Boston has a lot going for it right now: The Red Sox just won the World Series, and the city’s most famous Irish punk rock ensemble, the Dropkick Murphys, just released their highest-charting album to date, “The Meanest of Times.”
These no-nonsense bagpipe-driven punk rockers have been touring and playing for over 10 years and show no signs of stopping. Lead singer Al Barr took a moment from his Red Sox celebration to talk to the Daily Forty-Niner. Speaking fast, in a heavy Boston accent, Barr described the band’s increasing celebrity and the inspiration for the new album.
With a little help from Hollywood and the Oscar-winning picture “The Departed,” which showcased their song “I’m Shipping Up to Boston,” the group’s popularity has grown.
“I think that having a song in a major motion picture, it’s got to make a lot of people who are under the radar, who are not in our listening group, aware of the band,” Barr said. “Whether or not the people who are downloading the ‘I’m Shipping up to Boston’ song are then going out to buy our records, only time can tell. I like to think that it definitely helped, but I also think that the years of just touring and playing shows everywhere have garnered a pretty strong, loyal fan base and that is also reflected in the sales as well.”
“The Meanest of Times” is the group’s sixth album and has reached No. 20 on the Billboard album charts.
“Well, that was very unexpected for us,” Barr said. “Obviously it feels awesome. I don’t think any of us expected that.”
Many people speculated that the album’s title had to do with conflict in the world today, but that is not the case.
“I think at first when people first hear the title and they don’t see the record cover, they think, ‘Oh, it’s in reference of the state of the world right now,'” Barr said. “We were thinking of, if you listen to the record and if you look at the cover of the record, school days, which were some of the meanest of times, you know, good and bad. Everything you went through shapes who you are.”
Most of the 15 tracks on this album have a very united, family theme to them.
“The bass player and I write a lot of the lyrics, and we both have children, and we’re a little more reflective as seeing the world through their eyes and the things that parents think about,” Barr said.
“The State of Massachusetts” is one of the standout songs on the album. Backed by heavy bagpipes and rhythmic Irish guitar playing, Barr sings about a woman losing her children to the state.
Another epic track is the slow ballad “Fairmount Hill.” If this song won’t get you to feel the emotion in Barr’s voice and raise your lighter in the air, you must be dead.
The Dropkick Murphys performed at the Red Sox’s victory celebration on Tuesday, and they will be performing to a sold-out crowd at the Wiltern in L.A. tomorrow.
