Headsticks: Autumn Dates Keep Rolling

Stoke’s Headsticks — revolutionary punk roots rock’n’roll with folk grit and Clash/Levellers DNA — keep the autumn calendar stacked. Next up: The Firebug in Leicester on Saturday, October 10th, then One For The Road Festival at York’s Fulford Arms on October 17th.

Continue reading Headsticks: Autumn Dates Keep Rolling →

The Mahones: Ottawa Bronson Centre Return

Kingston Irish-punk lifers The Mahones — Finny McConnell’s crew, thirty-five years deep and still painting towns red — plant another Canadian flag at Ottawa’s Bronson Centre on Friday, October 23. Support comes from Bardes À Barbes under the Deux Voix Une Capitale banner. Doors 7pm, 19+ ID required.

Continue reading The Mahones: Ottawa Bronson Centre Return →

No Murder No Moustache: Plastic Glass

Welsh DIY Celtic-punk one-man army Owen Crawford is back under the No Murder No Moustache banner with a two-track single out October 2nd. Plastic Glass takes a wrecking ball to stadium and festival beer rip-offs — eight quid fifty for a can of Guinness poured into a plastic cup while the bands onstage rail against capitalism. Tell Me Again is the short, sharp political slap on the B-side. Crawford writes, records, loops the fiddle and accordion live, and has shared stages with Mr Irish Bastard and Cam Cole. Pre-order from Bandcamp now and keep the plastic out of your Guinness.

Continue reading No Murder No Moustache: Plastic Glass →

Young Dubliners: Mill Valley Celtic Rock Stop

The Young Dubliners plant another West Coast flag at Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, California on Thursday, October 15 — doors 7, show 8, all ages. Thirty years deep and Keith Roberts’ Celtic rock crew are still grinding: their tenth studio album is cooking with Tim Boland, this time fan-financed so they keep the reins. Fiddle, amps, and a room that knows how to shout along. Go fill it.

Continue reading Young Dubliners: Mill Valley Celtic Rock Stop →

Finnegan’s Hell: Glorious Mess

Swedish Celtic-punks Finnegan’s Hell are lining up their fifth full-length. Glorious Mess arrives 30 October via Wild Kingdom — accordion, flute and bouzouki welded to distorted guitars, whiskey-soaked choruses with a wink at life’s glorious chaos.

Continue reading Finnegan’s Hell: Glorious Mess →

The Guzzlers: A Pint Of Plain Is Your Only Man

Limerick brothers Tom and Cian O’Dowd — The Guzzlers — have poured another one for the faithful. Fresh off 20 Pints To Cherbourg (lager’s turn), the Liverpool-based Irish punk-folk duo drop A Pint Of Plain Is Your Only Man, a banjo-driven toast to stout and the old line that a Guinness won’t let you down when everything else will. There’s grief under the foam — lost jobs, lost homes, two aul lads at the bar talking shite — the way Irish music always has. Self-released single released early September on Bandcamp and the usual streams; debut album Drinking The Dream lands November 6, ten live acoustic tracks recorded with Jon Withnall. December they ride shotgun with Highstool Prophets through Liverpool, London and Manchester. Stick to what never lets you down.

Continue reading The Guzzlers: A Pint Of Plain Is Your Only Man →

The Tossers: Chop Shop Thanksgiving Eve

Chicago’s own Tossers — the world’s loudest folk band — plant another hometown flag at Chop Shop on Wednesday, November 25. Tony Duggins and crew bring Flatfoot 56 and Three Blue Teardrops along for an 18+ Wicker Park night; doors 7, show 8, tickets from about twenty bucks. Before the turkey coma, it’s buckets of beer, banjos and blood on North Ave.

Continue reading The Tossers: Chop Shop Thanksgiving Eve →

The Popes: Storming Heaven Hits Streaming

According to our friends over at London Celtic Punks, the London-Irish Celtic-punk lifers The Popes just shoved their 2012 album New Church onto the streaming racks, and opener Storming Heaven is the first single out the gate. Mad Dog McGuinness’s sandpaper bark and Thin Lizzy-via-Dubliners crunch landed fresh on Spotify and YouTube as of September via STT Records. The fan-driven reissue aims to drag New Church out of the vault for a generation that never caught the band between MacGowan’s Snake days and the long silence after Mad Dog’s 2013 accident. Full album next month if the interest sticks; vinyl and CD if enough of ye dig it. Get ready. We’re storming heaven.

Continue reading The Popes: Storming Heaven Hits Streaming →

Chasing Abbey: Cyber Celt Hits the Floor

Tullamore trio Chasing Abbey finally released their debut full-length, and Cyber Celt (out 18 September) is no polite folk handshake — it’s trad Irish bolts welded to electronic production, Gaeilge as a weapon, and a kick aimed at greed and colonialism.

Continue reading Chasing Abbey: Cyber Celt Hits the Floor →

Potato-eating, Whiskey-drinking, Bog-trotting, CELTIC PUNK ROCK since 2001