Flogging Molly is Dave King (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, bodhran), Bridget Regan (violin, tin whistle, vocals), Dennis Casey (guitar, vocals), Matt Hensley (accordion, concertina, vocals), Nathen Maxwell (bass guitar, vocals), Spencer Swain (mandolin, banjo, guitar, vocals), and Mike Alonso (drums,percussion).

Starting out as the house band for Molly Malone’s in Los Angeles and building a loyal following through endless touring, Flogging Molly has become a staple in the punk scene over the past 20-plus years, kicking off with their riotous debut album, Swagger, and continuing through their six additional studio albums.Flogging Molly’s most recent album Anthem arrived in September 2022 via Rise Records and saw the band reunite with legendary engineer Steve Albini (who worked with Flogging Molly on their first two albums Swagger and Drunken Lullabies). Brooklyn Vegan said Anthem is “a ripper,” New Noise said Anthem “easily satisfies expectations the Celtic-inspired punks have built over a decades-long career,” and American Songwriter triumphantly declared, “Flogging Molly is back.” The band released four videos in support of Anthem, including the timely track and clip for “A Song of Liberty,” penned by King as a recounting of a dark period in Irish history but made all the more relevant with events in Ukraine. The Mad Twins, Ukrainian animators/filmmakers, created the stirring video (https://youtu.be/ccGKjOQsEp0).

In March 2023 the band released a new, three-song,‘Til The Anarchy’s Restored EP(Rise Records), featuring the previously unreleased title track and one-take performances of the band’s classic songs:“Drunken Lullabies” and “What’s Left of the Flag,”.  

Recent touring has brought Flogging Molly to historic locations including Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Austin City Limits Live at The Moody Theater, and the band’s annual St. Patrick’s Day outing at the Hollywood Palladium (which sold out) as well as recent performances at European festivals Rock Am Ring, Rock Im Park, Hellfest, and both Slam Dunk Festivals. The band’s annual Salty Dog Cruise sold out 3 years in a row, with the recently announced 2024 edition selling out within one week.  The band recently announced Shamrock Rebellion, the band’s own St patricks Day Festival in Orange County CA and Las Vegas, as well as the Road To Rebellion US tour, which features Amigo The Devil and Gen And The Degenerates.

The year is 2002. Vocalist Jesse Wagner and organist Roger Rivas, each fresh out of their own bands, come together to form dirty reggae quintet the Aggrolites. With a sound that is equal parts Kingston and Motown, the band turns the heads of discerning music listeners everywhere, not to mention a slew of legends both old-school (Phyllis Dillon, Derrick Morgan) and newer (Tim Armstrong) who recruit them for collaborations. Over the next decade, the Los Angeles band tours hard and records constantly, releasing five full-lengths while spending close to 250 days a year on the road. For a time, it seemed like the Aggrolites were everywhere, and that’s because they truly were. (Their van’s odometer can prove it.)

Then, unexpectedly: Silence. The Aggrolites enter a prolonged hibernation following a particularly grueling tour for 2011’s Rugged Road, and suddenly, the scene was without its leading purveyors of dirty reggae.

“I guess it just comes down to getting burned out,” frontman Wagner recalls. “We lost motivation to record. We got to that point where we had to take care of our own personal lives. Everybody just needed time for themselves.”

Of course, you can’t keep a good band down. Even though the Aggrolites were technically on hiatus, it didn’t stop them from playing a handful of gigs each year, nor did it stop members from exploring other creative endeavors. (Rivas started his own recording studio and multiple new bands; Wagner began playing with Vic Ruggiero from the Slackers; bassist Jeff Roffredo formed a band called Wild Roses with former Dropkick Murphys guitarist Marc Orrell.) And with fan support still unwavering, the band reconvened in late 2015 to lay down three songs, “Aggro Reggae Party,” “Help Man” and “Western Taipan,” which reminded them that, hey, they’re still pretty damn good at this.

“I think we were so preoccupied with our lives at that time that we were just doing things out of force to keep the band alive,” Wagner says. “But luckily and thankfully we did, because we never gave up.”

That one-off recording session was the spark that eventually created REGGAE NOW!, the Aggrolites’ sixth full-length and first for new label Pirates Press Records. Written and recorded throughout 2018, the album finds Wagner and his bandmates — Rivas, Roffredo, drummer Alex McKenzie and new guitarist Ricky Chacon — reestablishing their signature sound, re-recording those three songs from 2015 as well as adding on 11 more originals that snap, crackle and pop just as much as your favorite Aggro songs from back in the day.

“We wanted to keep it real,” Wagner says. Even though we were proud of [2009 album] IV, we know we went outside the box a little on that one. This time around, we decided to keep it natural: Simple, two-chord reggae. It’s feel-good music. We know what people like out of us. Let’s just be us.”

While it took nearly a decade to get the Aggrolites back into a cohesive creative headspace, it took a fraction of the time to actually lay down music — the band knocked out all the basic rhythm tracks for REGGAE NOW! in one day in early 2018.

“We like to keep it old school and record organically, like the Funk Brothers of Motown or The Hippy Boys of 1960’s Jamaica,“ Wagner reveals. “There’s that whole atmosphere and energy — get in a room and let that energy flow. We felt like teenagers again in a garage band. That came out in this record.”

Wagner repeatedly emphasizes the band’s drive to create “feel-good music,” and the album is a testament to those good vibrations: “Love Me Tonight” is a gorgeous love song with silky smooth vocal harmonies; the funky “Jack Pot” could be the soundtrack to your next night out at the club or the walkout music for your next prize fight; “Why You Rat” will make you groove and laugh at the same time as Wagner clowns on a “ratboy” security guard who made his life difficult at his old apartment complex.

“Our lyrics have always been light-hearted and making people smile and dance, with that vintage retro feeling in mind,” he says. “That’s what the Aggrolites are about. The great thing about skinhead reggae is as beautiful as the music sounds, it’s also the most punch-you-in-the-face music ever, too.”

“Their tunes perfectly echo the human chemistry you can hear in those early Jamaican productions,” says British reggae icon Don Letts. “The band’s old-school analog sound totally captures the spirit of the music I grew up on.”

“The Aggrolites have stretched out, and gotten it even more right, at exactly the right time,” agrees Lynval Golding, vocalist/guitarist for Two-Tone legends the Specials. “This is the album.”

Functioning as free agents for the first time in nearly two decades, the Aggrolites created REGGAE NOW! without a deadline in mind. Once they felt like the album was complete, they didn’t have to look far for a partner: Bay Area label Pirates Press Records was at the top of their list.

Slaughterhouse emerged from the South Bay of Los Angeles in late 2017 and hit the ground running with local and out-of-state shows, and an EP that would define their punk and death rock sound. 

They have continued to build their name playing explosive live shows with songs from their debut LP, Fun Factory; out as a split release on Todd Congelliere of F.Y.P’s label Recess Records, and Water Under the Bridge Records. They’ve shared stages with the likes of Pennywise, Social Distortion, Adolescents, Dead Kennedys, and Alkaline Trio. In 2022 they toured with Bad Religion and played sold out shows with Amyl & The Sniffers, and Destroy Boys, with no signs of slowing down. Most recently, Slaughterhouse hit the road for a month-long US tour with UK pals, Grade 2, and finished the tour with a Punk Rock Bowling club show with Alice Bag.

With Meriel O’Connell on vocals, Eddie Cairns on bass, Taylor Ramirez on guitar, and Nick Aguilar on drums, the band continues to write explosive new songs and are currently working on a new album.