The Dropkick Murphys announced that their ninth studio album
11 Short Stories Of Pain & Glory will be released on January 6th through
their label Born & Bred Records. The album is available for pre-order now
and the band has shared an incredible lyric video for the song from the album
"Blood". Ted Hutt, who has previously worked with the band (and
Gaslight Anthem and Old Crow Medicine Show), produced the new album.
The Dropkick Murphys have been synonymous with the city of
Boston, and it's almost startling to learn that 11 Short Stories Of Pain &
Glory was not recorded there, but in El Paso, Texas. "To me, the whole
journey starts with the fact we actually agreed to go - and then went - to
Texas. Because we've never left home to make a record," says bassist and
founder Ken Casey. "As everyone's lives have become crazier and busier
with kids and families, it's gotten harder to buckle down at home. We decided
to leave Boston, go down to literally the middle of nowhere and lock ourselves
in a room."
Besides the location, the album was influenced by the band's
work with The Claddagh Fund, a charity the band established in 2009 to help
support addiction recovery as well as children's and veterans' organizations.
The band is hands-on in raising funds, mentoring, and lending a helping hand in
the fight. Many of the songs reflect these experiences, and the band's sadness,
anger and dismay at the opiate epidemic ravaging the country - in particular,
Boston and New England. The song "Rebels With A Cause" was written
about kids who are given up on, and left behind by a system that has written
them off as hopeless. "Paying My Way" is about the way up and out of
addiction and the dream of bigger and better things in life.
"4-15-13" stands out as one of the most emotional
pieces in the group's catalogue. The track pays homage to the victims of the
Boston Marathon Bombing, most of whom the band grew to know personally after
visits to their hospital rooms in the aftermath. "Since that day, we felt
like not taking the challenge to write a song about what we all went through
would be taking the coward's way out," Casey reflects. "We put more
importance on writing that piece of music than anything we've ever done,
because if you're going to touch that day, it has to be done right. We went
through so many emotions with that whole experience, as did everyone in Boston.
It changed the city forever."
On the album, the band carries on the tradition of rough and
tumble storytelling - the kind of writing that never leaves fans wondering
whether the band have lived what they're singing about. A look back at
childhood life, a snapshot of a clueless Masshole, a stop-you-in-your tracks
reflection on a terrorist tragedy...it's all there across the record's 11
tracks. There are moments of ass-kicking Celtic punk attitude, ball-busting
wisecracks, tear-jerking confessions, and the kind of upbeat words of wisdom
that can be chanted loud and proud across arenas and stadiums worldwide.
11 Short Stories Of Pain & Glory represents a high-water
mark for Dropkick Murphys as they invite listeners everywhere to once again
take an active part in their story. "We've stayed true to what the band is
and has always been. And we're still expanding on our sound and lyrical
content," offers Brennan.
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