Being Fort Wayne’s only Celtic-folk punk band, has its perks, in a way. The band I’m referring to, the Sods, have got a stellar self-produced record that has sold out every time band members decide to burn copies of it. That record, Boxing and Grand Old Tea, was recorded in basements and living rooms around town last summer and features 13 tracks of the band’s self-described “celticfolkpunkabilly” sound.

Jonah Crismore, lead singer for the Sods, is a bit modest about the band’s originality and success in an over-saturated rock music scene. “There’s nothing unique about us,” he’ll tell you. “We are just trying to be the Pogues,” he says, referring to that much-revered and much respected Irish punk outfit.

Crismore and his bandmates, Bart Helms, a musician who plays a host of instruments (including some he’s constructed himself), Linda Predina, on upright bass, and Douglas O’Briney on “the blatter Box,” owe plenty to the Pogues. The band’s name, the Sods, for instance is a play on one of the Pogue’s albums.

“The name ‘Sod’ came from Bart’s and my admiration of the Pogues’ album Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash,” Crismore says. “There is already a band from Michigan who I admire called the Lash, and there are several bands called the Rums and Rummies and names like that, so we were stuck with Sodomy. We took half the word and hence the name Sods was born. Also, in the U.K. a person is often referred to as as a ‘sod’ if they are acting like a jerk or a**hole.”

In the tradition of the Pogues and other Irish bands, the Sods, says Crismore, got into playing their own morphology of Irish folk and punk songs because “we like the rebellious nature of the music. Folk music and punk music are both very similar in the sense that they want to bring a certain idea or problem to the public’s attention with the intent of bringing about reform. The Celtic influence in the band allows this to occur, but it also allows for a very open and fun atmosphere because in the Irish tradition it is very important to have barroom style sing-alongs, which are both enjoyable to sing and write.”

Having a good time in the band, says Crismore, is one of its main goals. “We just want to have fun playing a lot of shows, writing excellent songs and recording more albums so that we may leave our own little legacy behind after we are long dead,” he says.

Along the way, as sometimes is inevitable, the band has cultivated following in the local music scene. They also seem to have found a niche with the style of music they play. “It seems like we are the local Irish music scene but I could be wrong,” Crismore says. He adds, “The kids in this scene are awesome. They have supported us more than we ever thought we deserved and have stayed with us, for the most part, the whole route since our first performance and we continue to gain more fans.”

The Sods have played numerous shows at the Art Factory in Fort Wayne. The venue has given the band a chance to improve itself before a live audience which has also allowed the band the opportunity to build a solid following. Unfortunately, however, the venue is no longer hosting concerts.

As a result the band has had to search for gigs elsewhere. “We play anywhere that will have us. On September 5 we played a Mexican music festival in Ohio with the Rupert Bomb. We had a show at Magilla’s [in October], but for the most part we are truly in debt to the Art Factory who let us be heard there all the time.”

Finding new venues to play may means the band will take its sound on the road in the near future. “We plan to tour soon,” says Crismore. “Hopefully something will be planned for Christmas break, maybe, or next summer. We are all busy people, and tours are very time consuming.”

Because of their unique sound, ideas and do-it-yourself attitude, the Sods, unsurprisingly, haven’t been cultivated by major labels in the way that some of their counterparts in Fort Wayne have. That, however, doesn’t depress them at all.

“With the support and demand we have received for the CD, just with us doing it completely ourselves, I don’t see a real need to use a record company,” Crismore says. He adds that circumventing the record label route “gives us total control over the writing of the songs, recording, and the distribution of the album.”

If you were to attend a Sods concert, you might find yourself contemplating the band’s lack of a true drum set. Instead of a regular kit, the band’s drummer, O’Briney, plays a homemade instrument the band refers to fondly as its “blatter box.” Constructed by Helms, who also made himself a guitar-like instrument he calls “the gizouki,” the blatter box is a collection of kitchen utensils like spoons cups, bowls, washboards and other objects placed in an old tattered suitcase. When struck with traditional drumsticks, the blatter box produces a rhythmical sound to accompany Bart and Linda’s melodies and Crismore’s ragged and harsh vocals.

The idea for the blatter box came from a group called Nyah Fearties, Crismore says. “They are a Scottish band that has a blatter cage, much like the blatter box, but all the parts were hanging. We took the same concept and just made it portable,” he says.

“I like the blatter box,” says O’Briney. “Originally, it was the most readily available percussion equipment that the band could afford. As we began to take the band more seriously and put more time into it, I began developing the blatter box to meet the needs of our songs. While there is the incorporation of drum equipment on the horizon, nothing complements the rest of the band quite like the blatter box — both in terms of volume and sound.”

O’Briney says the blatter box “helps create the character of the band, much like Jonah’s vocals, the mandolin, guizouki and upright bass.”

The blatter box isn’t difficult to play, O’Briney says. “The key to playing it well isn’t in physical skill, but in the creativity it requires to fit my part well with the others.”

The Sods use of homemade instruments like the blatter box and guizouki often piques fans’ interest, O’Briney says. “I’ve found that fans’ usual initial reaction is ‘oh, neat little thingy, nice gimmick, interesting.’ But after a few shows it becomes more accepted as a legitimate percussion instrument.”

“Unique instruments create a great gimmick,” Crismore says. “But really unique instruments provide a way of expressing the song in a different way while keeping it in the punk form.”