VIDEO - THE POKES "God Save The Pokes"

The Pokes have a new video that would have been shot in the Caribbean: "God Save The Pokes".

The Pokes - God Save The Pokes

 

SAMPLER - 2014 VOL. I

A new sampler is out! A couple of bands from Down Under, a couple of bands from the USA and two bands from Europe (Germany and Hungary)

All the songs are available for free on the Internet:

Track 1 is a free download from Soundcloud
Tracks 2-6 are free downloads from Triple J Unearthed
Tracks 7-9 are free downloads from the band's website
Tracks 10-16 are free downloads from Reverbnation

The songs can be downloaded one by one from those sites, or together from the link at the bottom.


1) THE SCARLET (Budapest, Hungary)

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Soundcloud

Line-up:

Daniel Fekete-Szucs - Vocals, acoustic guitar
András Tóth - Lead guitar, backing vocals
Juli Seres - Flute
Dominika Mészáros - Fiddle
Gábor Ridly - Drums
Aurél Czövek - Bass

Discography:

Demo (2013)
Phoenix (digital single, 2014)

2) SHAMBOLICS (Adelaide, South Australia, Australia)

Triple J Unearthed

Facebook
Twitter

Line-up:

Jimmy - Banjo, mandolin, vocals
Alan - Guitar, Uke,Vocals
Paul - Accordian, harmonica, vocals

Discography:

"Pogue Mahone" (6 tracks, 2014) (click to buy)


3) THE DEAD MAGGIES (Hobart, Tasmania, Australia)

Website

Triple J Unearthed
Facebook
Soundcloud
Twitter

Line-up:

MD - Double bass, gravelly vocals
Gareth - Lead vocals, clarinet, acoustic guitar
Simon Slaughter - Banjo baritone vocals, electric guitar
Bicket - Drums, backing vocals
Burnie - Keyboards
Hannah - Fiddle

Discography:

"Sing About Dead People" (7 tracks, 2014) (click to buy)


4) THE POKES (Berlin, Germany)

Website
Reverbnation
Facebook

Line-up:

Ian - Vocals
Thorsten - Banjo
Tobias - Guitar
Matthias - Accordion
Volker - Bass
Bernd - Drums

Discography:

"Hello My Dear" (14 tracks, 2006)
"Poking the Fire" (13 tracks, 2007)
"High Hopes" (11 tracks, 2011)
"Mayday" (14 tracks, 2014)

5) KATIE'S RANDY CAT (Toledo, Ohio, USA)

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Reverbnation
Twitter

Line-up:

Steve Steel - Vocals, penny whistle, accordion
Matt Ruch - Guitar
Jon Zenz - Bass
Seth Anderson - Drums, cavaquinho

Discography:

"KRC#1" (3 tracks, 2013)

6) NEVERSINK (Boston MA, USA)

Facebook
Reverbnation
Soundcloud
Twitter

Line-up:

Chris - Banjo, guitar, vocals
Alex - Vocals, guitar, mandolin
Galen - Fiddle, mandolin, vocals
Scott - Drums
Patrick Kelly O'Connor - Bass, vocals, sound engineer

Discography:

"We're All from Somewhere Else" (3 tracks, 2014)

DOWNLOAD:

Click HERE to download

REVIEW - THE POKES "Mayday" (2014)

The Pokes "Mayday" Tollshock Records TS015
Release date: 7 February 2014
Running time: 60:11, 14 tracks (the last one is not credited)

The “Not irish, not traditional … just poking the fire!” band The Pokes released in February their fourth album. I was expecting a yellow cover, since their previous albums artworks were in green, red and dark violet, almost blue. Nevertheless, the six guys and a girl from Berlin decided to feature the frog again in a blue cover. Anyway, the packaging is a labour of love: a 16 page booklet with the lyrics to all the songs, credits and pics of all the band members and guests, together with a sort of a music box. When the packaging is unfolded, a device starts to play the “Mayday” theme. Hats-off, Ian and co.

Regarding the music, the Anglo-German septet follows the path that they have been walking since their very beginning. The songs are based on excellent accordion and banjo together with an amazing fiddle. And all these elements are wrapped by Ian’s vocals and their surreal lyrics. The Pokes are proud to state that their folk-punk is unique. And it’s true. Maybe some songs can be reminiscent to the likes of The Shanes or The Waxies, but those old German bands were basically polka and standard Celtic punk bands. And there is a lot of different musical styles on The Pokes “Mayday”: Eastern music, ska and even calypso.

The songs that I would pick up are the following ones: “God Save The Popes” (if you didn’t know who they were, this is their business card), “Bottoms Up” (amazing accordion and banjo on this Russian sounding song), “Get Out of This” (male and female vocals and great fiddling), “Bitch-cow-darling” (a catchy number), “I Wish” (Pogues style banjo playing and funny lyrics), “Skip this song” (a sing-a-long number with gang vocals) and “Neverending” (interesting song that finally arrives to the end).

There is a track no 14 with two hidden tracks. After two minutes there is an out of tune German version of “Yesterdayman”. It ends at 5:40 and at 14:34 there is another “joke”.

Before the album was released, some line-up changes took place and the band has been reduced from 7 members to 6 members. Currently there is no fiddler, but the band’s trademark (banjo and accordion) is still in fine form.

Thanks to The Pokes for remaining faithful to their own Folk-Punk and for trusting in the CD format. Come on, get a hard copy of the “Number 1 folk-punk Band from Berlin” new album! Mayday, mayday, mayday …

Tracklist:

1. God Save The Pokes 3:24
2. Bottoms Up 3:12
3. Mayday 3:44
4. Get Me Out Of This 3:28
5. Countryside 2:58
6. Bitch-Cow-Darling 3:00
7. I Wish 3:25
8. Yesterdayman 3:30
9. Skip This Song 3:50
10. What I Don't Know 2:57
11. Touch Me 3:50
12. Brooding 4:17
13. Neverending 3:42
14. Yesterdayman Koma 14:48


Website
Facebook 

Reverbnation


Click to buy:

Tollshock
Amazon (Germany)

Review by Kinksmarkham

REVIEW: THE POKES "HIGH HOPES" (2010)

Germany’s The Pokes are back with another chapter in their own book of German/Celtic Folk punk in the form of High Hopes, their third full length release.

The band continues with its highly recognizable profile, dominated by an accordion and a banjo, that fit together so cohesively and complementarily that it is difficult to hear where one ends and the other begins, (no mean feat for such diverse instruments!), and those jarring, staccato vocals that start and stop like a ransom note yet never fully leave the basement register.

Some very subtle fiddle is also present on High Hopes, especially on my personal disc fave, Dinosaur, a toe-tapper laced with some snappy snare and that aforementioned fiddle’s scales keeping the thing smack dab in the ‘danceable’ range. Dos and Don’ts and Gone is Gone are also stand-outs for me, simply for their catchy melody and each one’s simple chorus.

High Hopes continues with its folk-punk leanings that, although vaguely Celtic in instrumentation and lilt, don’t seem altogether committed to that style. The band’s German roots are only fully revealed in the track “Ich Werde Verfolgt“ (“I am Pursued,”) both with the use of language and the “Oom-Pah-Pah,” beer-hall sound of the track.

Aside from this obvious entry, there are no other blatant signs, foreign language or accent detected throughout the disc. But still, there is something... different. Accessible, yet foreign. And not in a bad way, either.

High Hopes sees The Pokes, with their ‘Germano-Celtic Folk-Punk’ sound, creating a solid follow-up disc to 2007’s Poking the Fire.

In fact, although High Hopes doesn’t seem to have the immediately grabbing tracks like Poking the Fire’s title track or big hit, (and video star,) The Day I Pass Away, it seems to me to be a more enjoyably consistent release without a low point on the disc!


Prost!



Review by Christopher P. Toler, THE Blathering Gommel

http://www.myspace.com/thepokes

http://www.thepokes.de/


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THE POKES - Poking the Fire

(This review was originally published by www.shitenonions.com on September 14th, 2008. Used by kind permission)

Out of the Celtic Folk-Punk hotbed of Berlin, Germany comes The Pokes. And yes, the name was chosen as a tribute to Mr. MacGowan and Company.

Despite this, the band makes it quite clear that they are “not Irish and do not pretend to be.” They make this clear not just through the very frank statements saying just this on their CD liner notes as well as their website and MySpace page, but also through their music; not only omitting any songs about Ireland or any traditional Irish covers on their ‘Poking the Fire’ release, but including 2 tracks sung in German! ‘Poking the Fire’, the band’s 2nd full-length release, is full of rowdy, rambunctious, sing-alongs, that seems to aim as much for creating its own sound as it does to staying true to its Paddy Punk formula. In doing so, something altogether unusual is the outcome, with few words summing up The Pokes as accurately as the word “fun.”

Instrumentally, the CD plays like a showcase for the accordion with banjo ornamentation and the rest of the band providing an elaborate and very percussive backdrop with sharp, angular voicings from the acoustic guitar, bass, and drums.

Lead vocals are abruptly barked out in emphatic, boisterous metronomic syncopation and kept within a limited scale for a result that seems to hide the German accent; noticeable only now and again throughout the disc’s fourteen tracks, (thirteen, plus an unnamed, uncredited, banjo-only tune that starts after sixteen minutes of silence after last song on the disc ends.) This vocal treatment does create a mood that seems somehow foreign to the familiar melodies; contrasting, yet complimenting. Perhaps, an attempt at some sort of hybrid sound between the Celtic influences and the band’s German heritage was the goal here. Whatever the aim, the result is a sound that is pretty singular and recognizable to The Pokes.

The disc opens with a great track called “The Day I Pass Away,” (with an equally cool video available at the band’s MySpace page,) that sets the pace appropriately, and the disc’s velocity barely drops below this bar.

Or, in short, fun.

Review by Christopher P. Toler, THE Blathering Gommel

www.myspace.com/thepokes

www.thepokes.de
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