sooooo…gave my first listen to a band…used it as driving music on the hour drive home from school…extensive use of uilleann pipes both traditionally and non-traditionally…i think it’s very healthy for the instrument to branch out into more widely listened areas as well as remaining a strong part of ITM
Dropkick Murphys
thoughts?
True, as long as it doesn’t just become another experimental ‘fad’. I draw the line at use with orchestras or the Moving Hearts sound. Can’t comment on Dropkick though.
Cheers,
DavidG
I dunno…moving hearts synth stuff…yeah, prolly not the best idea
use in a mainstream orchestra…i like…as a matter of fact i’m playing in an orchestra mar 2 for my brothers composition recital…
fads, no…but “mainstreaming” (so long as it doesn’t detract from use in ITM) I see only as a good thing…commercials, tv shows, movie soundtracks, and pop music…just so long as it’s not treated like “just another oboe”…
I didn’t know Dropkick Murphy’s used UPs. I’ll have to check that out, I’ve only heard them playing GHBs. Flogging Molly is another band you should look into. Their fiddler plays whistle and has played UPs on a couple tracks. It’s punk with a definite traditional base.
-Mike
You should give a listen to Kíla, Afro Celt Sound System and, maybe not just as good but worth a listen anyway, Sin É.
Was anything from the '80s a good idea (rhetorical question, don’t answer)
We may well be saying the same thing about Afro Celt SS in 15 years time…“Dunno…Afro Celt world music stuff…yeah, prolly not the best idea” 
(Rhetorical example - don’t flame me thinking I’m rubbishing ACSS)
Cheers and rhetoric,
DavidG
Not ITM but if you want progressive trad music, check out Martyn Bennett. The greatest exponent of it, eclipses Afro Celt.
on the subject of uilleann pop music, why don’t we have an ‘Uilleann Idol’ complete with judging panel of burnt out one-hit-wonders. But we need a sickly sweet Air for the winner to cut for their first single.
Do you think we could get Simon to be one of the judges… we need someone of the simple, brutal honesty ilk for that. Anybody want to give it a go?
i was actually listening for it…i heard ghb in one, maybe two of the songs i listened to…i really think the rest i heard in the other songs was up…some pretty prominent…i’ll have to go back and get the titles of the ones i heard…
songs that seem to be GHB
Kiss Me, I’m Shitfaced
Bagpipes
songs that seem to be UP (but I could be wrong…there’s alot else going on while they’re playing)
Tessie
songs that are a little hard to tell
Workers’ Song
hm…now that i’m looking at the list, and listening to the songs a second time, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were all GHB after all. From what i understand, the pipes are rendered by one of the band members and if it’s GHB that one of them is, i’m sure he’s playing them all on GHB…oh, well…but if it’s possible to use GHB in that capacity, the greater range of the UP would make them even more suitable, i would think…
mudda, fadda kindly disregard this letta
EEk Dropkick Murphy’s.
Last I knew they had a GHB piper called “Spicy McHaggis”.
Pretty much just a drunk that can play clumsy lover and slow aire’s.
In the late 90’s they invited me to play GHB’s with them when they were in Milwaukee. I showed up after they had already tuned and said they didn’t want to do it. I didn’t care it was a free ticket to see the show. The Dropkick’s have long been unity punks, where they don’t care who comes to their shows, just working men BS. This brings a lot of Neo Nazi’s to their shows, which is a big turn off for me.
As for uilleann pipes, what album did you hear it on?
Pop Uilleanns, listen to Black 47, that band is good and awful. Complete with a guy playing U pipes on a lot of tracks. I think he just uses a practice set as he is always playing standing up with a foot on a case. Black 47 is a Northern Irish band trashtalking The english and Michael Collins and the like. BUt they have some americans in the group, complete with a white rapper, that guy is hilarious to listen too.
Flogging molly’s are great.
There used to be a Uilleann piper in a celtic rock band here in the states. The band Seven Nations. The piper has left now, but used to be a staple in the band, and you can hear him on their first couple of albums. Now seven nations just has two ghb pipers and an awesome fiddler, least they did a couple of years ago, haven’t heard them in a while.
The dropkick murphy’s have always used a bit of tin whistle, never heard a fiddler with them though. When I went to play with them I wound up hanging out backstage with them. Kind of rediculous, I was 16 hanging out backstage with Boston punks I knew nothing about.
Lots of Highland pipes get pop ized, and modified. It’s a pretty strong subculture within a subculture. Some of the best pipers I’ve ever heard, Chris Armstrong, and Mark Saul do it. But because of the Techno aspects a lot of traditional scottish pipers claim that their piping is just recorded slow and sped up, making them sound better than they are… I think they’re just jealous 
http://www.marksaul.tv/Audio.html
http://www.black47.com/index.htm
http://www.sevennations.com/index2.asp
http://www.dropkickmurphys.com/index1.php
If talking GHB is the topic, that great Aussie icon viz AC/DC used them, played by Bon Scott. In an interview with the Dutch guy from the group (I forget his name) what you hear in Highway to Hell (I think that’s the tune - I’m not the most devoted fan) is all he could ever play. Anything else was “lip-sync”.
Cheers,
DavidG
…Man, I miss him. 
Audag..Bon Scott played the GHB in the song," Its a long way to the top". And Bon Scott was from Scotland not Australia..he moved there when he was older, and met the Young brothers there.
To echo Hallion, Kila is the thing for modern approaches to music with Uilleanns. Eoin Dillon is as precise and magical a piper as I’ve ever heard. They do live what they do in studio. A very eclectic sound. Fun to watch too. A rare thing indeed. Mostly people make Pub Rock and add some pipes. hey presto! Celtic Fusion!!! Kila purely and simply excel. Go buy their works!!
Sin E!! There’s a blast from the past! James O’Grady, another fine piper…
Alan
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Black 47 is a Northern Irish band
Black 47 are from New York NOT Ireland. They do however, sing alot about the situation in Ireland.
Yeah that’s the song. I never said Scott was Australian, I said AC/DC was an Australian band. There was a Dutch guy as well, Harry "The Dutch Damager’ Vanda, who was a record producer. I thought I heard him say Scott couldn’t play the pipes, but actually I just found out he was in the Fremantle (Western Australia) Scots Pipe Band prior to joining AC/DC.
Edited not once, not twice, but thrice for added tidbits of nostalgia
Oh, I thought they were from Ireland, my mistake.
wetoowaag[/quote]