawa in the summer of 2010 out of a chance meeting between Mike Pusiak and Mike Franey. They quickly discovered a mutual love for Punk, Oi! and Celtic music which led to talk about starting a band. Take A Shot was their debut release a powerful 5 track EP that first introduced me to this excellent bands. Check out their Bandcamp page for more ‘name your price’ downloads and some very cheap albums. One of the best Celtic-Punkbands of the last decade. 

More Canadian Celtic-Punk from THE GRINNING BARRETTS from Ladysmith, British Columbia. They put out a couple of bloody awesome EP’s back in 2018 but have been a bit on the quiet side since but they have put out a couple of songs already this year. Divided By A Negative is also available as a ‘name your price’ download below.

Yet more from Canada and BODH’AKTAN have a live album out now – De Part Et D’autre De l’Atlantique. Eleven songs recorded at different venues throughout 2019. It is, of course, an absolute belter and watch this space for a upcoming review very soon.

UNCLE BARD AND THE DIRTY BASTARDS enjoyed live streaming so much that they have gone and recorded an album in the same acoustic style. The Cellar Tapes Vol.1 is out on platforms on May 7th.

Facebook has become an unlikeable monster with more and more good folk leaving. Can’t say I blames you. So we have set up a Telegram group. Similar but better (and easier to use) than Whats App and free from Facebook control. Join us on Telegram and dont miss a beat! https://t.me/londoncelticpunks/

A plug for some good friends of ours over on Facebook. The Dropkick Murphys- Fan Page and the Celtic Punk, Folk And Rock Fans are two of the best music forums on FB let alone Celtic-Punk. Ran By Fans For Fans. Just like and join in the fun!

All we need to do now is for you to help fill this page with news and remember if you are new to the London Celtic Punks blog it is easy to subscribe / follow and never miss a post. Also if anyone is interested in helping out on the reviews front then let us know via the Contact Us page.

ALBUM REVIEW: SCALLY CAP BRATS- ‘Our Storied Past’ (2015)

Capital City Folk ‘n Oi!

Now I know we’re not really allowed to have favourites and we are suppose to be ‘objective’ and all that but there’s a handful of bands that can do no wrong for me at all and if they released an album full of techno songs then I have a feeling i would still bloody like it. One band, for example, is The Rumjacks and another, you may not of heard of, is The Scally Cap Brats from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Formed in 2010 out of a chance meeting between Mike Pusiak and Mike Eff they quickly discovered a mutual love for punk, Oi! and celtic music which led to talk about starting a band. They got together in Mike Pusiak’s basement and began writing songs and learning a few traditional tunes. Over time members have come and gone and now the current lineup of The Scally Cap Brats is Mike P – vocals and guitar, Mike F – mandolin, Danny – drums, Collin – bass and Chris – guitar. In the spirit of Oi! music there’s no gimmick with The Brats and what you get is just good time music that will have you both jigging and moshing your brains out.

the Scally Cap Brats signature tune!

This is the Brats follow up album to their debut ‘Let us Drink, For We Must Die’ back in 2012. The bhoys self funded ‘Our Storied Past’ along with their fans via an Indiego campaign where fans could buy special Brats gifts or get the album on pre-release. Previously they have also released three well received EP’s that have fired The Scally Cap Brats into the top division of celtic-punk.

The album kicks off with ‘Our Storied Past’ and fast and furious mandolin competes with an old-school traditional Oi! sound that will certainly blow any folky cob-webs away!

“Our Storied Past it makes us who we are
We have no regrets, just our memories and scars
If you sent us back again we’d do it all the same
No time to second guess, no time to doubt the pain
We’ve lost a few friends as we’ve gone along the way
Made a few enemies but we’re here to stay
After all this time and the roads we had to take
We’re not going to quit after coming all this way”

Next up is ‘Barry Square’ and the tale of a group of the bands friends who found themselves held up at gunpoint in Hartford, Connecticut. ‘Going Down The Line’ reminds me of the Charm City Saints and is a real celtic-punk classic but with a punk rock chorus. The mandolin could get lost in the mix and hdespite having t compete it comes across really clear in the mix and stands out proud. Mike P’s vocals are of the raspy shouty sort and they work really well. Close harmonies may suit some celtic-punk but not this celtic-punk! ‘Two Chord’ continues with the mandolin put away and its heads down for some more catchy punk.  The mando is back for ‘Claw And Dig’ and a slight ska beat soon changes into the Brats fastest song before slowing right down again. One of the albums standouts for me. As soon as ‘Take Me Away’ starts you can hear the Irish tune hidden inside the punk tune and with some one guesting on bagpipes makes you wish they had a permanent piper. This leads onto ‘The Shiner’s War’ the albums most overt celtic-punk song. The mando is turned up to eleven and its all about the working class on this one and how we always get shafted! ‘Help Our Heroes’ returns them to harder territory and tells a story of a friend who joins the Army and whose life takes wrong turns and who ends up homeless. Catchy as hell and with a strong message. ‘You Never Know’ and ‘Yankee Jim’ has Mike P sounding like a forty cigs a day man while ‘No Matter What’ returns them to celtic-punk again with mando leading the way. With the LP drawing to a close ‘Lonely Days And Drunken Nights’ ensures it’s not going to be going quietly and Mike F’s mandolin starts ’18th To 21st’ off before the band blast into what could be an early-Murphys ‘Do Or Die’ era song. The final track ‘Dress Sharp, Drink Hard’ is a proud skinhead anthem that The Cockney Rejects would be proud of. Yet more catchy punk with a shouty gang chorus to raise your pint in the air and is an absolutely brilliant way to end ‘Our Storied Past’.

Fourteen tracks and near forty minutes of music that in the end blends Oi!, celtic, Rock’n’Roll, punk, folk and pretty much everything else in between. The Scally Cap Brats are impossible to pidgeonhole into one sound and their appeal as a band reflects that. There is nothing too overly complicated here I am sure the Bhoys won’t mind me saying but its done with gusto and the music is pure energy and blue-collar pride. If as I say early-Dropkick Murphys is yer thing then I swear to God you will fecking love this as much as I do.

(press play below to hear the whole album)

(left to right) Collin, Mike P, Mike F, Danny, Chris

Contact The Band

WebSite  Facebook  Bandcamp  YouTube  Twitter

Buy The Album

FromTheBand

you can read our article on the Scally Cap Brats indiego campaign to raise money to record ‘Our Storied Past’ here. There’s a full biography of the band and much more music!!

NEW DROPKICK MURPHYS TRIBUTE ALBUM OUT TODAY!

Take a Shot Records are proud to announce the release of their first major album as a record label. The idea for ‘Famous For Nothing: A Tribute to Dropkick Murphys’ came from Mike Franey (The Scally Cap Brats) and Chris Arias (Blackthorn Billy), and their love for the band. It was decided that the best way to pay tribute to the band that has influenced them so much was to recruit others who felt the same way and to make a tribute compilation and donate all the proceeds to The Claddagh Fund (Dropkick Murphys’ own charity).

As Mike said

“both of us have listened to the band for a long, long time, and we felt that just covering their songs ourselves wasn’t enough. A quick chat with Ken Casey and he gave us permission to go forward with it and here we are!”

With the permission of Ken Casey and Dropkick Murphys, the compilation features eighteen bands from a wide array of places such as the United States, Sweden, Australia, Germany and Canada and 100% of the proceeds will be donated directly to the Claddagh Fund. Work on the release has been going on for over a year and it promises to deliver an eclectic mix of sounds from celtic-punk to street punk to folk to everything in between. Spanning the Murphys entire career, a wide array of songs have made the final roster for your listening pleasure.

The full track listing is as follows and you can click on the individual band name for more information.

Nowhere USA (Boston) – Never Alone
Blackthorn Billy (San Antonio) – A Few Good Men
BarRoom Heroes (Boston) – Barroom Hero
East End Radicals (Montreal) – Buried Alive

Murder State (Ottawa) – Worker’s Song
Saturday’s Heroes (Finspång) – Surrender
Hoist the Colors (Los Angeles) – Take ‘Em Down
The Ramshackle Army (Melbourne) – State of Massachusetts
Penalty Kill (Boston) – On The Attack
The Lucky Ones (St. Catharine’s) – Get Up
Irish Moutarde (Quebec City) – The Dirty Glass
Skullians (Toronto) – Heroes From Our Past
Machine Gun Dolly (Ottawa) – The Torch
Emscherkurve 77 (Oberhausen) – Fightstarter Karaoke (featuring Al Barr)
Brain Damage (Ottawa) – Curse of a Fallen Soul
The Scally Cap Brats (Ottawa) – Boys On The Docks
Hex Bombs (Kalamazoo) – Forever

and the CD ends with Irish-American celtic-punk legends

The Gobshites (Boston) – Shipping Up To Boston

ORDER NOW AT

 BANDCAMP

Official release date is today Tuesday, February 24th, 2015.

Contact Take A Shot Records  Bandcamp  Facebook

Contact The Claddagh Fund

The Claddagh Fund was founded in 2009 by Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys.  Ken, his bandmates and their families have supported charities throughout the history of the band.  Understanding the power of their position to harness the passion and generosity of their fans, the Claddagh Fund was created to raise funds for and broaden our impact on worthy, underfunded non-profits that support the most vulnerable individuals in our communities.

Utilizing a grassroots approach to fundraising, The Claddagh Fund supports community-based non-profits, with a focus on children and veterans organizations and programs that support alcohol and drug rehabilitation in cities across the country and around the world.  WebSite  Facebook  Twitter

THE SCALLY CAP BRATS LAUNCH INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN

Oi! with a folk twist

For the last couple of months Canadian celtic-punkers The Scally Cap Brats have been working on a new album called ‘Our Storied Past’ and will hopefully be released in October through their own label Take A Shot Records.

“We’ve put our blood, sweat, and tears into this one and I truly believe it is the best work we’ve done to date. It’s a more mature, heartfelt effort than our previous album and is something I desperately want to share with the world”

Now, the band is going to need your help to make that happen. They’ve set up an Indiegogo campaign to fund the release of the album in both CD and vinyl format. All the typical perks you would find in such a campaign plus some cool unique ones. Any little bit helps and it would mean the world to the band if you could contribute. And if you can’t share this link on their facebook, twitter, instagram, etc…

http://igg.me/at/scbalbum/x/8394706

Over the next 30 days of the campaign, we’ll be releasing more details like the song titles, and artwork so stay tuned for that as well. So here’s your chance to help out one of the best bands in the scene and give yourself a nice warm feeling of helping others!

THE SCALLY CAP BRATS BIOGRAPHY

The Scally Cap Brats formed in the summer of 2010 out of a chance meeting between Mike Pusiak and Mike Franey. They quickly discovered a mutual love for Punk, Oi! and Celtic music which led to talk about starting a band. The original lineup was then solidified by the fall, with Kevin Grace on Drums and Katherine Maziec on bass. Soon after, a set list was completed. This set would include traditional folk songs, aggressive folk punk, and many songs with an Oi! Influence. It was soon time for the first show, in Ottawa, at Maverick’s bar. No one was sure what to expect beforehand but the band took to the stage with a vengeance, making an immediate impression on the attendees. The Scally Cap Brats tore through their set, bursting with energy and excitement that had the crowd clapping and dancing along all night. After the first show The Scally Cap Brats went on to celebrate St. Patrick’s day by playing two nights at Zaphod’s Beeblebrox. The first night, March 16th, saw the Brats opening up for Celtic Punk legends The Mahones; The second night, March 17th, saw them honour St. Patrick alongside local Oi! juggernauts, the Rookers. It was the beginning of a momentous start for the Scally Cap Brats as they quickly began making a name for themselves throughout the city and beyond.

With 2012 came several lineup changes Danny DeVille (The Matadors, Sick Sick Sicks) joined the band on bass for a brief period before moving behind the drum kit, while Collin Hanes of Murder State agreed to fill in on Bass. Just one month after Danny’s arrival, The Brats entered the studio to record their debut album, “Let us Drink, For We Must Die”. A 12 track effort featuring catchy celtic riffs, pounding bass, and sing along choruses. You can hear the influence of bands such as Dropkick Murphys, Street Dogs, Stiff Littler Fingers, The Dubliners, and Stan Rogers, yet also hear the band’s own unique voice coming through. The release of this album was celebrated on September 14th, 2012 alongside their good friends, Machine Gun Dolly. The show turned out to be the most raucous, beer soaked show to date for the band, yet it is still just the beginning. Since their first show in February of 2011 The Scally Cap Brats have shared the stage with bands such as The Mahones, Matadors, Koffin Kats, 3tards, The Dreadnoughts, The Oppressed, Prowlers, Planet Smashers, Razors in the Night, Bishops Green and King Size Braces.
2014 will see the release of the band’s second studio album, to go along with their previous 3 EP’s and debut full length. The band’s expanded sound will be showcased, bringing to light a harder edge and mature undertones which will make the album a unique experience that builds on their first but also outshines it in every way. In order to do this, and to bring that same feeling to their live shows, the band also welcomed Christian Rapley this year, on rhythm guitar, to fill out their sound.

Contact The Band

WebSite  Facebook  Bandcamp  YouTube

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…