The Better Donnybrook
I’m hooking you up yet again. I got that uploading fever kid. You’re welcome.
Fact: At a time there were two bands named Donnybrook. According to wikipedia one is “a Los Angeles, California, hardcore punk band” and the other is “a Tribal Metal band from Maine”. Can you guess which band is better? Great! Me too. So here’s a little bedtime story for you. During my first semester at college in Boston I went to go see Dog Fashion Disco play a show at Bill’s Bar. (Anarchists of Good Taste is still listenable.) I can’t remember if there was some terrible opening band but let’s just assume that there was. Suddenly Dog Fashion Disco was taking the stage to rawk the faces of the baker’s dozen of people in attendance. I don’t think I was the only one surprised to see them go on so early especially since they were billed as the headlining act. After DFD played I overheard in the dead quiet room that they had played early because they didn’t want to play after the next band who were really good. I think admitting something like that is really respectable and rare. Most headlining bands get terrible bands to open for them for this exact reason. I decided it was probably worth my time to stick around and check out the next band who of course wound up being Donnybrook…the good one…from Maine. Without a doubt they blew Dog Fashion Disco off the face of the Earth.
I felt like I got it right away and was on board with them for the whole show. It was a perfect blend of Mr. Bungle/Faith No More, Tool and all that is good in music. As I recall they didn’t have any cds with them for some reason and that was a major bummer. I did end up finding it in Newbury Comics the next day though. I was lucky enough to catch them a couple of years later at the Middle East Upstairs for an even smaller crowd but it still a great show. It’s always the really great bands that have a hard time finding their audience like the situation with Haste.
I remember seeing them in Metal Hammer or a similar brutal magazine discussing the lyrics for one of their songs even though they were unsigned. According to this interview they had offers from TVT and Roadrunner. It’s a shame that it didn’t work out for them in terms of finding a label or distribution though I’m not sure they would’ve been marketed properly anyways. From my understanding they put out three proper eps. I’ll be sharing their first ep with you today. The second ep was produced by Johnny K and it was clearly an attempt at sounding more polished and radio friendly. With this ep they made the unfortunate move, in my opinion of course, of reworking some songs from the first ep. This reworking basically meant throwing in a chorus or two more and taking out all the interesting and unique parts. The third ep was along the same lines as the second which is to say I liked them both but would rather listen to the first one.
I offer up Donnybrook’s first ep, Bleeding The Grain, for you fans of the jackercrap.
Tracklist
1. Radio Killed The Underground Star
2. A Better Way To Waste Your Life
3. Breathing The Final Dance
4. Cold Confusion
5. Grey Sketch Of Red
6. Poetic Tightfist
http://rapidshare.com/files/302956219/Donnybrook_-_Bleeding_The_Grain.zip
As I mentioned in my first upload this is for preview purposes only and to my knowledge is out print. It’s hard to find info about these guys actually. Wikipedia doesn’t have an actual entry for them. However, they did change their name to Red Cloud Revival and have released one album which you can and should purchase at cdbaby. They’ve got a concise myspace page to explore as well. Unfortunately, they seem to only sporadically do shows at this point but please support them by buying a cd. Check out this cool video, especially considering it was probably made on the budget of a cheese sandwich, for Poetic Tighfist. You might notice that this song is on Bleeding The Grain but this is a different version done by Red Cloud Revival. (I still prefer the original for the record.) This should give you a good idea of what you’re going to get from the upload.
Supposedly Donnybrook had over 60 songs but only released a third of that. If anyone has any Donnybrook music besides the three eps please send it my way. If there is any interest I’ll post the other 2 eps as well.
Jackercrap 
This is awesome that you’re throwing this up here. These guys definitely seemed ahead of their time, and I hope to get a chance to see RCR drain my braincells.
Word. They saw the future and then came back to the present to rawk and then went back to the future for more inspirado.
Love Donnybrook… I saw them many times in RI… They have an EP prior to Bleeding the Grain which was pretty bad ass as well… Do you have Bleeding The Grain in cda or wav. form??
Yeah I wish I could have seen them more than twice. I’m sorry but all I have is Bleeding The Grain in mp3. I would love to hear the earlier EP. Do you have a link to it?
Friend of mine showed me this band recently, I dig them quite a bit. I have a bunch of unlabeled music from them (from burnt cds). I was wondering if I could get the info on them (possibly with album covers?) so I can organize them in my itunes. I have one cd labeled “the EP” and one called “Ghost Image Remover” and 5 miscellanious tracks without names or album info. Great post BTW 🙂
[…] Better Donnybrook…Part 2…The Return As I had said in my first Donnybrook post, “If there is any interest I’ll post the other 2 eps as well.” Interest is upon us so […]
Thanks! It’s really a shame that most people don’t know about these guys but it’s nice to hear that people are still discovering them. I posted all the info you’re looking for in my new post. I hope that helps. If you could send me “Ghost Image Remover” and the other stuff you have I would be very grateful. Thanks again!
I uploaded some Donnybrook tracks and amongst them are my surviving tracks from Out of Print.
Here’s Orangitang: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEqcdcm8gBg
It shopuld be easy to find the others from out of print because they are the only ones labled “Unknown”.
Thanks! It’s always great to hear some more Donnybrook stuff. Do you think you could upload the tracks on megaupload or something similar? Thanks again.
I’m not sure. But I did just get a copy of Out of Print. I’ll check into it if I get the free time.
Thanks! If you get the chance to upload on something where people can access the mp3s as you can tell a good amount of people would be grateful.
Just got the Green EP as well. We’ve come across someone with all the unreleased material as well. I’ll see about getting it to you guys but can’t garuntee when.
That’s awesome! Getting them at some point is better than never getting them. You should tell that person about this little slice of Donnybrook fans.
“Overboard the Book of Days” is an EP we put out after THE EP and before “So Tired Chasing The Light.” Did anyone ever get you those tunes??? -Joshua, former vocals of DMFB and RCR…
Joshua! Thanks for stopping by and for all of the great music! I posted “Overboard the Book of Days” here. Any more music or insight you can share would be amazing! Thanks again!
I used to have the Bleeding the Grain ep but it disappeared a long time ago. Such great music. Any idea how I could download this music?
Hopefully I’ll find the time and motivation to re-upload all of the Donnybrook stuff on here again. Sorry for the delay.
Josh and Jake McLaughlin aremy sons, Jim McLaughlin my nephew,this made was the freshest thing that had come along in years only to be swept away like so many great bands , being jerked off by record companies ,wann be producers and publishers, I have everything they ever did, better then many of these songs hear.I financed them I pushed them and tried to help, but like alot of great bands , their fire burned out, As Yates once wrote , “To Long The Struggle Hardens The Heart.I miss their sound and always wondered what might have been.All of the boys still play, Jake is no known as Jacob Augustine, Josh and Jim play with Nobis out of Bangor Maine. Frank McLAughlin
This is awesome, i love this band!
Thanks so much.