REVIEW: Mad Mulligans – Who Are The Mad Mulligans (Rotten Bastard Records/Dammit Records)
As the title of this debut release by this new streetpunk band demands, who, indeed, are the Mad Mulligans?
Conceived and recorded during 2020’s lockdown, this debut mini-album features members of several well-established New York City oi! and punk bands.
A bunch of old friends who couldn’t see their own bands, Mad Mulligans are a collective, whose members can come and go.
Three core members are Johnny Kray, Albee Damned and Wynn Skism, who played together in NYC punks The Krays.
Johnny still fronts the band while also playing with several other groups, including Bastard Clan and Drunken Rampage. Wynn and Albee left at different points, and are both currently in American Eagle on bass and guitar respectively.
Wynn also plays in Skism, while Albee bashes away drums for Model Citizen NYC. The fourth official core member is Rich O’Brien, who is frontman and occasional drummer of Darkside NYC.
Fluid line-up
The unofficial fifth member is Brian Martin, from NYC ska band Mephiskapheles, who adds a piano track. Then there’s a cast of half a dozen others who add vocals here and there. As Albee Damned says: “The lineup is fluid and anyone can be a part of it. We are all Mulligans.”
They wear their influences on their sleeve – early British oi! bands such as Blitz, The Business, and particularly Sham 69, as well as American hardcore from the same era.
But what does it sound like? Well, suffice to say that if you like the bands mentioned above, you’ll enjoy the Mad Mulligans.
Released in late 2020 in the US on Rotten Bastard Records, this debut offering is now released in the UK by DIY punk label Dammit Records.
Extra track
The running order is slightly rejigged, and an extra track added – the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it hardcore blast of Divided We Fall!
The urgent Bricks And Batteries, which now kicks off the set, is a celebration of togetherness as Johnny sings: “We won’t take no more, oh no/They started a war, woah oh.”
Knock One Back is a riff-laden slice of streetpunk, complete with gang vocals, all about drinking: “Knock one back to take the edge off/Knock another to put it back on.”
Sham 69
The Sham 69 influence is never more obvious than on Jimmy Got Robbed, which wouldn’t look out of place on Tell Us The Truth.
It references a whole host of Pursey songs, from Borstal Breakout to Rip Off, Hey Little Rich Boy to George Davis Is Innocent, and, in the fading coda, I Don’t Wanna.
The gulf between haves and have-nots is the subject of So Sure We’re Right, whose guitar solo also recalls the Hersham Boys.
We Know Who You Are is more hardcore than Oi! as Johnny sings: “I don’t trust nobody/You all lie/I don’t need nobody/I’ll get by” (though the bridge again shows their love for Sham).
Life Just Ain’t Working Out Today is a real curveball, different to anything else here; it sounds a bit like Talking Heads, with spoken-word lyrics. I still haven’t worked out if I like it, but kudos for trying something out of the ordinary.
Finally, Boop Boop Dittum Dattum Wattum Choo borrows the chorus from a nursery rhyme, but is a rousing call to do something useful with your life.
The UK version of Who Are The Mad Mulligans is available from Dammit Records’ Bandcamp page HERE.
