Cruise down Fairfax Boulevard in Los Angeles, and if you're lucky, you'll spot a small Irish watering hole named Molly Malone's. It's a neighborhood pub smack dab in the middle of a big city. Guinness and Harp are on tap, the patrons are friendly (but sometimes dangerous), and overall, the spot is downright welcoming and cozy. In other words, it was the perfect birthplace for Flogging Molly. "It's a lot to be said for alcohol, I suppose," says Flogging Molly singer-guitarist Dave King. "We found each other in a bar and did what we did for the love of the music. Who would have known that in three years we'd have albums out and be on the Warped Tour'" Blame it on the luck of the Irish. The transplanted Dubliner met many of the members of Flogging Molly ' which include accordion, fiddle, tin whistle and mandolin players ' while bending an elbow. Luckily, the band's thirst for whipping a uniquely unclassifiable style of music is just as fierce as their thirst for Irish Beer. Flogging Molly eventually took its name from a long-running residency at Molly Malone's, where the band's live shows flogged the place into worship. Since 1997, King and Co. have crafted a self-produced live disc, their proper 2000 debut Swagger and 2002's Drunken Lullabies, the latter of the two engineered by Steve Albini. Cross-breeding traditional Irish influences and heavy-hearted storytelling with brazen punk rock, feel free to call Flogging Molly what you'd like: "Agro-Celt," "jig-punk," "Celtic 'core' --they've heard it all before. Their rowdy folk-rock punk revival sound has been compared to the likes of other Irish bands such as the Pogues and Black 47, but the raucous septet opted for their own brashness. "I'm inspired by bands like The Dubliners and The Pogues," says King, who checked out a Pogues' reunion show on a 2001 holiday trip back to Ireland. "And then we do what we do with it. We're taking a love of Irish music and we're making our own thing. We are our own little dot on the map. What we have is really special."