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Dropkick Murphys: Deeds Not Words

Some albums show up ready to brawl, and the seventh long-player from Boston’s beloved Irish-tinged punk rockers Dropkick Murphys jumps out with scabby knuckles and a fearless grin. The first verse on Going Out In Style (released March 1 on the band’s own Born & Bred Records) goes:

We waited together for the cowards to come
Outgunned and outnumbered
But we wouldn’t run
No mercy, no quarter
They’ll pay for their sins
Now lower the cannons the battle begins

Dropkick Murphys have been fighting the good fight since the mid-90s, and as evidenced by their latest record, they’ve gotten a bit more refined at their mixture of classic punk, traditional Irish textures and rowdy, anthemic tunes. They’ve even grown more complex over the years, braving a unifying concept for Going Out In Style , which tells tales from the life of one Cornelius Larkin, a lively strawman for the group’s collective imagination. It’s a wake in the grandest sense that just happens to touch on timely issues like union busting and the struggles of working class people. While the band couldn’t have planned it, fate it seems had them deliver a work that’s just what average folks - the ones barely scraping by and wondering if even that skin-of-the-teeth existence is gonna last - need at this moment.

We snagged lead singer Al Barr for a chat about Cornelius, earning Glenn Beck’s hatred, the difference between punk now and back in the day and other tasty topics that jumped up during our conversation.

JamBase: It’s ballsy for any band to do a concept record in this age.

Al Barr: We call it more of a themed album, but whatever. With us, the way everything has worked in our career, we didn’t set out for it to be that way. When we wrote the first song, “Going Out In Style,” we just realized there was a character in there and decided to continue his story.

JamBase: A floating theme like that adds depth, where one is rewarded for treating it like an album and not just picking through individual songs.

Al Barr: People don’t buy records anymore. They buy a song, and they don’t experience that whole [album] thing. In a way, this may be what bands will have to do to get people to pay attention. If you want to find out what happened in the end you have to ‘read’ the whole story.

I didn’t realize initially it was a linked story but when I found out it made sense in retrospect. But the songs work fine on their own, too.