The Pubcrawlers

The Pubcrawlers are a New England band doing the Celtic Punk thing, if you like the likes of Flogging Molly, then youll dig these guys. Thanks to the internets hotest new thing, we were introduced to them thru MySpace and a chat to them a couple of days before they were heading out to Wasted 05 in the UK.

Youre a new band to me, introduced courtesy of MySpace! Give us a little history on The Pubcrawlers.
Good old MySpace! Definitely one of the best networking tools out there. Glad you found us! Anyway, the band has been together for a little over 3 years now. There have been a few lineup changes here and there but our style has remained the same pretty much throughout. We (myself, Kevin [vocals/mandolin/acoustic guitar] and Jon [former bass, no longer with us]) got together on the understanding that we were gonna do things a little differently and that the sound would be hard to pin down, but that the common denominator would always be Celtic/Irish.

What and who inspires you to make music?
A) Well, its pretty tough to speak on behalf of the entire band here, but I think I can safely say that one inspiration we all share is a love of music in general and a desire to do something that breaks the daily grind. Without sounding too cheesy and cliche here, theres a lot of truth to the old standby about music having the ability to let you escape, if only for a little while.

B) Groupies. 😀

You say your influences range from traditional celtic music to street punk, oi!, hardcore and even a little metal, now for someone that has never heard you, how would you describe yur sound?
This is always a tough one so Im pretty much forced to bust out comparisons to other bands, as much as I hate to do that… were somewhere between older bands like The Pogues and more modern ones like Flogging Molly or the Dropkick Murphys. We do a lot of traditional Celtic tunes but definitely make them our own. We have lots of originals as well, but its really hard to categorize.

You’re playing the Wasted Festival in the UK in a few days. How did you get hooked up to play that? Apart from playing it, who are you looking forward to seeing play?
We got hooked up with the Wasted show mostly through a good friend over there. A long time ago, he sent the show organizers a copy of our first demo, and they contacted me a while back and asked us to play. Considering the caliber of bands who are playing, it was quite an honor to be asked.

As far as other bands, there are just too many to list them all, but I have to say that Im mostly looking forward to seeing our friends Neck (incredible London-Irish punk… check them out if youre not familiar) again, as well as Blood Or Whiskey, The Dead Pets, The Business, Sham 69, Discipline, The Damned, The Stranglers… the list goes on and on.

And do you have other shows planned while youre over?
Unfortunately not… we got offered quite a few gigs, but its difficult for us all to get time off of work to spend an extended period of time away.

Have you played outside the US before? If so where, and how did that go?
This is our first time outside of the country, although were hoping to hit Canada pretty soon, and *maybe* do an extended European thing next year some time.

What kind of punk scene you got going in Portland/Dover?
It was pretty dry for a while, but there are some damn good bands in the scene today. Some of the standouts are The Outsiders, Owen Money & The Saviors (both rockabilly/punkabilly), Covered In Bees (very tough to describe, but theyre hard as hell and really, really good), Destined 2 Fight (mid-90s style hardcore), and tons more. Do yourself a favor and check out all those bands.

If you could collaborate with any artist/band living or dead who would that be?
I guess the obvious choice for the band would be the man himself, Shane MacGowan. The Pogues were pretty much the first to bring the “punk” attitude to Irish music and it would be an honor to do something with any of them. On a more personal note, one of my personal heroes is Johnny Cash and I would have given almost anything to have even met the man, let alone collaborated with him.

Your new album “Another Night On The Floor” is out a couple of months now, hows that doing, what kind of reaction are you getting to it?
At the risk of tooting our own horn, the album has been doing incredibly well. Weve got outlets all over the world selling it, including the UK, Italy, Russia, Japan and others. The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, and we definitely appreciate all the support and kind words we get via E-mail or MySpace on a daily basis.

Is its title anything to do with drinking by any chance?!
Strangely enough, yes… its actually a lyric from Shot Glass, which was the first original tune we ever wrote. Chad (guitars) and I were hanging out at my house one day right after he joined the band, and we decided to write a song. We were completely shitfaced, which made “shot glass shot glass I love you / You take away the pain and you drive away the blues / But if I spend another night on the floor / then shot glass shot glass youre out the fucking door” seem like a really good idea. Ahem.

How many of you have Irish blood?!
We all have Celtic blood of one variety or another, although we havent taken a poll to see whos 100% Irish. Weve always used the title “Celtic Punk” as opposed to “Irish Punk,” as the original celtic nations certainly werent limited to Ireland alone.

What are your views on Bush, Iraq, etc.?
None whatsoever. One of the very first decisions we made as a group was that politics would have no place in this band. Were in it for fun, not to grandstand. Dont get me wrong; music can be a powerful tool and if a band sets out with the intention of getting across this message or that message, then more power to them, but thats not us. We want people to be entertained, not offended one way or the other. Lots of people consider the old “leave your politics at the door” cliche to be fence-sitting or a copout, but to me it means that everyone is going to have a good time, even if its only for an hour.

I fucking hate hippies, though.

Whats coming up for The Pubcrawlers?
To be honest, its been hard enough organizing this England trip (especially since we dont have a manager) to think much beyond that. Once we get a label and overseas distribution for the CD sorted out, though, who knows?

Thanks for the interviews, best of luck at Wasted, the last words are yours…
Thanks a lot for your time; slainte!

Catch the guys @ Wasted

May, 19 2005 at Wasted UK 05!
Not Available, Morecambe, UK,
www.holidaysinthesun.net

Websites:
www.the-pubcrawlers.com
www.myspace.com/thepubcrawlers