Boston Skyline Records

The punk industry has thousands of loyal fans worldwide, and it’s easy to see why there’s such a buzz for some of the 2011 releases. Most mentionable is the new Dropkick album.

That’s right, the giants of the industry are coming out of their slumber. In March of this year, Dropkick Murphys released “Going Out In Style’, their first album since 2007. The music is true to Dropkick form, with lots of bagpipes and rowdy background music to get your feet stomping. Better yet, the album in their entirety has it’s own concept. With going out in style, we follow Cornelius Larkin, a fictitious character whose story is told within the album. With guest appearances by Bruce Springsteen, Fat Mike (the vocalist from NOFX) and even Pat Lynch (James’ dad!) this album is one of Dropkick’s best. For the record, the Pat Lynch appearance can be accreddited with the song “The Irish Rover’, which has been covered by plenty of bands, but “we made it our business to do it as heavy and fast, as much of a rock and roll song as we could’, claims James Lynch. He wasn’t lying. At the very least, it makes one want to drink whiskey and jump off a platform into a group of hopefully willing-to-catch-you people. Classic Dropkick Murphys.

They aren’t the only ones that have stepped up to the plate this year. The King Blues released “Save the World, Get the Girl.’ The song Headbutt tells a tale of love while rocking your stereo with lovely piano and heavy guitar. This strange mix makes for a wonderful album all the way through. This British group has really outdone themselves, but their sound is a little more poppy than most true punk fans would like to hear.

Later on in the year, we can expect a new album from NOFX, a cover album of other hardcore punk songs. As early as September, we can see new work from Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Andrew Jackson Jihad and Anti-Flag.