Delicious-sounding Web site Shitenonions.com gave Vancouver some extra love in its year-end list, too. The Massachusetts-based on-line bible of Celtic punk included both the Dreadnoughts’ Victory Square and the Town Pants’ Shore Leave in its top records of 2009.

Based on the Pants’ sold-out Commodore show last month and the Dreadnoughts’ rising profile, it seems that we’re becoming ground zero for tin-whistle-based fighting songs with a hard-core alcoholic bent.

“Basically, it’s grown on its own,” Town Pants multi-instrumentalist Aaron Chapman told the Straight. “It doesn’t really get any attention from the CBC, or radio. It’s a very underground thing. But people get full-on with it.

“In Canada, so much of what you hear about any kind of music that has fiddles or whistles or mandolins in it is from the eastern Maritimes,” added Chapman, whose band is booked to play in New York on St. Patrick’s Day. “Whenever we go out east, the reviews we get are, like, ”˜For a bunch of British Columbians, this is pretty good.’ They have a bit of a chip on their shoulder. So it’s nice that some music from the western Maritimes is registering.”