 “That
the band is a full-time band. That whatever Street Dogs is doing,
whether recording or playing live, we’re gonna give 110%.
Always. But the thing I’d like to convey most through
bio or anything is that this music has an honesty and earnestness
to it. The lyrics are from legitimate life experiences from
the band members.” The End.
You know, Mike McColgan could leave it at that. Few bands can
sum themselves up so succinctly and accurately and truthfully
in a paragraph. They have to resort to hyperbole and clichés
and any other public relations gimmick to make themselves interesting.
With Street Dogs, you get truth -- real feelings, uncontrived
sentiments -- and music that is as gritty and unwashed as their
name. Case in point: their newly-minted second album Back to
the World.
From the opening anthem “Strike a Blow” through
the stirring closer “Unions And The Law,” Back to
the World is a defiantly hopeful, inspiring journey through
the tattered heart of The Everyman. McColgan and bandmates Johnny
Rioux (bass), former Mighty Mighty Bosstone Joe Sirois (drums)
and Marcus Hollar (guitar) speak plainly and loudly as they
champion the working man (“In Defense of Dorchester,”
“Unions and the Law” or the grunt soldier missing
his girl and kids, “Back to the World”), and lament
the state of the country/world (“Tale of Mass Deception”)
or declare a night of drunken abandon (“Drink Tonight”).
You understand and agree with every word as if they were copied
verbatim from your soul.
While we’re indulging in some of that hyperbole: the
folksy sensibilities and rollicking guitar rock sounds like
Billy Bragg backed by the Clash; Bob Dylan on Red Bull and
Guinness; Bob Marley fronting The Replacements; Joe Jackson
having guzzled a liquefied Che Guevara—then ditching
decorum and belching loud and proud. Get the drift? It’s
punk, but it’s also heartland rock -- the sound of freedom.
The sound of union workers walking home at quitting time.
The sound of world- and work-weariness, imbued with the irrepressible,
unwavering nerve and determination of the working man.
Back to the World was written in the short year-long period
following the release of their 2003 debut Savin Hill (Crosscheck
Records), and is the first release on Street Dogs’ own
imprint Brass Tacks, which will be marketed via DRT Entertainment.
Fellow hometown boys Matthew Ellard (Converge, Billy Bragg
and Wilco) and Nate Albert (The Mighty Mighty Bosstones) produced
part of the album at Q Division; Paul Q. Kolderie (The Blake
Babies, Dinosaur Jr.) handled the rest at his facility, the
erstwhile home of legendary platter factory Fort Apache. It
sounds great thanks to these guys’ hard work -- proof
that Street Dogs’ ethos is its ace.
Street Dogs is McColgan’s first project post-The Dropkick
Murphys, which he co-founded, singing on the EP Boys on the
Docks and LP Do or Die, two of punk rock’s modern classics.
He left the band in 1998 to fulfill his lifelong dream as
a member of the Boston Fire Department. “I have no misgivings,
no regrets…and there are no bad feelings,” he
says proudly. “I still talk to those guys.”
Unable to stay away from music, McColgan and Rioux formed
Street Dogs in 2002, quickly recorded the acclaimed Savin
Hill album, and hit the road. The band has been touring constantly
since and building a following on rapid word of mouth. They’ve
recently finished a successful jaunt with Flogging Molly in
the US and the UK.
Once you hear the record, the only word left is real, which
bassist Johnny Rioux hits upon in this convenient bookend
quote:
“Punk rock music,” says Rioux, “is a rebellious
type of music, especially these days. There is so much crazy
stuff, from injustice to rebelliousness, to brush over and
[instead] sing about breaking up. You’re really serving
music an injustice by not addressing issues. But there’s
a way to combine influences…into good, catchy, hooky
songs with a message…that’s even better. That’s
real rebel music, you know?”
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