When Street Dogs frontman Mike McColgan sings about his viewpoints on the war in Iraq or about heroes that have made sacrifices for a better life, he really means it. That's because McColgan isn't just another scowling kid on stage, screaming songs about the president. A Gulf War Army veteran having served as part of an artillery crew in Iraq during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield, McColgan walks the walk when he talks his talk.

 

On the Street Dogs' latest (and third) album, Fading American Dream, McColgan is placing all his thoughts, emotions and inclinations - political and otherwise - out on the line for all to hear. From the touching, semi-autobiographical depiction of a soldier's last days ("Final Transmission") to the organic, no-holds barred "Shards of Life," which reflects on the horrors of war, the Street Dogs latest is about full disclosure.

 

McColgan's history, both musically and personally, make him a powerful and uniquely credible leader for the Street Dogs. Mike helped launch seminal Irish punk rock act the Dropkick Murphys and performed with the act during its earliest days, only to leave the punk rock world to serve his community as a Boston fire fighter. His duty to his country sent him overseas during the first Gulf conflicts as a member of the US Army. McColgan realized, however, that his days in music weren't over. Enter bassist Johnny Rioux, who together with McColgan created the Street Dogs in 2002, simply to do something for fun. The release of the band's debut album, Savin Hill, quickly proved to the members of the Street Dogs that their seemingly informal musical project had turned into something that punk rock fans began taking seriously.

 

With the right players in place, the Street Dogs took their act to the streets, bringing their road-wise sound to cities across the nation on a full-time level, with rousing receptions everywhere they went. An amalgam of Sirois' ska background, Rioux's street punk upbringing and McColgan's Irish punk experience, the Street Dogs had devised a style that was distinctively its own.

 

"We are advocates for the idea that all people should have a shot at the American dream while enjoying their existence," says McColgan. "Today in America it feels to some extent that these precepts and ideals have been lost and made unattainable for a great number of every day people. Our new release attempts to speak about that in a number of different ways. I also feel that we have firmly established that we're more than just a vanity project. We are a tangible band and we mean business. And this album strives to make an impact and talk about different things, conveying them as powerfully as possible through the songs."