FOREVERMURPHYS's blog: "This is important."

We have announcement we need to make about the band and we're going to let Marc start things off; Dear DKM friends & fans, You may have heard some talk that I am going to stop playing with the Dropkick Murphys. I wanted to confirm that the rumors are true and I am leaving the band. I'm very grateful for everything playing with DKM has brought me and I'm sad to be going but I feel like the time has come for me to try working on different styles of music and some of my own projects, I'm ready to spread my wings as they say. I've been pickin', ticklin', strummin', squeezin', crashin', trashin' and smashin' with the Dropkicks for many years and am proud to have been a part of all the achievements and success we've had. However the greatest achievement of all has been the friends I've made and the people I've met along the way. Everyone has always supported me and the rest of the guys 100% in everything we've done which makes my leaving all the more difficult. I'm very anxious and excited to see where the road takes me. DKM are (of course) going to continue on and Tim Brennan will be taking my place playing guitar, Tim is one of the greatest musicians around and I know he'll do an amazing job. I wish him and the band all the best for the future and thank all the guys so much for everything they've done for me and for giving me a chance to see the world and play in one of the best punk rock bands around. I am going to miss you all and can't tell you how lucky I feel to have been given the opportunity to play in DKM. Thank you all DKM fans everywhere. DKMs alive! Keep listening! Marc Orrell. It goes without saying that we're very sad to see Marc go but we'll always be great friends and he will be part of the Dropkick Murphys family forever. Just like the mafia, once you're in you can't get out! Marc has told us he wants his music to go in a different direction and we all agreed that some of the new musical styles he wants to explore just aren't going to fit in with the Murphys sound. Marc and the rest of us all feel that preserving the Dropkick Murphys style the fans have come to know and expect should be the main priority. As Marc mentioned above Tim will be moving over to playing guitar and another great friend of ours and fellow Boston guy Jeff DaRosa will be taking over Tim's old duties. Jeff is another super talented musician and has been tight with us since our days playing at the Rat and will be familiar to you from bands he has been in previously like the Pinkerton Thugs and The Vigilantes (whose record we released on our label many years ago). We want everyone to know that we are still very committed to Dropkick Murphys and making our fans happy. As you all already know Tim is an extremely accomplished guitar player and musician so the transition is going to be very smooth. DKM will continue on with the same dedication, effort and heart we always have and we want you all to know Marc's leaving will not change any of our forthcoming plans. This is just another bump in the DKM rocky road. Ken, Matt, Al, James, Tim & Scruffy.

Clicky my piccy to bid. You Get.. and I added this stuff as extras.. Make them a Skin for their page their choice of Background and Colors. Make them 2 tags of their choice/description. 2 salutes sfw/nsfw (their choice, within reason,my decision) Top Friend for 1 month He started early so it on now.. HAPPY BIDDING!! :P

So a guy post this as a mumm... I replied.. see reply.. Then he gets in my shoutbox.. Tries to talk idiot to me and I don't speak idiot.. Then he blocks me (I guess?) leaves me a profile comment... In which he CALLS ME STUPID... LMAO.. WOW...I'm impressed...I laughed..figured you might too...

Have you rated my pic in wolfies contest yet? Click the pic to rate.. Thanks!!

Fly on...Thunderbird Fly..... ********************************** Quiet Riot Lead Singer Kevin Dubrow Dies 3 hours ago LAS VEGAS (AP) — Kevin Dubrow, lead singer for the 1980s heavy metal band Quiet Riot that scored a hit with "Cum on Feel the Noize," was found dead in a Las Vegas home. He was 52. The cause was not immediately known. A neighbor summoned police and paramedics Sunday to the house where he was pronounced dead, police and coroner's officials said. There was no forced entry, and no suspicious circumstances were reported, police Officer Jose Montoya said Monday. Quiet Riot was perhaps best known for its 1983 cover of "Cum on Feel the Noize." The song, featuring Dubrow's powerful, gravelly voice, appeared on the band's album "Metal Health" — which was the first by a metal band to reach No. 1 on the Billboard chart. DuBrow recorded his first solo album in 2004, "In for the Kill," and the band's last studio CD, "Rehab," came out in October 2006. "I can't even find words to say," Quiet Riot drummer Frank Banali wrote on his Web site. "Please respect my privacy as I mourn the passing and honor the memory of my dearest friend Kevin DuBrow." Determination of the cause of death was pending an autopsy and toxicology results, Clark County coroner's spokeswoman Samantha Charles said. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j3CVM9tSCRAA7A3yxLpnIuM2l-IAD8T5K1280

Nora Guthrie was looking for artists to provide the music for some of her father Woody's unpublished lyrics that had been sitting in boxes for 30 years. So she took a tip from her teenage son and called a little known Irish-American punk band in the city. Without that call six years ago, Boston's World Series victory parade would have sounded a lot different, because closer Jonathan Papelbon might have been dancing to another tune. The Dropkick Murphys searched through Guthrie's lyrics and found one scribbled on a piece of yellow legal paper. Those words would become "I'm Shipping Up to Boston," the music behind Papelbon's now infamous jig and one of the most popular tunes off the soundtrack to "The Departed," the Oscar-winning, Boston-based mobster film. "They liked this little ditty, this four-line ditty, not one of Woody Guthrie's greatest lyrics, but it had the word Boston in it," Nora Guthrie said. "They took it and created this masterpiece." "Out of nowhere, we're getting a chance to turn this into something bigger," said singer-guitarist James Lynch. "It opened up doors to us that never would have happened." "Shipping Up" has taken on a life of its own thanks to Papelbon's jigs. Before the start of the parade, the band presented Papelbon with a kilt.

Looking back, Ken Casey wonders if he was out of his mind. A decade ago, the Dropkick Murphys bassist-singer found himself with a major life decision to make. Having just tied the knot, the Boston-born-and-bred musician announced to his bride's family that he was quitting his day job to devote his life to the band he'd just started. Clearly not lacking for balls, the next thing on his list was asking his father-in-law if he could move in. "You think he would have given me a slap in the head," Casey says, on the line from the home of the 2007 World Series champions. "Like 'Kid, you just married my daughter, and you quit your job to start a punk band?' But he was good enough to let me follow my dreams, and so was my wife." What might have made things easier for all involved was that, right from the beginning, the bassist had a suspicion that he was destined for something greater than community halls and grimy hardcore bars. "In the early days, when we were playing to 200 punk rockers and skinheads, the band already had the vision that this could become a wider thing because of the nature of what we were doing and what we were singing about," Casey says. "That's all come to fruition now. I've got friends with seven-year-old kids bringing those kids to our shows, and they're there with their parents and grandparents." Indeed, the Dropkick Murphys' just-released sixth studio album, The Meanest of Times, finds the band offering something for fans of all generations. Warped Tour warriors with a taste for East Coast hardcore won't be disappointed by the old-school bruiser "Shattered". Those who long for the days when Joe Strummer found himself doing shots with the Pogues will love Celtic punkers like "Fairmount Hill". And traditionalists determined to make a pilgrimage to the Emerald Isle before they die will be hoisting the Guinness to the straight-from-the-pub sing-along "(F)Lannigan's Ball", which features Ronnie Drew of Irish folk legends the Dubliners. Released on the Dropkick Murphys' own Born & Bred label, The Meanest of Times debuted at number 20 on the Billboard charts. Part of the reason for that is that the band's profile has never been higher. When the Boston Red Sox knocked the Cleveland Indians out of the World Series in Game 7 on October 21, it was the Murphys who warmed up the Beantown faithful with a pregame performance. (The Dropkicks' "Tessie" was not only the official anthem of the Sox's '04 championship run, but the team is also 6–0 when the band performs before a game at Fenway Park.) On the Hollywood side of things, Martin Scorsese made good use of the Murphys' whiskey-soaked punk-rock reel "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" in his Oscar-winning ultra-violent epic The Departed. The Dropkick Murphys' biggest accomplishment on The Meanest of Times, though, is the way they once again manage to–without ever sounding like a shtick–fuse bloody-knuckled punk with traditional bagpipes, mandolin, and tin whistle. It's a lethal mix that's turned the band into a major draw not just in North America but abroad, making Casey glad he didn't settle for punching a clock. "It's funny how accepted we've become," he says. "Things have definitely expanded beyond where I ever dreamed that they would go." The Dropkick Murphys play a sold-out Commodore on Tuesday (November 6). Via: The Georgia Straight

Tue, Oct 30, 2007, 11:03 AM Getting by with a little help from your friends is fine, but sometimes your friends haven't been there and done that. That's when the heavy hitters need to come in with their pearls of wisdom and what-to-look-out-fors. This week, Al Barr, singer for Dropkick Murphy's speaks on fires, jail, and Japanese tattoo culture. AL BARR ON MODERN EXPOSURE: Bands today have a leg-up. Since the act of buying records is becoming obsolete you don't have to connect A and B so much. It's easy to get your music out noawadays that there's really no excuse. I'm from the "put a record out and support it with a tour" school. but with computers now, that's not the only way to get big anymore. People can hear your music anywhere online. In fact, I got a buddy doing 25 to life in prison who has a band. He started it from his MySpace page from his cell. AL BARR ON THE POWER OF PROMOTION: In 1984, I booked my first show in New Hampshire. We had 11 bands play and spent two months fliering the whole east coast area. We'd go down to Boston on weekends and pass out stacks of fliers outside shows. There was so much buzz that we had kids coming to the show from the tip of Maine and places in Rhode Island. One time we were putting up fliers in Dover, NH and a meter maid cop came up in his little car and told us to stop. When we saw him walk into a donut shop later, we covered his car in fliers. So many kids came that we were able to pay each of the 11 bands $350 each or so. It was a success. AL BARR ON THE DANGERS OF PLAYING LIVE: Dropkick Murphy's was playing a few years ago when all of a sudden, one guy jumped on stage and put his arm around me to sing with me and ended up punching me right in the esophagus on accident. I lost my voice for the next seven shows Dropkick had booked. I didn't let that stop me. I sang the shows with no voice. AL BARR ON SETTING THE STAGE ON FIRE: One time in Australia, after visiting Bon Scott's grave, we played a show and were in the middle of the AC/DC tune, "It's a Long Way to the Top If You Wanna Rock N' Roll," when one of the monitor's exploded into flames. It was sort of ceremonial and amazing, but then the reality set in that the monitor was in fact on fire. But that's a risk you have to be willing to take, and it can either make or break the show depending on how you deal with it. AL BARR ON THE BENEFITS OF ROCKSTARDOM: Dropkick was in Nagoya, Japan for the first time. We checked into the hotel in the morning, when it was cold. Then it got hot while we were out so we took our jackets off, no big deal. When we tried to get back into the hotel, a woman from the hotel met us at the door and wouldn't let us back in. Our guide, who luckily was fluent in Japanese, spoke with her. He turned to us and said, "On the side of the building it says 'No tattooed people allowed.'" In their culture, tattoos are the mark of criminals and the mafia. We explained that we were American musicians and she finally let us in. Source http://musicnation.musicnation.com/blog/2007/10/lessons-from-legends-al-barr

National Wolf Awareness Week, October 14-20, 2007 is a time to dispel misconceptions about wolves and to teach about the important role these predators play in maintaining healthy ecosystems. It takes place the 3rd week of October every year. The wolf is a striking symbol of wild nature, yet it has long been shrouded by myth and superstition. Earlier this century, wolves were methodically exterminated from nearly all of their historic range. National Wolf Awareness Week encourages conservation efforts not only for wolves, but for all wild species. Lot's of special events going on.. check for one in your area.. Here's a link for a list and for more info.. More Info here!!