Street Dogs

Courtesy of Brass Tracks/DRT Entertainment

"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... Read More

"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, lament the state of the country/world or declare a night of drunken abandon. 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). It is the first release on Street Dogs' own imprint Brass Tacks, which will be marketed via DRT Entertainment. Fellow hometown boys Matthew Ellard and Nate Albert -- a.k.a. The Gang of 2 (Converge, Billy Bragg, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and Wilco) - produced the album at Q Division. Paul Q. Kolderie (The Blake Babies, Dinosaur Jr.) and Sean Slade (Bosstones, Radiohead) handled the mixing duties 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. 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 since been touring constantly 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?"