Dropkick Murphys: Do or DIe

Dropkick Murphys: Do or Die

1998

Hellcat Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Cadence to Arms  2. Do or Die  3. Get Up  4. Never Alone  5. Caught in a Jar  6. Memories Remain  7. Road of the Righteous  8. Far Away Coast  9. Fightstarter Karaoke  10. Barroom Hero  11. 3rd Man In  12. Tenant Enemy #1  13. Finnegan's Wake  14. Noble  15. Boys on the Docks (Murphys' Pub Version)  16. Skinhead on the MBTA

This album is great/ridiculous...I have no idea why it's so dumb/awesome...Cut the soap!

I almost feel that they should get more credit than they do for creating this...There were definitely some Celtic influences in punk prior to this, the Pogues spring immediately to mind, but this is nothing like the Pogues...It's like they took the cartooniest, Lucky the Leprechaun-iest aspects of the Pogues (and Irish culture via American pop culture) and mixed it with skin-headish oi punk and came out with a combination so head-smackingly obvious that I can't believe  nobody quite did it before...Think AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top," with elements of the Business and maybe the Skids and you're probably there...

 

Like a lot of people, I first heard these guys on the inaugural "Give 'Em the Boot" compilation...Holy shit, I loved this comp...Like anything associated with Rancid, it's kinda dumb and comical but also exciting and anthemic...Everything was big...Big, blustery songs with big shouted choruses and big walls of distorted guitars and drums...The whole thing just felt like a huge event for some reason, with lots of hungry bands giving it their all...It won me over to such an extent that I ended up buying an album by just about every band that was appeared on it (although, I'm currently in the process of buying every album by every band that ever existed, so I guess that's not saying a whole lot, but...)...Bottom line, I loved it all, but the highlights for me were Choking Victim and some amazing tough-guy Irisish bagpipe-punk song called "Barroom Hero" by a band called the Dropkick Murphys.or something..It was so over the top, so catchy and so completely rocking that I couldn't resist it...

I went out to find their stuff, but there was nothing! I mean nothing on the music shelves at any record store I went to, but I didn't stop looking...Eventually, about a half year later, the band released "Do or Die" and it completely knocked me out..."Barroom Hero" wasn't even the best song!! Every-single-track-ruled...It was one of those albums where you go, "This one's my favorite song! No this one! Oh, geez, I forgot about this one! This one has to be my favorite!"

Listening back on it, there are a few weak tracks, "Fightstarter Karaoke" is pretty fucking dopey, "Tenant Enemy Number 1"'s slower, vampier style is somewhat beyond their reach, but the rest of it? They kill it...I love the when Mike McColgan and Ken Casey trade vocals...Ken has a raspy, weezy punk delivery and Mike sounds like the biggest leprechaun who ever lived, with his bellowed, super-fake Irish brogue...The contrast is just so perfect...I always say if you want to make your band instantly more exciting, just exchange vocals...Even if one of the singers isn't "lead singer material," the call-and-responsiveness of it will never fail to draw listeners in...

 Now, don't get me wrong, there are some fan-fucking-tastic originals on here ("Never Alone," "Boys on the Docks," the SLF-tribute "Get Up "), the band is always at their best when they oi up some traditional song and my two favorites on this album are indeed, two of the traditional numbers..."Skinhead on the MBTA" is a rewrite of the old "Charlie on the MTA" folk-tune, but the band turns Charlie into a skinhead oi-boy and update Metropolitan Transit Authority to Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, reflecting changes made since the original..I could listen to this song a 100 times and it still wouldn't be enough...

But the album's real-deal highlight (and possibly the best thing the band ever did) is their rousing, epic recording of the trad. Irish folker "Finnegan's Wake"...It just rocks so much and is so fucking brilliant...Like shooting a gallon of hot Irish coffee right into your veins...You MUST sing along when this comes on...You have no choice in the matter...You go to the closet, put on your biggest pair of leather lungs and throw your fist in the air, when this comes on...

I still think this is far and away the best album the band ever released...After this album, Mike McColgan left and they replaced him with the bland Al Barr...But we'll get to that other stuff soon...Let's enjoy the McColgan era while we can...

 Here's "Finnegan's Wake" by the Dropkick Murphys...Here's to ye health...