Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the more interesting individual tracks that have landed in our inbox over the past few weeks. Following the festive selection, this collection of tracks returns to “regular programming”, with a slab of garage rock, a pleasingly subtle work from an Irish singer songwriter, a previous release given a huge remix, a perfect pop punk track, and more besides. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!
*
From the moment ‘Empty Hands’ by Thunder Bomber kicks in with a fat, grumbling bassline, there’s a feeling that listeners are about to be exposed to a great track. The arrival of an almost equally grubby lead guitar dropping dirty garage blues influenced sounds confirms any early suspicions, and as the track blooms into a huge stomper that sounds like a throwback to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s ‘Spread Your Love’ crossed with an early Black Keys jam, it has more swagger per square inch than a lot of garage rock bands could muster in half an album’s worth of material. This Italian band may well display their influences proudly here, but that never detracts from some great playing: in particular, a howling lead guitar break stands out as giving an already great track a superb injection of energy, and the power between the rhythm guitar and bass sets a sound in place that makes the band sound unshakeable. For fans of hefty sounding garage blues and garage rock sounds, this is a must-hear.
‘Pentimento’, the current single from Las Vegas musician Sylvaner has a very distinctive sound. Its intro blends distorted barbs of guitar in a Marc Ribot style with a wall of wordless vocals drenched in reverb. There’s more of an atmosphere than a melody, but the haunting vibe will certainly be enough to attract attention. Moving into the body of the song, the melody is a little slow to build, preferring instead to add slowly to the guitar beneath an aching vocal, but still, there’s a feeling of something special unfolding. Eventually, Sylvaner breaks into a slow blues groove that makes a great feature of some live sounding guitar work, which also allows for a broader vocal to take centre stage. The very natural feel of the recording, juxtaposed with the echoing choir continues to be rather striking…and whether or not you eventually find a love for the song that’s desperate to escape this rather emotive collision of sounds, this recording will certainly be intriguing enough to make a lasting impression.
On this follow up to his ‘Skyscraper’ single, Irish singer songwriter Eugene McGuinness taps into a very old fashioned sound, and with superb results. The track’s low key melody works mournful strings and light keys in a way that calls back to baroque sounds of the 70s, but a bright production sound and a light vocal offset the older heart with something that feels a little more contemporary. The music, despite being rich, always takes a back seat to a vocal that shares an almost perfect, rather mournful cry, and this, despite never aiming to be a crowd pleaser works brilliantly, as it pitches Eugene as the natural successor to artists like Tindersticks. Creating a great late night vibe in way under three minutes, those who like ‘London’ will absolutely love it.
Sword Tongue have put in some hard yards promoting their ‘Bonfire In The Tempest’ EP in the closing weeks of 2025 and shared a trio of strong singles. They’ve rarely sounded better than on the sinister ‘Murder White Noise’, a track that takes the mechanics of industrial with a KMFDM-esque groove, a punchy post-punk bassline and a slightly off-kilter vocal to create something that’s dark, yet strangely danceable. It doesn’t take long before the track’s overdriven bass makes an impression with its hefty tone, but dig a little deeper and this performance will further catch the ear with a ringing guitar that brings a slight goth tone to the fore, and a few harmonic sounds that almost feel cinematic. It’s difficult not to be completely drawn in by the broad sounding vocal, of course, but overall, this track offers a great and thoughtful mix of dark melodies and angular sounding treats.
Towards the end of 2025, Ecce Shnak shared a remix of their genre-bending classic ‘Jeremy, Utilitarian Sadboy’ that owed almost nothing to the orginal cut. Taking a similarly bold stance, the Madison Mars remix of ‘Prayer On Love’ twists the material into something else that feels brand new. Gone are the track’s grubby, almost bluesy guitar sounds, and in their place a selection of heady beats and wavering synths that recall a world of dance classics from 1994. The tempo and feel captures something that suggests an Ibiza throwback – whether intentionally or not – but there’s more at stake here: a wealth of vocal filters add a ghostly presence; occasional pulsing synths bring laser sounds to pierce through the groove, and retro futuristic electronic drums occasionally drop in sounds that belong on old disco records, which brings something of a surprise here. Whether the Ecce Shnak fans will like this is anyone’s guess. It’s definitely best approached as a piece of music in its own right.
Huge accordion sounds and a chugging guitar give ‘Demon In The Dark’ by No Murder No Moustache a rousing kick off, but the aggressive edge doesn’t peter out once the vocal arrives. If anything, the track becomes even more intense when underscoring a very English sounding vocal with a rollocking punk riff that values speed over almost everything else. Things don’t settle there; on this track, NMNM offers more than your standard folk punk knockabout when he finds time for a lead guitar break that owes more to old school metal sounds. Factor in a huge chorus that seems to sit more comfortably with an old folk banger and this offers more than enough twists to keep everything interesting. It’s a world away from the artist’s ‘Twilight of The Thunder God’ from 2008, just to give one example, but it’s a track that fans should still find interesting.
Toronto’s Wasting Time deliver an absolutely spot on slab of 90s inspired pop punk on ‘Ripped Blue Jeans’. The riffs come straight from the classic Green Day mould, shared with precision, and the sharper edges are offset by a wall of harmony vocals that are likely to remind some listeners of ‘Life In General’ era MxPx. For all of the flaunting of obvious influences, though, this number is anything but phoned in: the melodic hook from the vocals is pleasingly sharp, creating a great impression from the very first listen, and at the tail end of the track, a very smart lead guitar part beavers its way through the jagged edges to give the whole melody a lift. In terms of how to create the perfect, classic sounding pop punk banger in 2025, this should be considered the ultimate template.
Tombstones In Their Eyes delivered a couple of great singles at the beginning of 2025 promoting their 2024 long player ‘Asylum Harbour’, but ‘Under Dark Skies’ – a single taken from their album of the same name – potentially eclipses those in terms of both capturing a great sound and a great hook. The melody works a blues drenched riff over a slightly muddy groove, and the tones blend old school blues rock with a strong element of 90s stoner rock. This isn’t fussy, but it sounds marvellous. Against the chunky backdrop, a contrasting vocal (where a wall of harmonies drowning in effects) brings the expected neo-psychedelic touch, in keeping with the best tunes from the Tombstones’ past. It’s one of those arrangements that would work even without a decent lyrical hook, but a repeated “I’m sitting here, waiting…” lends the dark and moody groove something rather catchy. If you’re already a fan, this will sound like an instant classic; if you aren’t, this has the potential to make you one.
December 2025