Flogging Molly
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 Flogging Molly, 2005
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| Background information | ||
| Origin |  Los Angeles, California, United States |
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| Genre(s) | Celtic punk, Folk rock | |
| Years active | 1997–present | |
| Website | http://www.floggingmolly.com/ | |
| Members | ||
| Dave King [1997-) Bridget Regan (1997-) Dennis Casey (1997-) Nathen Maxwell (1997-) Bob Schmidt (1997-) George Schwindt (1997-) Matt Hensley (1997-2007) |
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Flogging Molly is a seven-piece Irish American Celtic punk band, that formed in Los Angeles and is currently signed under SideOneDummy Records.
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[edit] Background
In an interview with Kerrang! magazine, singer Dave King revealed that the band's name comes from Molly Malone's, also known as the LA tarrier, an Irish pub in LA. "We used to play there every Monday night and we felt like we were flogging it to death, so we called the band Flogging Molly." The band started as Dave King played Irish music in bars and pubs. They recruited more members until becoming the seven-person ensemble that they are today. They were signed onto SideOneDummy Records after a show when the record company's owners, who had attended the concert, were amazed by their intensity.
Their music is influenced by such bands as The Pogues, The Dubliners, and Stiff Little Fingers, and the country twang of such legends as Johnny Cash. It includes many references to the Roman Catholic Church and ranges from boisterous punk rock like the pirate-themed "Salty Dog" and "Seven Deadly Sins," or the defiant "What's Left of the Flag", "With a Wonder and a Wild Desire", "Drunken Lullabies", and "Rebels of the Sacred Heart" to more sombre songs like "Far Away Boys", "The Son Never Shines (On Closed Doors)", or "Death Valley Queen". The driving forces behind the music tend to be King's gravelly voice and Regan's manic fiddling.
Prior to forming Flogging Molly, Dave King was the vocalist for Fastway, a late 80s-early 90s heavy metal band, featuring guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke of Motörhead, and an experimental metal band called Katmandu (1991), featuring Mandy Meyer of Krokus on guitars.
Afterwards, Dave King retained a record deal with Epic records, and soon begun work on a solo album, but when he wanted to pull traditional Irish instruments into the work, the record company resisted. Dave soon asked out of his record deal to go his own way musically.
In the late nineties, he started frequenting the pub and restaurant known as Molly Malones in Los Angeles, CA. There, he met fiddle player Bridget Regan and they began playing together. Soon, the rest of the band came together to the familiar line up. From them on, they soon established a routine of playing and put out their first album, a live one recorded at Molly Malone's titled Alive Behind The Green Door in 1997.
Drummer George Schwindt's brother, Gary, is now their tour manager after leaving his job working for General Electric. Gary can be heard on the albums Swagger, playing the trumpet, and is also seen in the documentary DVD Whiskey On A Sunday.
Flogging Molly has released four studio albums, Swagger, Drunken Lullabies, Within a Mile of Home, and Whiskey on a Sunday DVD/cd combo, as well as an independent (26f Records) live album titled Alive Behind the Green Door. They have toured with the Warped Tour, Larry Kirwan's American Fléadh Festival and contributed to the Rock Against Bush project. They have become one of the biggest punk concert draws and have sold in excess of a million and a half copies of recorded output as of 12/06/06 [1].
On March 13, 2007, the band released an exclusive EP through iTunes entitled the Complete Control Sessions [2]. The EP includes two new tracks, as well as acoustic versions of previously released songs.
In an interview with a student reporter for University of Oklahoma press in Tulsa on March 15th, 2007, Nathen Maxwell confirmed that a new album is currently being written: "Yeah, we're working on a new album. We'll play three new songs tonight off of that album, probably. We've been hanging out at where Dave and Bridget live right now, in a village called Blackwater, which is in County Wexford, in the southeast of Ireland. So we've been staying there. We've been renting a cottage next door to their house and a friend of theirs garage in the village. So we're going into the garage everyday basically, jamming out new ideas and then walking down to the pub afterwards. So we'll do another one of those in June. Then after that we'll be in the studio sometime in the summer and lay those down."
[edit] Members
The band's members are:
- Dave King (vocals, acoustic guitar, bodhrán, banjo, spoons)
- Bridget Regan (fiddle, tin whistle, uilleann pipes, backing vocals)
- Dennis Casey (electric guitar, backing vocals)
- Matt Hensley (accordion, concertina) †
- PJ Smith (accordion) ‡
- Nathen Maxwell (bass guitar, backing and lead vocals)
- Bob Schmidt (mandolin, mandola, banjo, bouzouki, backing vocals)
- George Schwindt (drums, percussion, bodhran)
† As of early 2007, Matt Hensley will no longer be touring with the band.
‡ Replacement for Matt Hensley
[edit] Chart Positions
Swagger ** 1997, Drunken Lullabies #157 on Apr. 6 2002, Within A Mile Of Home #20 on Oct. 02 2004, Whiskey On A Sunday cd/dvd #67 on Aug. 12 2006 all of which can be verified on the Billboard Top 200 at Billboard.com.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Compilations
- Flogging Molly's Song Laura is on the SideOneDummy Mix cd, which could be obtained at some of their concerts for free.
- Their song Drunken Lullabies is featured in the video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4.
[edit] Trivia
- Main songwriter and lyricist Dave King composes his verse on a typewriter manufactured in 1916, the year of the Easter Rising in Ireland in order to celebrate his Irish heritage, having been born in Dublin. His birthday is 12/11/61.
- Dave King has described The Warped Tour as "the Survivor of ... punk rock shows."[3]
- The song "If I Ever Leave This World Alive" (studio version) is featured in Episode 8 "Scar Tissue" of Season 2 of The Shield, and was used in the first season of Showtime's Weeds as well.
- The song "Selfish Man" plays during the end credits of episode four, season one of the Showtime series "Brotherhood". The song "May The Living Be Dead (In Our Wake)" also plays during the wedding reception in the show's season one finale.
- The song "Queen Anne's Revenge" is an allusion to the ship of the same name (Queen Anne's Revenge), captained by the infamous pirate Blackbeard.
- The song "The Worst Day Since Yesterday" is featured in the 2005 film Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
- The song "Drunken Lullabies" is featured in Rock Against Bush Vol. 2.
- In an e-mail sent to fans of Flogging Molly on Friday, January 12, 2007, Matt Hensley confirmed his decision to stop touring with the band. He previously skated for Black Label Skateboards. He is also the owner of Innes Clothing, a skateboard clothing company, who he rides for now. A common misconception is that he skateboards in the "Drunken Lullabies" music video, when it was really Patrick Melcher, another rider for Black Label Skateboards at the time.
- The song "Every Dog Has Its Day" makes mention of Van Diemen's Land, the original name for the Australian island (and penal colony) of Tasmania.
- The song "To Youth (My Sweet Roisin Dubh)" is featured on the video Game Fifa 2005.
- The song "Salty Dog" has a melody based upon the Kesh Jig, a famous Irish tune notably used in the film Titanic, in the scene where the two lead characters are in the pub dance and Rose stands on the tips of her toes. The band playing in the scene is fellow Irish act Gaelic Storm.
- Thousands of people have the song "Salty Dog" tagged as "Pirate Song" because that's how it was first leaked on internet file-sharing programs; another tag is "Irish Pub Song". Also, Flogging Molly's music is often incorrectly labelled as that of other Irish bands, such as the Dropkick Murphys. The reverse also happens.
- Flogging Molly played an unusual set at the 2006 Reading and Leeds Festival when they played twice in one day - once on the main stage and again in the Lock-Up tent.
- At the end of the song "Factory Girls" the "Richard and his court of kings" refers to Richard II of England. (This could also be a reference to Dave King's father, Richard King. The song Factory Girls is about his mother.)
- Revealed by singer Dave King during the last night of the 2006 "Side One Dummy College Tour," Flogging Molly will begin recording a new studio album in January 2007.
- The song "Tobacco Island" makes reference to Oliver Cromwell and his taking over of parts of Ireland.
- The song "The Kilburn High Road" ends with the first line of the Percy French song The Mountains of Mourne.
[edit] See also
- Celtic Punk
- The Pogues
- The Tossers
- Dropkick Murphys
- Gogol Bordello
- The Dubliners
- Neck
- Siobhan
- Fiddler's Green
