Street Dogs
A hard-hitting and melodic punk rock outfit based out of Boston, Massachusetts, Street Dogs specialize in bruising but heartfelt beer- and blood-fueled blue-collar punk that's as hopeful and inclusive as it is combustive. Founded in 2002 by Mike McColgan, a Gulf War veteran, fireman, and the original frontman for Celtic punk legends Dropkick Murphys, the band debuted in 2003 with the fiery Savin Hill, and continued to hone their proletarian punk sound well into the next decade via standout LPs like Fading American Dream (2006), State of Grace (2008), and Stand for Something or Die for Nothing (2018).
Boston, Massachusetts is a uniquely divided city, consisting not of amorphously defined neighborhoods like the ones that make up Manhattan, but small, semi-autonomous villages with names like Allston, Dorchester, Roxbury, and Jamaica Plain. Similarly, Boston's music scene has traditionally been equally insular, with little communication between the punk, indie rock, hip-hop, metal, folk, and Celtic scenes. One of the first bands to overlap some of these fiefdoms was the ska-punk-metal hybrid the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, which included drummer Joe Sirois for most of their performing career. About a half-decade later, the Dropkick Murphys formed in predominantly Irish South Boston, fusing hardcore street punk with an ever-increasing amount of Celtic folk influences, like a harder-edged and more street version of the Pogues. The Dropkick Murphys' lead singer was the fierce, gravely Mike McColgan. Following that band's first album in 1998, Do or Die, McColgan (a veteran of the first Gulf War) left the Dropkick Murphys to join the Boston Fire Department. Ties between the Boston Irish community and the local fire department run deep, and being a fireman has long been one of the most prestigious jobs in South Boston, but by 2002, McColgan returned to music, forming the Street Dogs with guitarist Rob Guidotti, bassist Johnny Rioux (both formerly of local street punk band the Bruisers), and a fellow ex-Dropkick Murphys member, drummer Jeff Erna.
Released in 2003, the band's debut, Savin Hill, was a proudly Bostonian album named after a tough Dorchester neighborhood and filled with local references, plus a pair of tributes to McColgan's fellow firefighters (a massive, deadly blaze in Worcester in 1999, along with the tragedy of 9/11, had badly shaken the local firefighting community) and an odd choice of covers from Kris Kristofferson and Sham 69. Following the debut, the Street Dogs reorganized, replacing Guidotti with Marcus Hollar and Erna with ex-Bosstones drummer Joe Sirois; just as importantly, McColgan left his firefighting job in 2004. After a split-EP with Allston-based garage rockers the Dents (Street Dogs/Dents), which introduced their new lineup, the Street Dogs released Back to the World, featuring the proudly parochial "In Defense of Dorchester" and several songs showing an increasingly political lyrical stance. By this time, Street Dogs had also added second guitarist Tobe Bean (ex-Welt) to the lineup to round out their sound. After its original release on the punk indie Side One Dummy, the Street Dogs reissued Back to the World on their own label, Brass Tracks, in 2005. Fading American Dream followed in fall 2006 as the guys spent time on the road opening for the Bouncing Souls. The impressive and intelligent State of Grace appeared in 2008 from Hellcat Records. After extensive touring, Joe Sirois was replaced by drummer Paul Rucker and the band recorded their self-titled fifth album in the Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colorado, which was released in August of 2010. In 2018, after an eight-year absence, Street Dogs returned with the politically charged Stand for Something, Or Die for Nothing, their first album for Century Media. It also marked the studio debuts of drummer Pete Sosa and guitarists Matt Pruitt and Lenny Lashley.
© Stewart Mason /TiVo
Discography
13 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Street Dogs (Deluxe Edition)
Alternative en Indie - Released by Hellcat - Epitaph on 27 aug. 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Savin Hill
Alternative en Indie - Released by Crosscheck Records on 23 sep. 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
State of Grace
Alternative en Indie - Released by Hellcat - Epitaph on 5 jul. 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stand For Something Or Die For Nothing
Punk en New Wave - Released by Century Media on 22 jun. 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Split
Punk en New Wave - Released by Pirates Press Records on 19 apr. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
GOP
Punk en New Wave - Released by Pirates Press Records on 6 nov. 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
War After The War
Alternative en Indie - Released by Hellcat - Epitaph on 10 mrt. 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Crooked Drunken Sons
Punk en New Wave - Released by Pirates Press Records on 20 apr. 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Angels Calling
Punk en New Wave - Released by Century Media on 15 jun. 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stand For Something Or Die For Nothing
Punk en New Wave - Released by Century Media on 27 apr. 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Other Ones
Punk en New Wave - Released by Century Media on 18 mei 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rustbelt Nation
Punk en New Wave - Released by Pirates Press Records on 21 mei 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Two Angry Kids
Alternative en Indie - Released by Hellcat - Epitaph on 3 nov. 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo