Real Gone featured on the Punky! Radio podcast

Real Gone is given an extensive plug on Pauly B’s Punky! Radio podcast this week when he plays a selection of tunes from ‘Breaking Horses’, the 2012 Real Gone sampler.

Amid various bits of banter, gig news and tunes from up and coming bands, you can hear tunes by Real Gone favourites The Dead Exs, Ruby The Hatchet, Bear Makes Ninja and The Thunderfucks.

You can still download the 2012 Real Gone sampler from this location.

punkytitle

Click here to visit Pauly B’s website where you can stream the podcast,   or download for later listening (the latter may be advised if you’re in the office, as it does contain some NSFW material).

First bands announced for 2013 “Live at Leeds” Festival

One city. Several venues. Twelve stages. Over a hundred bands.

The first acts have been announced for the sixth annual Live At Leeds Festival. Prior to the release of their 4th album, The Pigeon Detectives will be appearing, alongside Everything Everything, Wave Machines and Real Gone favourites Post War Glamour Girls.

The first confirmed bands in full:

ALUNAGEORGE / DARWIN DEEZ
EVERYTHING EVERYTHING / LITTLE COMETS / PEACE / RUDIMENTAL
THE PIGEON DETECTIVES / THE STAVES / TRIBES

ARLISSA / KING KRULE / LAURA MVULA
LEWIS WATSON / RYAN KEEN / SOLEY / SWIM DEEP
THE 1975 / THE CROOKES / THE NEIGHBOURHOOD / THEME PARK
UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA / WAVE MACHINES

BATTLE LINES / BLACKEYE / CHARLES BRUNO / CHARLIE STRAW / CHINA RATS / DAN CROLL
DANCING YEARS / DEPARTMENT M / FAWN SPOTS / GEORGE EZRA / HAPPY DAGGERS
HARRY GEORGE JOHNS / HUDSON TAYLOR / HUNTING BEARS / INDIANA
JACOB BANKS / JAGWAR MA / JOE BANFI / JOEL BAKER / JORDAN ALLEN / MARIKA HACKMAN
MARSICANS / NICK MULVEY / OFEI / PETE ROE / PETER & KERRY / POST WAR GLAMOUR GIRLS
ROO PANES / SAINT RAYMOND / SAM SMITH / SEASFIRE / SJ.BRAVO / SKATERS / SONS AND LOVERS
SWEET BABOO / SWIMMING LESSONS / THE FAMILY RAIN / THE GLASS CAVES / THE GRAND
THE STRUTS / THOMAS J SPEIGHT / WE WERE FRONTIERS / WITCH HUNT / YADI

The festival takes place between 3rd-6th May 2013. The Vaccines will also be playing a separately ticketed event on Sunday 5th May.

TICKETING INFO

Live At Leeds Saturday Multi-Venue Wristband- £22.50
The Vaccines (Sunday 5th May)- £25

Official ticket link- www.lunatickets.co.uk

CITY MOUSE – EP (2011)

imagesFollowing a much earlier EP and cuts on various comps, this 2011 7” by City Mouse is a superb disc.  Issued on It’s Alive Records (home to The Copyrights, The Methadones and Gateway District), this record represents the Riverside, California punks as an underground band at the top of their game.

Fitting a huge amount of energy into just over six minutes, these four songs grind and bounce just as well as material released by many of the best-known names in melodic punk rock/pop punk.  Classic sounding tunes need a great vocal, and in City Mouse’s frontwoman (and mainstay) Miski Dee Rodriguez, this band has an extra edge.  Her voice moves between a melodic punk warble and attitude-filled hard rock rasp, which although not as instantly recognisable as a voice such as Tilt’s Cinder Block, for example, is more than distinctive.

The strongest cut, the razor-sharp ‘Dumb Dumb Dumb’ makes great use of a simple refrain and equally simple riff.  Listening a little closer, a particularly busy bassline provides some more sophisticated elements; Zac Howe is a very talented player.  Likewise, the highly infectious ‘Bird Song’, combines a fast punky riff with a sharp vocal line, the intermittent presence of the already familiar “here is the church, here is the steeple” line is guaranteed to make this tune stick in your memory.

The other two songs (‘You’ and ‘The Rhyme’) may not quite have such instant lyrical hooks, but are certainly on a par musically, especially at those times Howe’s basslines rattle out notes at speed, constantly fighting Dee’s guitar work for superiority.  Of particular enjoyment is Miski’s performance on ‘The Rhyme’, on which her voice rings the best results out of nearly line.

Like Pinhead Gunpowder’s ‘Fahziah’, ‘Nervous Breakdown’ by Black Flag or ‘Spiral Scratch’ by Buzzcocks, here, City Mouse adds more weight to the argument that, when approached correctly, the 7” four-song EP is the ultimate punk artefact.  If you have ever been attracted to (m)any of the punk bands from California – particularly the best Larry Livermore-produced ones on the Lookout! Records label – then this is definitely for you.

August 2012

The Gaslight Anthem confirm Aussie shows

As part of the ongoing promotions for their fourth long player ‘Handwritten’, Brian Fallon and The Gaslight Anthem have confirmed a visit to Australia in May.

Five shows have been scheduled in all, as follows:

Friday May 10 The Tivoli Brisbane
Sunday May 12 Enmore Theatre Sydney
Wednesday May 15 The Palace Melbourne
Friday May 17 HQ Adelaide
Sunday May 19 Metro City Perth

‘Handwritten’ was a huge success for the band, providing a top three hit in the US, UK, Germany and reached the top five in Austria and Canada.

Guided By Voices: ‘English Little League’ due in April

After re-uniting in 2011, Guided By Voices released three full length albums in 2012.

The Dayton, OH lo-fi kings kicked off 2013 with an EP of unheard material (‘Down By The Racetrack’), and now, as unstoppable as ever, they’ve announced the tracklist for another album, as seen below.

GBV: English Little League

01 Xeno Pariah
02 Know Me As Heavy
03 Island (She Talks In Rainbows)
04 Trash Can Full Of Nails
05 Send To Celeste (And The Cosmic Athletes)
06 Quiet Game
07 Noble Insect
08 Sir Garlic Breath
09 Crybaby 4-Star Hotel
10 Biographer Seahorse
11 Flunky Minnows
12 Birds
13 The Sudden Death Of Epstein’s Ways
14 Reflections In A Metal Whistle
15 Tacitum Caves
16 A Burning Glass
17 W/ Glass In Foot

‘English Little League’ is released on April 30th in the US.