Here's a registry-in-progress of pirate-themed bands and recordings from around the world. To add your own pirate core band or recording click the link at the bottom.

Captain Bogg & Salty
Portland, Oregon
Known as the "band for buccaneers of all ages," the group has released two CDs and tours incessantly, giving equal time to children's venues as well as rock clubs. The secret to their success? They play the same material in both venues and it is appreciated by both audiences. Recordings: Bedtime Stories for Pirates (1999), Pegleg Tango (2005)

Pirate Jenny
Portland, Oregon
The first pirate band to storm the seas of rock, Pirate Jenny's music tells stories of lonely sailors and shipwrecked souls copping styles from Brit rock to Ska. Their influential music remains popular even though the group rarely performs. Started by Kevin Hendrickson in 1994, Pirate Jenny released two CDs as well as various other recordings. Recordings: Never-Sea Land (1996) and Once Upon A Wave (1999)

Broadside Johnnie
Portland, Oregon
The solo balladeer has been playing his concertina and singing chanteys and other folk songs in the area for years. Contact the webmaster for a referral.

Sunken Chest
Portland, Oregon
These guys really rock pirate style. Not sure exactly how long they've been around, but you can't go wrong with songs that reference Dokken and knife fights between monkeys.

Ben Gunn Society
Los Angeles
Take a classic pirate story, turn it on its head, add wit, humor and catchy tunes, and behold The Ben Gunn Society. More fun than a barrel of monkeys, their totally unique CD celebrates the adventures of a cheese-crazy pirate marooned on Treasure Island. The band performed at Festival de Piratas V in 2004. Be sure and check out their 2007 release, Sovereignty. It's about "a search for freedom..." and is "darker and more rocking..." than their first album.

The Toucan Pirates
Seattle
These sea-farin' lads play traditional tunes from Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales and the Shetland Isles using concertina, button accordion, Irish bouzouki, tenor banjo, penny whistle and West Indian steel drum. They have recorded three scurvy albums since 1999, each containing a pirate's haul of traditional tunes and soundscapes of pirate adventure on the high seas.

Billy Bones
Captain Billy is an actual descendant of Merchant Marine Captain Charles Fangman, master of tall ships from 1860 to 1881. As a Merchant Marine captain with over 25 years in the charter trade in the Pacific Northwest and the Caribbean, Bones is now almost making a living on Maui, writing and performing his unique style of maritime music.
Recording: The Captain's Collection (2003)

Surfin' Turnips
Here's a band from the maritime district of SW England who sing in their pirate dialect. Not strictly pirates - but very scurvy and interesting for those who have never heard the old Bristol dialect–A place where they really say ARRR not Aye! According to their website they sound like "Wurzels, Ramones, Real Mackenzies, Tossers, Flogging Molly, Grimple, McFly said they wanner be us and George Michael said we are da dirtiest bazderdz on the high seas."

The Budd Bay Buccaneers
Their recording, "GOT BOOTY?" is a collection of traditional and "near-traditional" pirate songs and tunes that exploit the myth and romance of piracy, but seldom the reality!

Sforzando
The Mongrel Bastard Pirate Orchestra? On all good pirate ships there existed a pirate orchestra. It was the orchestra's responsibility to chronicle in song the adventures of the pirates. Sforzando are a 6-piece pirate orchestra who blend ferocious punk, Western European folk melodies and classic sea shanties to create a soundscape for the ocean. They sing of sailors that can't swim, ships that won't sail, dangerous mermaids and sirens ravishing the waves, mutineers, the vengeance of the sea Gods, the fury of the ocean, the destruction of the shoreline, the poetry of waves and of course, pirates. Especially pirates.

The Alaskan Pirate and His Salty Seamen
Hailing from Tallahassee, Florida for over a decade, this high-spirited pirate crew with a bold Captain have brought the ancient and debaucherous music of pirates triumphantly into the 21st century. "Come Aboard", their first album, was heralded as a giant leap for piratekind. With musical roots planted firmly in punk as well as classical training, these pirates stand true as oak. They are fun-loving sea-artists who will hoist a stein and belt out a shanty at the drop of a three-pionted hat. With friends and fans recruited out of whiskey bars and punk rock clubs across the east, the Alaskan Pirate and his Salty Seamen stand ready to unleash "Villiany Rewarded", their second album.

Scuurvy
Scuurvy are Australia's mightiest pirate metal band, Based in Brisbane, Queensland. Soon to be releasing an EP entitled "across the seven seas" videos are viewable via their website.

Davy Jones
A brandnew german piratecore-band. Inspired by Australia's mightiest pirate metal band "scurvy" they're trying to board germany with hardcore riffs and scurvy "sing- along" lyrics! Yarrrrr!!!

Captain Darby O'Bill and His Matees 3
They be a nine-piece pirate band from Anchorage, Alaska. Their shanties and ballads are the epitome of pirate-core music, with choral-operatic vocals and powerful sailing-melodies, you'll be jig-dancing and saying "arg!" a lot. After listening to their cd, you may also find yourself pillaging random strangers on the street.

Salt Sea Pirates
The Salt Sea Pirates have existed since 1987, formed by Cap'n Lightnin' Jack who began his piratical music career performing live sea shanty sing-outs at Pirates Cove in Josephine, Alabama. The band's first CD, "Grog n'Gunpowder," generally leans toward the traditional side of seafaring oriented music. Now in the studio recording their next cd, Salt Sea Pirates has a new, true "pirate-core" sound. Prior to airing a special sneak preview track from the new cd on Bilgemunky Radio and with absolutely no threats of broiled lips or disembowelment from the group, Bilge said, and we quote,"What I think is the greatest version of Deadman's Chest ever."

B.O.O.M. Pirates
B.O.O.M. started as a cannon wielding re-enactment group in Portland, OR, before launching their popular vaudeville-style musical show blending shanteys with familiar pop melodies. Their 2008 CD Prepare to be Boarded is an acoustic collection of pirate themed music featuring traditional sea shanties, original compositions and contemporary sounds all woven together by dramatic interludes which tell the tale of a renegade life on the sea. The CD includes new arrangements of traditional songs of the sea, modern shanties derived from contemporary popular music, six-part a cappella harmonies, up-beat Latin rhythms and a Cajun song of freedom.

Cat O Nine Tails
Punk Rockers of Cat O Nine tails are based aboard La Matelote, a large fluvial ship in Paris. They play Modern songs and Folk chanteys. Real brethren of the coast for people love in freedom.

Add Your Own Band or Recording