REVIEW - BEANTOWN BOOZEHOUNDS "Pour Another Round" (2009)

Beantown Boozehounds "Pour Another Round" Scally Cap Records SGR-15
Release date: Sept 15, 2009
Running time: 38:4612 tracks


I bought many years ago an album called “Irish Drinking Songs”. It has a sticker on the jewel case that says: “Belly Up & Join the Fun! Great for St. Paddy’s Day or any party!”. Paddy’s Day is arriving and I must say that I won’t play that CD, but another one that could have a similar sticker on it, the Beantown Boozehounds’ debut album “Pour Another Round”.

Beantown Boozehounds is a 4 piece outfit from Boston that has gathered a nice bunch of drinking songs. Eleven self-penned songs and a Wretched Ones cover, "Goin’ Down the Bar". They say that they play drinking class anthems and I have not been able to find a better description: sing-a-long chorus and catchy oi! and street punk songs about drinking. All the members are veterans from the Boston punk scene and they really know how they have to play. Besides, they switch vocal duties and this makes the album more interesting.

From the first track, “On the Road” I was sure that I was going to enjoy the album. A great song that is followed by “Pour Another Round”, a number that starts with a mandolin that rivals with Flatfoot 56.

Apart from those tracks, IMHO the highlights are “D.U.I.”, “Chi-Town Blues” and “Goin’ Down the Bar”. “D.U.I.” is another mandolin driven song in which a couple of members share the vocals. “Chi-Town P.D. Blues” is my fave, I keep on singing “I don’t remember what I did last night, but I woke up black and blue, sitting here in a Chicago jail and I don’t know what to do”. The beginning is a little bit ska-punk, and then the song turns into a superb Clash/Rancid style song. “Goin’ Down the Bar” is also a mighty song that sounds like Angelic Upstarts covering Sham 69.

But the rest of the songs are also worth hearing: “The 19th Hour” (more Clash/Rancid stuff. You think that the song is over and you get a bonus instrumental tune at the end), “Beantown Boozehounds” (this could be a Macc Lads song with aggressive vocals that remind me of Joe Queer singing “I Like Young Girls”), “Old Mr. Boston” ” (a slow paced mandolin driven song that could be a traditional Irish song) “Tonight” ( a classic oi! song) and “We’lll be drinking” (a guest plays sax on this Peter and the Test Tube Babies style song). Even the last track, a folkie number in which the sax player plays flute, seems to be at the right place after all the energy spent on the previous tracks.

I hope that Beantown Boozehounds will be releasing their second album soon. In fact I need it, I’m addicted to their drinking anthems. And if they cover The Queers, I will be happier: “Hey you motherfucker I only drink STOUT”


Tracklist:

01 - On the Road
02 - Pour Another Round
03 - Break of Dawn
04 - D.U.I.
05 - Chi-Town P.D. Blues
06 - The 19th Hour
07 - Beantown Boozehounds
08 - Old Mr. Boston
09 - Tonight
10 - We'll Be Drinking
11 - Goin' Down the Bar
12 - Where the Rats Roam

http://www.beantownbooking.com/
http://www.reverbnation.com/beantownboozehounds
http://www.myspace.com/beantownboozehounds
http://www.facebook.com/beantown.boozehounds
http://twitter.com/617Boozehounds
http://www.myspace.com/beantownbooking


http://www.beantownbooking.com/beantownboozehoundsstore.html (Click to buy the album)
http://www.sailorsgraverecords.com/artist.php?id=beantownboozehounds (Click to buy the album)

Review by Kinksmarkham

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DRAGO, + PAUL & THE STRINGS + BEANTOWN BOOZEHOUNDS + BIG BAD BOLLOCKS at The Beachcomber, Quincy, Massachusetts, March 19, 2010

The Beachcomber in Quincy, Massachusetts is the place that I would hang out regularly if I lived nearby. The clientele is all flat cappers and tattooed punks of a wide assortment of ages and ethnicities, the food is standard bar-fair but some damned good pizza, (and Buffalo Wings that you would write home about!), and the attitude is one of general laid-back fun.

But it is the music that everyone is here for this night, and it would seem that this evening's crowd was divided into distinctly different groups of fans, as varied from each other as the bands slated to perform.

The first band was a straight-ahead style punk band called Drago. Their crunchy, in-your-face assault is not quite my style of music, but they had a fairly enthusiastic group cheering them on. And they did set the pace for evening fairly well.

Paul and the Strings came on next. Formerly known as the Six String Bullets, they had a boogie-woogie/bluesy-styled punk edge, and I was digging their sound. Very tight and well put together.

The Beantown Boozehounds followed. I had seen these guys before and they had a very well-performed show, tight and cohesive. Fortunately, the Boozehounds' fans no longer practice spitting beer at the band as a sign of support. I found that kind of unsettling the last time I saw them.

The Big Bad Bollocks came on last. The veteran act wasted no time in uniting all of the previous bands’ fans in the room as they jumped into the first numbers of their set, which included primarily songs from their 1999 disc, “Night on the Tiles,” as well as a few traditional Irish songs, punched-up to a more punk-rock crowd-befitting pace. The energy level never slowed, and the Bollocks tended to stay with the upbeat songs in their set to promote this. Unfortunately, lead singer/squeeze-boxer/tin whistler, John Allen never got a chance to break out his whistle tonight, as the band’s set list didn’t seem to be set in stone.

The Big Bad Bollocks have been around for over twenty years, (forming in 1989 and releasing the first of their four CD in 1992,) and the quartet have a definite stage chemistry, as well as a large repertoire of songs to pull from, so to see them live is always a good show. This was no exception.

All of the Bollocks CDs are available from their MySpace page. I personally recommend the Johnny Cunningham-produced Night on the Tiles!


http://www.myspace.com/bigbadbollocks

http://www.myspace.com/beantownboozehounds

http://www.myspace.com/sixstringbullets

http://www.myspace.com/dragoboston

Review by Christopher P. Toler, THE Blathering Gommel
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