Flash back to the Cornerstone festival (any of the last three years will do): You're freshly toasted after four hours of intense skanking, moshing, surfing, pogo-ing, and screaming your face off to some killer hardcore sets at the Underground Stage. You head over to the food vendors to quench your diehard thirst with a lemon shakeup. Besides, that tongue piercing you got the week before itches so much that you've cause your upper lip to become chapped. Anyway, you are heading up to the vendors and you come upon the most amazing sight. The Crossing is jamming at the Compassion Stage, and there's hundreds of people cutting a jig out in overflow areas outside the tent. You have to move along or get danced on, so you begin to skip and dance a jig yourself over to the stand. All of a sudden it hits you: Someone should marry the fun and melody of this kind of Irish music with the brash energy of street-wise punk. A day or two later you happen upon a similar experience at The Electrics' performance. You say to yourself, "This is the beginning of the answers to my daydream idea. Won't you be surprised this year when you see Andrew Mandell co-fronting Ballydowse, a crazy hybrid gone wild but nary too far from the Irish influence. Every few songs on this 13-song disc cuts loose with a tightly- played jam that may just be too fast to jig in any "proper" sort of way. The songs in-between are slower and more melodic. This fine band of eight experimenters do a swell job of playing a proficient line that converges with the others in a full and glorious symphony (ie. those violins and whirligig sounds mesh well with the guitars, bass and drums!). For a good example, give a listen to "The Banshee Song" or "Walkin' On" (which features multi vocal lines that could have been found on an early Rez album); or, better yet, take a listen to "Sails" on this issue's Hard Music Sampler CD. Can punk be eclectic? Sure it can. Look at emo or indie rock. The occasional distorted guitar adds the spice to this mix that will unify the old school punk fan with the coffee-drinking poetry-reading beard-wearing Irish music lover. Me thinks the results of this experiment are wonderful. The odd mix isn't cacophonous nor is it a big mess. If you're wondering who wins the "battle" between the two styles (as far as which sound dominates). I'd have to say it's the Irish. Another characteristic it shares with its punk brothers is that it requires commitment. It's hard to just sit down and listen to this music. You kinda have to just jump right in. \
Other coverage for this album
Decapolis 1999Reviewed by ConradThis album gets plusses just because I don't hear this type of music too much. It's like Irish folk rock or Celtic Rock. It's got the mandolins and violins, etc. Imagine Irish pub songs and folk songs made into rock. Many of the songs are pretty upbeat and fun. There's enough diversity on the album to make it an interesting listen. One main concern I had was with the production. If it were…Decapolis 1999Reviewed by Tom BastianI didn't really like this CD too much. None of the songs really stood out to me, even after a few listens. I guess stylistically they kind of reminded me of the Dropkick Murphys at times, with less punk, and more celtic rock. They have both a male and female singer. The male does most of the lead vocals, yet I liked the female's vocals more. She just had a really sweet voice, although it didn't…Decapolis 1999Reviewed by TimI like these guys. They are fun, and they don't complain... which is something you don't hear very much anymore. It sounds like Irish music. That's all I can say. I've never heard this type of music before...so I don't really know how to grade it. I enjoyed listening to it, but it got a little old after a whole album....but most bands get that way. BThe Phantom Tollbooth 1999Reviewed by Josh SpencerI've been waiting for this album since 1990, which is when I first heard "Bloody Lane" on Crashdog's first album, a song (written by Glenn Kaiser) that paired Crashdog's '80s punk with Scottish bagpipes. The combo of those two earthy musics struck a chord that I've been dying to have plucked again ever since. Now, almost a full decade later...Ballydowse. More than just punk-with-bagpipes, Brian…The Phantom Tollbooth 1999Reviewed by Steven S. BaldwinWhoa Nellie! Did you hear the rumor that JPUSA moved the Blarney Stone to Chicago? Probably not true, but it's curious that this small, devoted community of faithful American Christians are so fascinated with the music of the Green Isle that they now sport two bands with a distinctively Irish sound. The Crossing was the first, and far and away the more traditional of the two. The latest is…The Phantom Tollbooth 1999Reviewed by Shari LloydOne of the most original albums to hit the CCM market since Burlap to Cashmere. This is an amazing clash of Celtic meeting punk. With a wide range of Celtic and Australian Aborigine instruments that include mandolin, bodhran, moohran, percussion, violin, didgeridoo, bullroarer, and whirligig this group not only manages to carry this off on the album but are even better live. The only drawback to…Bandoppler 1998Reviewed by Sucré MusiqueTake a punk band, throw in some world music influences, and what do you get? Ballydowse, seems to have the answer in their very intense and eccentric musical blend. Fiddles, Uillean pipes, didgeridoos, and traditional instrumentation fuses with aggressive electric guitar, bass, and percussion sure to move your body and soul. Vocals are heard from nearly everyone in this ten piece band, but Robina…Similar sounding releases
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