Also this issue: Soul of Tomasz Poland's top jazz musician gives Philly a whirl. -Nate Chinen Text Messaging Carrie Newcomer throws the book at you. -Mary Armstrong Lou Barlow Is God Isn't it time we crucified him? -Chris Parker Brotherly Love Liv Taylor can still make 'em cry. -Nicole Pensiero Richard Pinhas -A.D. Amorosi Grant Hart -Paul Burress Robert Randolph -Sam Adams The Gossip/Yeah Yeah Yeahs -Patrick Rapa

October 31-November 6, 2002

musicpicks

Flogging Molly

Mixing traditional Irish music with punk's sound and fury is nothing new. From the late, great Pogues to lesser-known progeny like Dropkick Murphys from Boston, The Tossers of Chicago and Brooklyn's The Devil's Advocates, artists keep proving that tin whistles and electric guitars work surprisingly well together. But few do it as well as California-based Flogging Molly, whose intense sound, impressively, is wrung largely from acoustic instruments. Frontman Dave King -- a former member of '80s hair metal band Fastway, oddly enough -- gives appropriately raw and scratchy voice to the lyrics, which tend toward a distinctly Irish blend of lament and humor, self-deprecation and defiance. Were my life to inspire a song like the strangely touching "The Likes of You Again," from the album Swagger, I could consider myself a success.

Thu., Oct. 31, 7 p.m., $17, with Andrew W.K., Allister and Lost City Angels, The Trocadero, 1003 Arch St., 215-922-LIVE.

—Frank Lewis