Pages

Saturday, February 6, 2010

SIR REG - This is Sir Reg



Now how did I miss this?

Apparently, this band out of Sweden went ahead and released the EP, “This Is Sir Reg” some time in 2009 and I am just getting a taste of it now! I mean, these guys could EASILY have secured a position on any Celtic-Punk ‘Best of 2009’-list based on the six tracks contained here. Easily.

So who is Sir Reg? Well, instrumentally, the band consists of guitar, bass, drums, vocals, keyboards, banjo, mandolin, whistles and fiddle, distributed among the Swedish and Irish musicians. The combination of these elements throws off a noise that is polished, professional, damned impressive.

Musically, the band has a sound that is immediately accessible; familiar, but fresh. For a point of reference, imagine a sound scale. At one end of it put Flogging Molly. At the other end, put Australia’s Roaring Jack. And now, right smack dab in the middle of this scale, that is where I would put Stockholm-based Sir Reg! And the six-track E.P., This Is Sir Reg, contains all of the Swagger and Celtability found in those two venerable bands, rolled up into one tidy package!

Lyrically, Sir Reg is just as impressive. No shortcuts or clichés, no drinking songs or covers, This Is Sir Reg contains six 'original originals', of both intelligent and entertaining content. My particular favorite being the brilliant “17 Coffins” which tells the tale of Burke and Hare, a pair of Irishmen who moved to Scotland in the early 19th century and began a killing spree in order to sell the bodies to science for a tidy profit. Fun stuff, eh? But with phrases like “If you’re ever short on cash, just reach into the human stash,” one realizes that the subject matter is approached fairly tongue-in-cheek.

Normally, when this excited about a new band, I would recommend keeping eyes peeled for future releases, but if Sir Reg continues with the quality of material on This Is Sir Reg, we won’t won’t have to look very hard. We will hearing about them.

You can also grab a 30 second bite of their songs over at iTunes. Do it and you’ll see for yourself.

Review by Christopher P. Toler, THE Blathering Gommel

www.myspace.com/sirregband




1 comment:

  1. nice band from our city in Sweden. I wish for them all success but do not realy think 17 coffins is a strong song with much better ones on the cd.

    ReplyDelete