Hey, let's be honest, there's no shortage of Irish bands around these days. Indeed, it's amazing how the music has endured 150 years after most of America's Irish immigrants arrived on these shores. With so many Celtic combos, how does one find a good one?

Look for something different. An unusual take, a different angle. Look for Reilly.

The five-piece band mixes traditional Irish music and instrumentation with high-spirited rock and roll -- not unlike Black 47 -- to create a Celtic sound less common in Cream City. The group comprsies multi-instrumentalist Kim Kiley, drummer Brian Bruendl, who also plays with Upside Groove Coalition, accordionist/guitarist Bruce Troeller, singer and bassist Tinker, who also plays solo acoustic gigs in town and was formerly a member of Tink and The Lemmings, and guitarist Patrick Moores.

Troeller recently gave us a capsule history of the band, saying, "An Irishman named Brian Reilly brought a couple of people together to learn some Irish songs and maybe even create some new music. Brian passed away shortly afterwards but a couple of the guys stayed together and decided to ask Jim if he'd be available to play bass. Then, as history has recorded, Jim begat Chris and Brian, and Brian begat Bruce. And Patrick refused to leave. Chris accidentally left and that caused Tinker to arrive."

But how did the sound emerge, you may ask. Did Reilly set out to be a Celtic rock band? A folk band that went awry, cranking up the amps too high?

"Makem & Clancy, Christy Moore, The Chieftains; all this music that came before us was so important to getting us here," Troeller says. "We love all that traditional stuff, but we couldn't seem to shed the black t-shirts with the skulls. What we like to do with the traditional stuff is pick it up by the scruff of the neck, punch it in the nose, poke it in the eyes, kick it in the groin and drag it around in the mud. A little screaming, a little distortion, a little feedback, a little bloodletting, we're the new face of Celtic rock."

After loads of gigs and learning how to interact with one another in the all-important setting of the stage, Reilly hit the studio and recorded its first disc, for, as Troeller puts it, "public consumption."

The result is "Beyond the Pale," which has 10 tracks, from a cover of "Danny Boy" and Luka Bloom's "City of Chicago" to a set of Irish-tinged rock and roll originals that are infused with infectious fun. It must have been a blast to make.

"Technically, our bylaws prevent us from telling you what really happened in my dungeon, but me and my wife are speaking again, so we've got that going for us, which in nice," Troeller jokes. "And Patrick found out that Brian's military training provided him with the ability to torture Patrick without leaving any marks. Yeah, I guess Brian had fun.

"We met with a couple of studio owners, but decided that Brian and I had all the tools we needed to guarantee we would end up with our sound. (We have) home studios where we completed all our recording."

Now, what's next? Domination of the Celtic world, from Newfoundland to Liguria?

" We're working toward our next (disc), we all realize that every audience is waiting to see if you have staying power and every band should want to move forward," Troeller says. "No one is clamoring to get us to produce a new CD, so the motivation and momentum to create one has to come from inside of us. That's the foundation for genuine, original music."

And, of course, Reilly continues to maintain a busy performance schedule. Just check out St. Patrick's Day and its eve...

The band plays Sun., March 16 at the House of Guinness in Waukesha, from 5 to 8 p.m. On Mon., March 17, they play in the afternoon at Leff's Lucky Town. From 5 to 8 p.m. they play at Packy's and after that it's back to the West Side to close out the night at Hanley's. Whew.

If that's too break-neck for you, visit the Web site, www.reillyrocks.com.