STREET DOGS
By John B. MooreSTREET DOGS front man Mike McColgan shocked many in the world of punk rock when he walked away from the DROPKICK MURPHYS in 1998, just as the band was catching on with a national audience. The fact that McColgan walked away from being a rock star to put his life on the line as a member of the Boston Fire Department was an even bigger shock. But a dream is a dream. A few years into his gig as a Jake (look it up kids) for the BFD, the punk rock muse came calling again. He put together a part time band, the STREET DOGS, for a few weekend gigs and an outlet for creativity. Those gigs led to more shows and eventually an offer to put out a record. A call to join fellow Celtic punks FLOGGING MOLLY on the road forced McColgan to face a question of conscience he’d been having lately: did he want to be an old man sitting on his porch wondering what would have happened if he actually took that second chance at being a full time rock star? Eight years and five albums later, the question will never come up, as McColgan and the rest of his band are back with their latest effort. Clocking in with 18 tracks, the self-titled record is the paramount of all the band has strived for, arguable their best record. It manages to be both poignant and fun, with driving guitars and punk rock anthems. Preparing to hit the road for much of the rest of the year, McColgan spoke with AMP about the new record, leaving behind the fire department to become a road dog and how he and the guys in the DROPKICK MURPHYS are still friends regardless of what people want to believe.
After five albums, why decide to self-title this one?
Well, not to sound cocky or arrogant or to say we’re the best thing since sliced bread, I think we all felt like it was the best album we’ve ever done. And that’s not us saying the other ones don’t past muster, we believe in those records, but the new record is just on every level superior to the other ones and we feel like we hit our stride. The record sounds great and the songs are sequenced good. Some would be afraid to put 18 tracks on a record. Most bands in this day and age don’t do that because they know it’s a short attention span society and people are getting bombarded with information from all sorts of different kinds of mediums – from smart phones and laptops to TV – but we feel real strongly about the work. This is us; this is who we are. We just feel like it’s a self-titled record.
Did you think at all about cutting the album down to 10 or 12 songs?
You know, when we did the last record, State of Grace, we were in the mindset of less is more. But with this record we came close to going as deep as 21 songs. Because some of the B sides we felt were really, really strong, but we sort of erred on the side of caution and went 18 deep. I don’t think there was any thought at any time to put any less out there because we felt so strongly about the work.
I have to agree. I think this is your best album. Why do you think that is? Is it just that you have been together long enough that you feel more comfortable writing together now?
I think there are a lot of things; we were excited about the songs we walked into pre-production with, we were excited about working with Rick Barton as a co-producer to the effort; and to go to the Blasting Room (recording studio) in Fort Collins. We’ve always looked up to that room because of the history. Bands like THE DESCENDENTS, and bands like ALL and you have bands like NOFX and RISE AGAINST who have gone up there, so to have made a record up there blew our minds that we even had an opportunity in the first place. Then when you get up there and to work with Jason Livermore (who engineered and mixed the record) is just great. And Fort Collins is such a beautiful town as well.
At the risk of sounding cheesy, did you feel a sense of that history in the room?
That’s not cheesy at all. You have all those records on the wall looming down over you. That gets into your blood. That gets into you and you start thinking how amazing the room is and you start thinking about all the amazing artists that have been there and all the great records that have come out of that room. Yeah, that definitely factors into it, no doubt about it.
The song “Punk Rock and Roll,” off the new album, is probably one of the most fun songs you guys have ever recorded.
Yeah, growing up and even now on the weekends, sometimes you just want to let loose and have a good time and go to a show and maybe have a few drinks and just unwind. Society is so stressful these days and so much demand is put on young kids with school and work and they’re walking around with a bleak economic situation. Punk rock, for me, saved my life on many occasion and in many different ways and I feel for kids to come see our shows, they can lock on to a song like that and say, “yeah, I can be with my friends, go to a show, let loose and have some fun.”
Johnny Rioux (the band’s bassist) co-produced this one. He’s building a great reputation as a producer. How weird is it having a band mate produce you?
With me and Rick (Barton, co-producer and McColgan’s former band mate from the DROPKICK MURPHYS) there’s obviously a strong relationship. On past record, though not in name, (Rioux) really did help produce those albums. He really is the sound guy. He’ll listen to those songs again and again and pour over every aspect of them. When it comes to lyrics, he and I are the lyrics guys who scrutinize everything that’s written. Johnny does some great stuff with FLATFOOT 56 and some other bands. He’s an exceptional producer and knows about the history of this music and is one of the last of the purists around. He’s not concerned about what’s going on with the cover of Alternative Press. He’s into the purest sound and making great songs with big choruses and making the guitars and the drums and the bass sound like they’re going to explode.
I know the guys in FLATFOOT 56 give him a lot of credit for the way their new record sounds.
Yeah, he pushed them. A good producer will push the musicians and challenge them on individual performances. When you get pushed, things come out that you didn’t know you were capable of doing. He knows how to do that from having experience in the past.
So did he and Rick complement each other pretty well in the studio?
The both of them would give opinions and listen and be the ying and the yang, so to speak, on certain things. It’s a real funny story how it all started with Rick. He just called up out of the blue and said, “I’ve got like hundreds of songs and I don’t know what to do with them.” We said, “Why don’t you link up with us and we’ll jam and take a look at some of these songs.” That turned into “Why don’t you come in and work on our new record and co-produce,” ‘cause he’s a great songwriter, he’s got great energy, he’s a great guitar player. He’s a lifer in this thing and bringing him on board gave us new blood and a new perspective. And he’s like a livewire. He’s got positive energy around him 24/7. Having him and John join forces was just big for us.
Does Rick have another band going on right now?
Yeah, he actually has a band called CONTINENTAL and they’re going to be on the Fall Hellcat/Old Shoe US tour with us. They’re great. It’s him and his son Stephen. It’s really punk-y and rock and roll-y and just a great band. I’ve heard like five or six songs and as soon as I heard them I was like “You guys have got to go on the road with us.”
One of the things about your new record that really impressed me was the way one song naturally flowed to the next one. I know that sounds odd given the iPod singles world we live in.
Yeah, sequencing is a big thing with us. We follow the one second rule: don’t let the listener fall asleep. Keep hitting, keep attacking. Let the songs bleed one into another, like its one long story. I’ve poured over those songs again and again.
One thing I’ve been wondering about for years, you left DROPKICK MURPHYS to become a firefighter and eventually started STREET DOGS, while you were still working for the fire department. Did you know that this band would be a full time thing again?
No way. I had no clue (STREET DOGS) would be a full time thing. When me and Johnny were initially writing songs and jamming with Rob (Guidotto, former guitarist) and Jeff (Erna, former drummer) it was just to have fun and play shows locally and deal with that creative part of you that wants to write and wants to play. What happened is that offers started to come in for albums and shows and things like that and we said, “Let’s just do this record for this little record company that says they’re a record company.” We did that wrong for sure. With all do deference to them, they’re probably good people, but in hindsight we probably should have waited a little bit longer and taken in all of our available options, but we made a record, we played a big show in Boston that sold out and then FLOGGING MOLLY asked us to go out on the road. We were at a point where we had to either fold or go forward. I didn’t want to be on a porch when I was 65 years-old saying “I had another shot and I blew it.” I remember me and John were in Connecticut and it was snowing and we had just gotten back from playing, we were outside having a coffee at 3 a.m. and we just said “let’s do it” and never looked back.
I was living in Boston when the DROPKICK MURPHYS first got started and am glad to see they are still going strong…
I am too, those guys are really supportive of my decision to leave the group and pursue a fire career and they’ve been supportive of me with STREET DOGS, too. I can remember on (the album) Savin Hill, Ken (Casey) and Al (Barr) came in and sang “Stand Up.” The craziest thing is that people have wanted there to be bad blood and infighting and acrimony, and people have spread grumblings and ruminations about that, but it’s the furthest thing from the truth. I talk to Al and Ken periodically and everything is always civil and if you go to their website they have us as a link. We hung out on the ’05 Warped tour. It’s crazy. I can remember going to the Wreck the Halls show and going into Kenny’s bar to have dinner and it blows my mind. It’s kind of sad that people want there to be sensational bullshit so they can talk about it.
Popularity: unranked
