Celtic Punk

If you're immediately unfamiliar with the Irish or Scottish Punk (I'll just call it Celtic Punk from now on) genre(is it really a genre?) then it probably sounds odd to think you could mix tin whistles, bag pipes and fiddles into punk rock. If you think about it though, plaid and kilts have been rather popular parts of the punk scene for years. I was introduced to Celtic Punk about 8 years ago by my good friend Stuart. We share the same love of our Scottish Roots and similar taste in music so he hooked me up with a couple mp3 discs of fantastic bands: Real McKenzies, Dropkick Murphy's, and Flogging Molly. All of which have great band names to boot. It's probably the Scot in my but I love bagpipes and to hear them mixed in with awesome music is just icing on the cake. Although a lot of the tunes are in the punk rock genre, most of the songs probably fall into the rock or even traditional categories.

The other day I was listening to a play list full of Celtic Punk at work and my boss, yells disgustedly over the wall, "What the hell are you listening to, that sounds like crap." I told him to get some culture and cranked it up. I enjoy the variety the bands put into making their music. Two of my favorite songs by Flogging Molly are "Rebels of the Sacred Heart" and "Worst Day Since Yesterday." Rebels is a fairly rockin' sort of song that always seems to get me going. Worst Day Since Yesterday is a song that makes you think you should only listen to it while sitting in a pub with a beer and/or whiskey in hand listening to songs that drone on about the crap that life like to throw in your lap (as a card carrying Mormon someone is going to have to confirm this for me). I'd like to personally thank Dropkick Murphy's for punking up "Amazing Grace." It reminds me of the "Stand By Me" cover that Pennywise did. It starts out fairly true to the original but then blows up from there. I think the highland rebels would be proud to hear their rebel pipes put to good use.

Do yourself a favor, put on your skirt(kilt) throw in some Celtic Punk and enjoy the ride, it's gonna be good.