ALBUM REVIEW: The Dreadnoughts – Polka Pit (Punkerton Records)
Canadian band The Dreadnoughts have been mashing up punk, folk and polka music for almost 20 years now, winning followers around the world.
Formed in Vancouver, British Colombia, but now based in New York, Polka Pit is their eighth album, and their first for Ohio label Punkerton Records.
Mixing traditional European folk music with modern street-punk, they carry on the heritage of bands such as The Pogues and Gogol Bordello.
They trailed the album at the end of May by releasing title track Polka Pit as the lead single, and it’s the lively opener here, sure to get your feet tapping long before the end.
The upbeat Dark Sleeper is the first of three instrumentals, giving the band the chance to show their impressive musical prowess. The pick of them is their take on Brahms’ Hungarian Dance, which adds guitar, bass and drums to the accordion, fiddle and mandolin.
Elsewhere, there’s a fine trio of seafaring songs; the sea shanty Sierra, wartime tale The Torrid Brine, and, best of all, The Good Ship Mary Robinson, about a Californian clipper which tragically sank after being grounded on a reef with 1,300 tons of batshit onboard.
Tarantella Bang Boom is a quick Italian folk dance, while The I’m Going To Fight Jim’s Girlfriend Polka sounds like fellow Celtic punks Dropkick Murphys, and invites us to “drink until you don’t know who you are”. Sounds like a plan.
There’s some politics too; Luang Prabang is a cover of a powerful anti-Vietnam song written by protest singer Dave Van Ronk, while Dirge (for Neomar Lander) is a lament for a teenage barman who died in anti-Government protests in Venezuela in 2017 after being hit by a police tear gas bomb.
The album ends in upbeat style with Firefly, another example of their fusion of traditional folk music and street-punk. I bet they’re great live. 8/10.
- Polka Pit by the Dreadnoughts is available on vinyl, CD and streaming services. Check them out at their Bandcamp page HERE.
