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Flogging Molly

Drunken Lullabies (2002)
Side One Dummy Records

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Contributed by: Adam
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on March 29th 2002

Last year I was wandering around the Warped Tour merchants between sets, when I noticed a huge commotion on the main stage. Flogging Molly, whom I had not previously seen or heard, had whipped the crowd into an absolute frenzy. The seven-piece, packed on stage with a variety of unconventional instruments, had created a pit as big, and I’ll wager bigger, then the crowds I saw for AFI and Rancid…

It’s a year later and here on “Drunken Lullabies,” Flogging Molly serve up a lush sound indeed (no pun intended). Vocalist Dave King plays acoustic guitar, accompanied by Dennis Casey’s electric. Bassist Nathen Maxwell and drummer George Schwindt form a driving rhythmic base. Celtic instruments are treated with just as much importance as the traditional rock three piece. Bob Schmidt plays the mandolin and banjo, Matt Hensley the accordion and Bridget Regan the fiddle, tin whistle and violin. Flogging Molly’s songs are centred on the layering of these instruments. Usually a verse is sung before the full band kicks in. This layering of sounds gives the music a sense of urgency; the songs thicken and speed up as they progress. Obvious comparisons can be made to The Pogues, The Dubliners, Stiff Little Fingers or the Dropkick Murphys.

King’s lyrics caught me by surprise with their complexity. While the drinking song is obviously a traditional staple of this style, King goes above and beyond the norm. For example, the title track, “Drunken Lullabies,” touches on the failed promises of religion and other social issues. From the title of the song, one assumes something much less sophisticated then what was delivered. All the better…

Maybe it’s that King is originally from Dubin and was raised on Celtic music, or that the band formed in an Irish pub, or that they never “switched” styles, but Flogging Molly sounds authentic. They are truly a Celtic-punk band, not simply a punk band dabbling with Celtic influences. Stand out tracks here are “What’s Left Of The Flag” and “Rebels Of The Sacred Heart” and “The Rare Ould Times”

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JohnnyTwoTits (August 30, 2006)

this album is the shit. its so fucking awasum, that chuck noris probubley helped to produce it...(he does that from time to time)or atleast chuck noris has a major influince, that i can be shire of...

Eddie (August 17, 2003)

Damn good album! I like the new recording of "Rebels of the Sacred Heart".

Anonymous (May 22, 2003)

fantastic cd!way better than swagger even though swagger is good it can´t compare to this one.best songs are...well,they are all good but I think that drunken lullabies,what´s left of the flag,the kilburn high road,may the living be dead and the rare ould times are the best ones.

dropkick (March 7, 2003)

aewsome band. IRELAND FOREVER
this irish punk thing is kick-ass all the bands know what they are talking about . check out big bad bollocks

Anonymous (June 26, 2002)

MATT HENSLEY ROCKS AT SKATING!!! Stupid band, taking away from his precious skating time, ah well at least they make decent music

Anonymous (June 17, 2002)

Swagger was relying more on the Celtic influence; this one relies more on the punk elements. FM is a good band, but they haven't gotten to their best potential. Most of the songs are formulaic: start out with a catchy riff and then carry on a punk beat and power chords behind it. The lyrics are well-written, and fortunately there's less swearing than in the last one. They really did a good job, just not a magnificent one like they could do. I never thought someone could pull off making an accordion sound Indian-Hindu-ish or whatever.

-Sr. Potpourri

Anonymous (March 31, 2002)

Good to see Blood Or Whiskey coming up (on rejected Records out of ireland for those who don't know(check www.thumped.com or www.culchikore.8m.com for those who want to see the irish scene)). I saw them, in a shed (no shit, it was a shed outside a pub) in Roscommon (ireland) last september last august (blew away Sir Killalot, Skint and the others who played before (all mentioned to encourage all of you non paddys to check out the burgeoning Punk scene we have here in Ireland).

Brinepacer

Anonymous (March 31, 2002)

whoa , crazy, someone else actually knows who blood or whiskey is. I saw there cd once at singles going steady in vancouver but couldn't pick it up and then when I went to Ireland I got both their cd's and boy do they ever rock.

shindo (March 31, 2002)

Hey Brinepacer,

I dont have any control over any reviews that are posted other than my own. I also can't see which reviews are currently waiting to be posted. That's Scott's area, yours is still in the list it just hasent come up yet... sorry for any misunderstanding...

Anonymous (March 31, 2002)

Oh and if anyone wants to be a prick and say of my below post "i guess it wasn't posted cos your review sucked", i should point out that my review has already been online at ireland's biggest online music magazine and in print in irelands biggest music magazine.

Anonymous (March 31, 2002)

Ok, at this point i have to complain.

I submitted my review of this album two weeks ago. Never surfaced. Submitted it again last thursday. I was very excited friday when i came to the site and saw my review was up. But wait, this isn't my review, this is shindo's. And its now three days since, otehr reviews have been posted, and where's mine?

I'm guessing that shindo ignored my original post because he wanted to post his own so he could get more promos from record companies.

I don't mind so much but his review is average at best. I'm irish, so i have a better perspective on it. Shindo misses out that 90% of the songs on this album are about emigration, a subject that a lot of Irish acts have touched on over the years as a good 30-40% of irish do emigrate, and some of our best national songs are about the subject. He missed King singing "Oh mary this london's a wonderful sight" at the end of "Kings of the kilburn high", a line from the most famous irish emigration song, Mountains Of Mourne. God knows how he missed the lines "Death comes like a theif in the night... Maybe its then, she said i'll see you again" on the closing track, "the son never shines on closed doors", a song about kings recent trip home and an incident with his mother.

I thought Punknews.org's review section was to give us all a voice, but i guess careerism by certain administraters and editers is getting in the way.

Brinepacer

evildeadalive (March 30, 2002)

Blood or Whiskey fucking rule!!!!

Anonymous (March 30, 2002)

Not bad, I'm still not fond of Dave Fastway King's voice. The fiddle is a great addition to this kind of mix. The songwriting has improved but the delivery is still kind of formulaic.
If you dig these guys then you really should check out Blood or Whiskey and also the Tossers, The Pogues and Shane MacGowan as well but you should already know about them.

Anonymous (March 30, 2002)

Killer stuff,hensley shows you he is more than a great skater-oldpunker-

CallingLondon (March 30, 2002)

ah, flogging molly. they put on a great live show last year at Club Laga in Pittsburgh, and this album sounds pretty incredible. I can't wait to get it. The last album i wasn't too crazy for, though the songs sounded much better live. I think the production quality has improved greatly. Anyway, 5 stars for Flogging Molly and the new album.

Anonymous (March 29, 2002)

I agree, this album is better. I don't know if it's the higher production quality or the actual songwriting. I do think the songs sound a little more diverse on this album than Swagger, though they still rely heavily on the "everything thrashing while the fiddle carries the melody" formula. That's a good formula though, because this is the shit....krowdsurf

Anonymous (March 29, 2002)

This album is waaaay better than Swagger was. Good job FM.