Street Dogs - 'State Of Grace'

Mike McColgan is a guy that embodies the ideal of the Boston Irish blue-collar punk mentality. A veteran of the first Gulf War, McColgan returned to Boston to found the Dropkick Murphys, and sing on their debut, the incredible powerhouse that was Do Or Die.

He left the Murphys after that record to pursue another dream; he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and become a member of the Boston Fire Department. Fortunately, the guy I consider to be the best frontman the Murphys had wouldn’t fade away, though.

McColgan continued to write music and reemerged on the Boston Punk scene fronting the Street Dogs on their debut album, 2003’s Savin Hill. Now, with their fourth album, State of Grace, the band is hitting their full stride, playing Boston Irish street punk that is little less Irish and a little more Boston than the Murphys.

On State of Grace, the Street Dogs continue deliver what they do best – this includes both fist-pumping street anthems and powerful emotional songs dealing with the manly yet sentimental themes of brotherhood, family loyalty and standing up for your beliefs.

The record opens up with “Mean Fist” (Listen/Download), which along with the anti-gun anthem “Guns” (Listen/Download), and the historical ballad “San Patricios” (Listen/Download) offer up the requisite fist-in-the-air circle pit-inciting songs one would expect from a Street Dogs record. But this sound doesn’t begin to touch on the depth of the band.

Also dropped into that fist-pumping mix is a cover of the 1979 Skids classic “Into The Valley”, compare the Dogs’ version (Listen/Download) to the original (Listen/Download) and you’ll see that Street Dogs took a classic tune and injected it with rawness, making it a bit more of a pub rocker without desecrating the feel of the original.

There are also the ballads for those who’ve passed. These come in the form of three inspirational tunes - "Kevin J. O'Toole” (Listen/Download), about McColgan's late uncle, "Elizabeth” (Listen/Download), about his late grandmother and "The General's Boombox" (Listen/Download), a fitting tribute to former Clash frontman Joe Strummer.

State of Grace wraps up with an introspective pairing, consisting of the somber title track about the search for that ever-elusive “state of grace” (Listen/Download) and “Free”, an acoustic tune that features a harmonica. “Free” is about fighting personal demons and becoming yourself through struggle, and despite being acoustic probably represents the most powerful offering on the album (Listen/Download).

Overall, it feels like State of Grace exhibits the progression of the Street Dogs sound by being less polished than previous albums. They exemplify the sound of the Boston streets, and even though they may not have a song on the soundtrack of a Hollywood blockbuster (yet), they will be a prominent Boston sound for a long time, and I truly believe that it’s only a matter of time before this McColgan-founded band also erupts into the mainstream.

Release date: July 8, 2008