The 2 rival gangs know shit is about to go down.
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Critical-looking faces make their means throughout cobblestone streets, eyes staring intensely forward beneath caps, hoods, or furrowed brows.
Mike Rivkees is mendacity on his again, blood trickling out from his mouth and coating his enamel.
Out the gate, line em up and begin em younger
Out the gate, it’s violence instantly.
Violence like this, gang versus gang, us versus them, man versus man—or possibly even God—is on the coronary heart of Celtic punk bands just like the Rumjacks.
The multinational band, made up of Irish-Individuals and Irish-from-Eire, borrows a lot of the imagery used from the musicians that got here earlier than them. That’s form of a part of the deal when your style makes use of a lot of the normal sound—“trad” to these in that world.
This battle taking part in out on display screen is the music video for The Rumjacks’ “An Eye for an Eye,” from their February album Useless Anthems. Mike Rivkees calls it one among their most “cinematic” songs so far.
This says rather a lot a few band whose material typically revolves round character-driven narratives the place hard-luck people attempt to do what’s proper, to combined outcomes.
With “An Eye for an Eye,” the Rumjacks return to the properly so typically drawn from by musicians with any connection to Eire: The Troubles, the a long time of violence between completely different warring factions in Northern Eire—Catholics and Protestants, Republicans, and loyalists. Neighbors.
When it’s eye for a watch
It’s one for an additional
We combine blood on our fingers
With the tears of our moms
When it’s eye for a watch
It’s one for an additional
We destroy ourselves
We destroy our brothers
It’s not a ripped-from-the-headlines story, although. Rivkees and the Rumjacks use the backdrop of Belfast to inform a narrative that the listener can place nearly wherever on the earth, sadly, to some extent: violence towards your fellow man and the collateral harm that outcomes from it.
“We didn’t go too particular so far as a narrative,” he says from his house studio in Windfall, Rhode Island—removed from Eire. “It’s not a few particular information story or occasion that occurred. It’s form of meant to be only a greater image, overarching theme of cyclical violence and generational hatred.”
That very same concept is addressed in “Father’s Struggle,” which feels extra at house on American tv than Irish currently.
I want I hadn’t heard the bloody information immediately
It’s all the time only a fuckin disgrace
“One other lone wolf”
“Did he study it at house?”
Tomorrow he’ll be despatched away
Celtic punk bands just like the Rumjacks deal closely in character-driven narrative. Throughout Useless Anthems, Rivkees sings about heroes, anti-heroes, losers, winners—all difficult people in some wrestle both inside or exterior. Some are violent epics, some are triumphant cheers over sloshing beer, others are tears in whiskey and damaged hearts, like “An Irish Goodbye on St. Valentine’s Day,” which tells the story of a relationship that simply couldn’t make it.
I drank till I slurred and swore I’d by no means love once more
And I don’t blame you, not one bit, for strolling once you did
And now I’m standing right here within the freezing rain and also you’re already house
And I solely confirmed as much as this place so I wouldn’t die alone
Listening to and studying these tales, one can’t assist however take into consideration who got here earlier than the Rumjacks. Whenever you’re any quantity of “trad” in Celtic punk, you need to pay homage to those who paved the way in which. Dropkick Murphys are one among, if not the, largest, stateside a minimum of. And after a tumultuous previous with the Rumjacks’ earlier singer Frankie McLaughlin, Rivkees’ addition to the band in 2020 helped clean issues over with the blokes from Boston.
For a band that sings about violence a lot, the Rumjacks do know who they need to keep away from selecting a combat with.
“Nobody wished a rivalry, particularly with the Dropkicks,” Rivkees says.
Rivkees is diplomatic in telling the story, relating largely that it price the band a great working relationship with the flag bearers of the style for a very long time. However when Dropkick Murphys vocalist Al Barr needed to step away from the band to look after his mom in 2022, Rivkees stepped in. And Dropkicks chief Ken Casey hopped into the studio to lend vocals to The Rumkacks’ ‘25 single “Chilly Like This,” a seaworthy singalong about preventing towards the brutal Boston wind chill.
If we’re speaking about position fashions and inventive legends inside that Irish musical diaspora, although, there’s actually just one who reigns supreme.
Bono.
Simply kidding.
Shane McGowan. [Writer does sign of the cross.]
He’s the north star to Irish bands throughout generations, whether or not they nonetheless rock a tin whistle or they’re trying to find a extra trendy sound like Fontaines D.C., and his shadow looms massive.
For Rivkees, McGowan and the Pogues had been those who exemplified how you would incorporate conventional Irish music with rock ‘n roll.
“The largest influence of McGowan and the Pogues was that there was a whole world of those that had been like, ‘Oh, wait a minute, we will mix conventional music with punk music and it really works very well.’”
Rivkees wrote “Some Legends By no means Die” upon listening to about McGowan’s demise in 2023, celebrating his capability to encourage the world with writing that completely encapsulated the duality of Irish identification of pleasure and unhappiness. Gentle and darkish coexisting. However somebody bigger than life remains to be not proof against demise.
All that’s stated and accomplished, you don’t have lengthy
You may reside eternally solely in a tune, he wrote.
Rivkees would love his songs to reside eternally. Anybody would. He seems like this assortment of songs has “timeless” components and tales that, impressed by locations that make up his personal DNA, resonate with any listener wherever.
And he’s hoping that possibly that cinematic high quality of a few of the songs from Useless Anthems catch the ear of Hollywood. No simple process, he admits. The means of selling a band have modified dramatically within the social media age. He is aware of that every one too properly.
“We’re not having these, like, large viral moments,” he says. “It’s attention-grabbing to see the state of social media for musicians. I name it slot machine advertising and marketing, the place persons are hoping to hit a jackpot and considering that their profession goes to take off from it.”
That’s how we find yourself with bands posting 20-second clips of the identical bridge or refrain each day for months, hoping that it’s sticky sufficient to cling onto some TikToks or reels after which the magic occurs.
However the Rumjacks know they’re underdogs right here. They don’t need viral moments. They need connection and so they need to resonate with the correct folks for the correct causes.
“I’m happy with this album,” Rivkees says. “It’s a rattling good album.”
However what would their slot machine payout seem like if it hit?
“Finest case state of affairs, ‘Eye for an Eye’ lands in a film or one thing.”
However what would the film be? Rivkees appears to have a imaginative and prescient for these heroic tales taking part in out in his head.
“Jeez. I imply, , ‘Delivery as much as Boston’ did so properly in The Departed,” he says. “So we’ll take The Departed 2.”
Even in a dialog about violence, fallen heroes, and the cruel realities of being a band in 2025, there’s room for a joke or two. There’s room for comedy even in a tragic story. The best Irish poets and writers knew this.
Bittersweetness permeates the songs and tales. Maybe that’s why the Rumjacks amend their February launch with what Rivkees calls “probably the most well-known Irish tune of all time—“Danny Boy”—a narrative of being known as to depart your private home, possibly for a greater life or possibly for battle and eventual demise, however discovering peace nonetheless.”
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