Geekscape Music Reviews: Dance Gavin Dance & Dropkick Murphys

“Going Out In Style”

Released: March 1, 2011

Everyone knows that St. Patrick’s Day is in March, and as a result, I chose to do a review for the new album by Boston based Celtic-punk band, Dropkick Murphys. If you’ve never heard of Dropkick Murphys, you’ve at least heard their song “I’m Shipping Up To Boston”, If this hasn’t rung a bell yet, well I’d say it’s safe to assume that you live in a bloody cave.

With that said, it’s best to move on to the review. So I’ll start with general background info.

“Going Out in Style” is the seventh studio from Dropkick, and the release of it marks the longest gap between two Dropkick albums, the last being 2007’s “The Meanest Of Times” (Arguably their second best album, the first being “The Warrior’s Code”, obviously).

This album also showed a change for the band, seeing as how it was a concept album, and for once, that wasn’t the main drawing point for me (The main drawing point was the fact that I’m a big Dropkick fan…). Aside from being a concept album, “Going Out In Style” featured HUGE guest-spots in the form of the one and only Bruce Springsteen on the band’s cover of “Peg O’ My Heart” and NOFX’s Fat Mike on the title track.

The story behind the album is that of an Irish immigrant named Cornelius Larkin, who the band created through the band’s own personal experiences and family folklore (all members of the band are descended from Irish immigrants). According to bassist/vocalist, Ken Casey, “Cornelius has passed on to the other side, and the album becomes a retrospective of his life”. The album is unique in the aspect that the story can be examined from two points instead of one: the Irish immigrant’s first person account of his own wake, and the band’s in depth interpretation of his life and lineage.

As for the review of the album’s sound, it’s really hard to actually do a review for an album like this, since it sounds almost exactly the same all the way through. At times it was hard to determine which track I was listening to, with the exception of the key tracks (which I’ll get to later). I hate to have an album rely on it’s story alone, but in places it feels that’s exactly what “Going Out In Style” has to do, which really draws points away from the album. The story itself isn’t exactly “weak”, but it doesn’t exactly keep the audience’s attention.
What the album does WELL though is never letting up, not having any slow songs, and in my opinion that’s how a punk album should be. The different vocal styles that give Dropkick their part of their sound are done well, and the guest-spots do a nice job of spicing it up a bit.
I think hardcore Dropkick fans will enjoy it thoroughly without a second thought.

If I had to rank it amongst all of their albums, I’d prolly have to place it in 4th, 3rd going to 1999’s “The Gang’s All Here”
As for a rating for the album, I’d feel bad giving it anything below a 7, so I’m gonna have to go with 7.5/10. I was hoping for more, but after the last 2 albums being such a huge success, it just came down to the pressure being too much. At least that’s MY opinion. Listen for yourselves friends.

Key tracks were…
“Going Out In Style”, (which to me was one of the best songs Dropkick has ever recorded),
“Take ’em Down”,
and “Peg O’ My Heart” (The mixture of Dropkick and Springsteen is to die for, seriously.)

Attempting to go out in style,
-JC

“Downtown Battle Mountain II”

Released: March 8, 2011

This week I’m reviewing the new album from post-hardcore band Dance Gavin Dance, “Downtown Battle Mountain II”. This is their first album with their original line-up since 2007, and I have to say that hearing lead singer Jonny Craig once again with DGD is absolutely wonderful.

Jonny Craig had left DGD due to personal issues with the band members, and has since found success both on his own, and in post-hardcore group Emarosa.

For those of you who have never heard of DGD, they are a very unique band, with a very unique sound. Not a lot of bands can mix the amount of styles/genres they use and still sound great. The genres include (but are not limited to) jazz, funk, soul, metal, progressive, and obviously post-hardcore. This was the first album to include a bit of hip-hop into the mix, if only on one or two tracks.

The easiest way to describe their sound is this: Take Fall Of Troy, throw in some At The Drive-In, and add just a dash of Protest The Hero. So if you like any of those bands, this is something you should definetly check out.

This fourth album continues of from where they left off on their second, four years ago. It has the same sound, the same feel, just not as catchy.
Starting off the album is a pretty upbeat track, “Spooks”. It’s not as heavy as the rest of the album, but the moment when you first hear Jonny Craig’s vocalizing is almost unforgettable. Mixed together with the screams of Jonathon Mess and the rapping of Will Swan, it sends a message to the listeners: DGD is back.
Following “Spooks” are another 10 songs that are (in their own ways) just as amazing. The only time the album lets off the gas is on the last track, “Purple Reign”. Nice wordplay, right?

There’s really no easy way to review this album except to use really simple terms, such as “not their best, but not their worst either”. If I had to place it among their 5 releases (Yes, I’m counting the first EP in this), I’d have to say it’s the third best, behind “Downtown Battle Mountain” and “Dance Gavin Dance”, simple due to the fact that none of the songs have the same feel as those albums, and aren’t nearly as catchy as classics like “Uneasy Hearts Weigh The Most” and “Turn Of The Lights, I’m Watching Back To The Future”.

The most common metal-head question is, of course “is this album heavier?”. And in places, it is, but not so much that it draws away from unique soul-style of the clean vocals.

All in all though, it sounds more like a crossover between them and Fall Of Troy than anything else, though it is good to hear the original line-up once more.
A great album? No. A terrible album? No. A Dance Gavin Dance album? Yes. Even if it does remind me of Fall Of Troy.

Rating: 7.5/10

Top picks:
“Pounce Bounce”,”Thug City”, and “Elder Goose”

Off to watch the battle,
-JC