At the beginning of the year, I gave Album Of The Week to Signed And Sealed In Blood, the latest from the reliably hammerheaded Boston bagpipe-punk crew Dropkick Murphys. It’s an exceedingly, gratifyingly simplistic album, and its most simplistic song is the opener, a gang-shout battering ram called “The Boys Are Back.&#8...

How did Mumford & Sons' banjo-wielding Winston Marshall end up on the new Dropkick Murphy's album

St. Patrick’s Day 2001, I’m shipping back up to Syracuse, back to school after a spring break spent doing nothing but playing Wrestlemania 2000 on the Nintendo 64 and drinking with my friends in Baltimore. It’s five in the morning, and I haven’t slept. My friend Nat was supposed to pick me up the previous ...

Dropkick Murphys have turned to an unlikely ally to reveal their new album

Boston’s Dropkick Murphys have now spent a decade and a half fusing Irish reels with roomful-of-drunk-bruisers punk shoutalongs. Their whole thing should’ve worn thin long ago, but it remains remarkably fun. Next week, they’ll release their new album Signed And Sealed In Blood, and it’s a total blast. Stre...