You know, Mike McColgan could leave it at that. Few bands can sum themselves up so succinctly and accurately and truthfully in a paragraph. They have to resort to hyperbole and cliches and any other public relations gimmick to make themselves interesting. With Street Dogs, you get truth -- real feelings, uncontrived sentiments -- and music that is as gritty and unwashed as their name. Case in point: their newly-minted second album Back to the World.

From the opening anthem "Strike a Blow" through the stirring closer "Unions And The Law," Back to the World is a defiantly hopeful, inspiring journey through the tattered heart of The Everyman. McColgan and bandmates Johnny Rioux (bass), former Mighty Mighty Bosstone Joe Sirois (drums) and Marcus Hollar (guitar) speak plainly and loudly as they champion the working man, lament the state of the country/world or declare a night of drunken abandon. You understand and agree with every word as if they were copied verbatim from your soul.