Dropkick Murphys-Signed and Sealed In Blood (2013)
Artist: Dropkick Murpnys
Title: Signed and Sealed In Blood
Year of Release: 2013
Country and Year of Edition: US 2013
Sell Price: $7.73
Sell Date: 2/25/26
Condition: VG+/VG+
Discogs Last Sold: 1/24/26 NM/VG+ $9.99
Low: $2.00
Median: $7.00
Average: $7.13
High: $15.00
Current low price: $5.00
Current Number on Sale at Discogs:3
Have/Want: 708/135
Where Sold: Maplewood, NJ
Time It Took To Sell: 2 years
Where and When Bought: Facebook $2 lot
Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B+
Sad To See It Go: No
Dropkick Murphys were one of those bands that were recommended to me early in their history ever since they had a split single with the Ducky Boys as the next wave of Boston Oi somewhere in the mid-90's when the Rat was still around in Kenmore Square shortly after I moved to NYC. Funny I just checked and that same friend recently was talking abou a new band Haywire while we were catching up at the horsehoe bar recently, who along with the Ducky Boys are going to be on a four night stand in Boston in a couple weeks and I'm sure he'll be bartending on the MGM nights and making coin then actually attend the House of Blues night. Times change and stay the same in Boston whenever I go there to visit. I'm sure St. Patrick's Day on Lansdowne will be chaos.
Dropkicks rose to mass popularity fast and "Shipping Up To Boston" became a sports and Irish dive bar anthem, so I never really heard them outside of those confines. To this day I still have never seen them live since. Like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones before them, their brand of bar rock meets tradition presented as punk rock- in this case Oi meets The Pogues. However, they still remained a curio to check out for me all these years. More so than say, Flogging Molly, who somebody else liked from a similar era and concept, but they were LA. Sometimes shit gets on my radar for decades and I never get around to seeing it.
I have a few different Dropkick titles I picked up in the last couple years from CD clearance lots. I actually forgot I had 3 of them until I went to dig for this one after it sold. Now this is the one I'm going to focus on that came out somewhere in between the start of the band and now. Excluding live releases, splits and singles, this is their EIGHTH studio release 17 years in. Established enough to release on their own label Born & Bred without missing a beat in terms of distribution which they had been doing since The Meanest of Times back in 2007.
When the opening track came on through the speakers the first time, I thought the record had that blocky modern production sound where the low end sounds saturated even as traditional Irish instruments were introduced as the record progressed. I listened again this morning and cut the volume a little bit so the neighbors wouldn't get rousted and I didn't notice that as much. Normally I'd be hearing this music loud and proud on a bar jukebox in the background and not thinking about it so much, but I liked the record more when I cut the volume weirdly enough.
The Irish kickoff (and video) "The Boys Are Back" lay out the template much like the casual boxing in the background of the main event in the ring of the video. Irish with a capital clover. This ain't Thin Lizzy's boys, it's their kids and grandkids weened on Ramones and the Clanceys. I can't imagine a city other than Boston producing this kind of hybrid with mandolins and bagpipes among the baseline punk chords. The standout track for me that made me suddenly like the record alot more, the Christmas song "The Season''s Upon Us" was great for it's candor and sentimental unsentimentality. I'm surprised I haven't heard it until now, it seems like something that could stick in the Yuletide season if it wasn't so damn punk rock ha ha.
With this stuff you are gonna get gang whooahs and Planxty death spirals, so you might as well submit to the concept if you are going to stand a chance in hell of enjoying this. Almost every cut here becomes an instahit if you do. Throw a track on the digital jukebox at the Iriish bar if you don''t believe me.
Just stay away from "The Seasonn..." until after Thanksgiving, please.
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