Album Review: Street Dogs – Stand For Something Or Die For Nothing

Boston is a complex fabric of people, cultures, and viewpoints, and there are few that represent the city as proudly as the Street Dogs. From the air they breathe and the food they eat to the communities they serve, let’s not forget that frontman Mike McColgan is also a 911 dispatcher for the Boston Fire Department, and the values they uphold. The Street Dogs exemplify their city and what it has to offer the world. Across the Street Dogs sixteen years and six albums they’ve walked the walk and talked the talk, and their latest album, Stand for Something or Die for Nothing, continues that tradition.

The Street Dogs are Bostonian to the bone, and that blue collar pride comes through loud and clear on their latest album, from the opening blast of the rallying call of the album’s title track you know that the Street Dogs are well and truly back in business, fuelled by the current political climate and the injustice and inequality that’s endemic in society. Every track on Stand For Something Or Die For Nothing is everything you would hope for from an album from the Street Dogs, this is an album that embodies the band’s political views and delivers them in a style that is familiar to their fans, tracks such as Working Class Heroes and Lest We Forget are rousing anthemic, blue collar, defiant and politically focussed, in short they are classic Street Dogs tracks that will be guaranteed to become live favourites.

It’s been eight long years since the Street Dogs released their self titled album, and whilst they’ve been away for far too long Stand For Something Die Or Die For Nothing is an album that was well worth the wait, as for me this is Street Dogs strongest album to date. The Street Dogs sixth full length embodies everything you already love about this band, but it all sounds sharper and more focused and reflects the attitude of the opposition to the current wave of hate and intolerance perfectly, what more could you ask for from a punk album in 2018?

Stand For Something Or Die For Nothing can be pre-ordered here

Street Dogs Facebook page can be found here