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Irish Punk purveyors Dropkick Murphys
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Look at the Dropkick Murphys today and the band that recorded the 1997 album Do or Die and it almost seems like two entirely different bands.
Back then, the lineup included singer Mike McColgan, guitarist Rick Barton, bassist Ken Casey and drummer Matt Kelly. Two albums later, Casey and Kelly are the only original members. McColgan was replaced by Al Barr just before recording of the 1999 CD, The Gang's All Here.
Now on the new Dropkick Murphys' CD, Sing Loud, Sing Proud, the lineup has shifted even further. The band now features two guitarists -- James Lynch and Marc Orrell -- in place of Barton, who got married and decided touring didn't fit his new life. In addition, the group has added bagpipe player Spicy McHaggis and mandolin/tin whistle player Ryan Foltz.
Despite this significant vocal and instrumental makeover, Casey says he thinks the Dropkick Murphys have retained their original musical identity.
"I think it's almost 100 percent the same," Casey says. "And the reason I say that is because, one, I feel like the one thing we haven't mentioned in all these changes is what I used to consider the fifth member of the band -- and now I consider the eighth member of the band -- the people who come to the shows and support the band. It's like the sing-along thing and just the way people who support us, how dedicated they are, that's to me the whole key to Dropkick Murphys. That enthusiasm hasn't changed, and that support and that participation, that's what carries the band. I think that more than anything has made it stay similar even if the musical sound has changed. The atmosphere and the motivations behind it have not changed."
The fact is, Kelly said, the Dropkick Murphys have always incorporated some of the current instrumentation into their albums. For instance, on Do Or Die, the group recruited guest musician Joe Delaney to add bagpipes to the songs "Cadence To Arms" and "Barroom Hero," while John Allen was brought in to play tin whistle on "Far Away Coast."
"We had always experimented with the additional instrumentation on the studio records, yet we wanted to keep it to a minimum because we weren't recreating it live," Casey says. "You know, more than we're influenced by Celtic Folk, our main backbone is Punk Rock. It's difficult to find players who are experienced playing Celtic instruments that are also into Punk Rock. That was like a main requirement that we had. We knew plenty of overweight 50-year-old guys who played the bagpipes, but we wanted to get someone who was as much into Punk Rock. We had always kind of been selectively searching for those people, but not doing auditions or anything like that, just kind of keeping our ears open. It all just kind of fell into place at the same time."
In fact, all four new members were acquainted with the band before joining. Casey says Foltz, a "friend of a friend" of the Dropkick Murphys, joined after being invited to jam with the group at a show. The band knew McHaggis because he played bagpipes for tailgaters prior to New England Revolution soccer games. Both Lynch and Orrell were also acquainted with band members before joining the Dropkick Murphys.
"I think the fact that they were already fans of the band is what made it just naturally evolve, as if they had been members, you know what I mean, instead of like a drastic change," Casey says.
Indeed the expanded instrumental arsenal of the Dropkick Murphys makes its presence felt through much of Sing Loud, Sing Proud. The bagpipes and tin whistles bring a decidedly Old World accent to the working class anthem, "Heroes from Our Past." The rambling ballad "Forever" also benefits from the coloring the tin whistle and bagpipes bring to the song. The band's rough and tumble version of the traditional Irish standard "The Rocky Road to Dublin" also puts the tin whistle to good use within its mix of hard-charging guitars.
The musical growth that shines brightly on Sing Loud, Sing Proud seems to have paralleled the band's development into a full-time touring band.
Casey said when the group formed in Boston in 1996, they didn't have grand visions of being a big-selling national touring act. In fact, at the time the group began churning out a string of early singles, some of the band members were just learning their instruments. Landing a deal with Hellcat Records (the label run by Tim Armstrong of the Punk band, Rancid) and touring nationwide really weren't part of the original plan for the group.
"We never were prepared for the response and the reaction and support we got from people," Casey says. "So it kind of took us all by surprise, and the original members, we were all just kind of nine-to-five schmos. We weren't like musicians for life or anything."
Interestingly enough, the mixing of Punk and Irish music was just about as unplanned as the band's entry into the national music scene.
"Ironically enough, it wasn't an occurrence. It wasn't an idea," Casey says. "Before I played an instrument, I just kind of had always been talking about starting a band with friends. I kind of wrote a song in my head, just the melody line or whatnot and the words to the song 'Barroom Hero.' That was our first original song that we wrote. We recorded it and played it for some people, just like a demo. And they said 'Wow, this sounds like the Clancy Brothers meets the Ramones. There's a storytelling style to the lyrics and the vocal melody.' That's when it dawned on us 'Oh, that makes sense.' "Irish music and Punk Rock were my two favorite styles of music, so it kind of naturally (came out). If I write a song, it's going to usually tend to have a little of both of that in it. Then, of course, once you realize it has that sound, we said 'Let's go with it. Let's put bagpipes on it.' That was our first song that got us some attention."
DROPKICK MURPHYS play Bogart's on Tuesday.
