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WITHIN A MILE OF HOME
(SideOneDummy)
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Although there have been more attempts than you might guess at first blush (think of songs by New Jersey’s Ted Leo and Boston’s Irish-punk kings Dropkick Murphys), so far, no act has combined the soul-lifting swoon and blue-collar crunch of punk rock and traditional Celtic music as magically as the Pogues did in "Fairytale of New York," the woozy Big Apple ballad frontman Shane MacGowan narrates from the "drunk tank" on Christmas Eve. Flogging Molly get close in "Factory Girls," a lived-in duet between singer Dave King and alt-country queen Lucinda Williams that’s the highlight of the LA septet’s third album (in stores October 26). Over a hearty bass-and-drums groove decorated with tin whistle and accordion, the two harmonize raggedly in tribute to "a chorus of factory girls singin’ in the streets, drinkin’ their Coca-Colas after washing your filthy sheets." Like the Pogues, Flogging Molly wrest triumph from struggle, beauty from coarseness. Unlike the Pogues, on the rest of the CD’s tracks (which are about demons, rebels, lovers, and fighters), King and his band mates don’t sound as if they’d just put away a dozen pints each. No other group with designated mandolin and uilleann-pipes players rock with this much conviction. (Flogging Molly perform with Street Dogs and the Briggs this Friday, October 1, at Avalon, 15 Lansdowne Street in Boston; call 617-228-6000.)
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