The Bogmen

The Bogmen have stood the test of time. After touring the U.S. extensively for seven years and releasing two albums on Arista Records - LIfe Begins At 40,000,000 produced by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads and Closed Captioned Radio (Godfrey Diamond, Bill Laswell), the band had a dramatic break up in ‘99. It was thought the band would never play together again but the horrifying events of 9/11, which claimed the life of keyboardist Brendan Ryan’s wife Kristy and countless others close to the band, caused them to set their differences aside and do some good. It all started with playing two sold out nights at NYC’s Iriving Plaza and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for families directly affected by 9/11. There now exists a live album and documentary about those two shows called We Will Go To Them Tonight https://vimeo.com/253441271, there was also a compilation album KRISTY’S SMILE created for that event with new music by The Bogmen, Gordon Gano (Violent Femmes) & The Ryans and others who played that night.

Everyone in the band went back to their solo projects until another five years went by and the fans were clamoring for more shows so they booked one night at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom, unsure if they could fill such a large room after so many years but it sold out in minutes and so they added another night and another night and upgraded the third night to Webster Hall, all of which SOLD OUT. It was then that the band knew their fans weren’t going away and they made a commitment to sporadically keep playing and putting out records as long as the fans were calling for it. In 2010 they released a four song EP titled Looking For Heaven In The Barrio (33 ⅓) that has become a fan favorite and is now baked into their legendary live show set. One song, “Oceans Apart” was featured in the film Hall Pass directed by the Farelly Brothers (Kingpin, There’s Something About Mary, Dumb & Dumber).

Fast forward to the pandemic. Billy Campion moved back to Huntington to quarantine where the Ryan brothers were living and then tragedy struck again. Close childhood friend and major supporter of the band and its 9/11 charities, Greg Kline died suddenly at a friend’s birthday party on Cape Cod (also his own birthday) where the Ryan brothers and PJ O’Connor were playing. Campion, who was not there that day, got the devastating news and miraculously stopped using drugs after years of struggling with addiction. This then opened the doors for the fellas to begin working together again. Back in Huntington together, grieving Greg’s death, Campion getting clean, it all felt destined to happen.

The Bogmen are now releasing their first full length album in over 20 years and have also re-recorded much of their back catalog. They’ve also sold over 5200 tickets in the New York area alone in a span of 15 months, played a packed house on St. Patrick’s Day at The Sinclair in Boston and have shows booked up and down the East Coast.

As the saying goes, “it’s either out of sight, out of mind or absence makes the heart grow fonder” and in the case of The Bogmen it has only grown fonder! Their first big show back in September of 2021 at Webster Hall sold out in three days, they easily could’ve done another night and tickets were going for as much as $1K on the secondary market. The most exciting news of all is the arrival of the younger generation - fans 15-25 yrs old now make up a good chunk of the crowd and their numbers are increasing at every show.


The musical influences of The Bogmen are so many and varied, you could devote an entire page to listing them. Growing up of course they had their pop culture influences like Talking Heads, The Clash, David Bowie, Tom Waits, U2, Flaming Lips, The Cure, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Pogues, The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, The English Beat and more and then they had their underground, experimental, soundtrack and world music influences that were just as much a part of their sound - Esquivel, Ali Farka, Master Musicians of Joujouka, Sun Ra, etc…

The music is both pop and exotic and the shows are a religious experience. Just come and you will see the audience doing things on cue, arm and arm dancing and singing together, total strangers do-si-doing back to back! The sound of a modern day Bogmen show is full of heavy rhythms, bouncy, distorted guitar riffs, analog synths, distorted keys, ukuleles, mandolins, accordions and horns and belting vocals. There are a few ballads too where the audience and the band get a rest.

It’s always a visual feast with the whole band dressed in colorful custom designed outfits backed by wildly creative, eye-popping visuals.

Here is a quote from an article in the NY Times by Jesse McKinley that helps sum up the experience:

Fans were drawn by the group's dynamic live act and its unique sound: a polyrhythmic rock groove with offbeat, often dark lyrics and a plentiful supply of catchy hooks. Some compared the band to Talking Heads or U2. In Billboard magazine, Timothy White called its act ''jubilant bedlam.'' Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote, ''Cynicism and pessimism rarely sound as cheerful as they do in the songs of the Bogmen.''

The new album, My Kingdom, has everything fans of The Bogmen love about them, it is melody driven, poetic and seamlessly goes from sounding old-timey and rootsy to orchestrated and electronic, Americana with an ethnic flare, lyrical themes of grief, love, rebirth and transcendence through imagination, populated by old friends, animals and colorful mythological characters yet intensely personal so people can relate to it.