Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore the various individual tracks and mp3s that have landed in our inbox over the previous few weeks. Now thirty weeks old, the Singles Bar shows no sign of slowing down, or skimping on the variety. This week, we bring you a great singer songwriter, a couple of interesting electronica themed tracks, a couple of strong rockers, and more besides. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy…
Author Archives: Real Gone
ROB FILLO – Halfway Through The Dark EP
Canadian singer songwriter Rob Fillo isn’t too concerned with giving the world a traditional Christmas offering. There are enough people filling the shelves with Michael Bublé style romps through the classics, rehashing tales of reindeer bullying, or creating the musical equivalent of a Hallmark greetings card, with their chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Fillo’s holiday season plays more like a downbeat Mark Kozolek winter, or a Five For Fighting in a dour nod to the festive period, and is all the better for it.
THE WALK OFFS – Audio Recordings #5
In the middle of the 2020 pandemic, The Walk Offs released ‘Sorry For Nothing’, a lovably ragged EP that fused a bunch of blue collar rock influences with a love of the rough and ready style of The Replacements. It never pretended to be original, but between a few good songs and a lot of DIY spirit, it more than held its own in the entertainment stakes.
DMITRY WILD – Rock N Roll Is My Business / Son Of A Gun
Dmitry Wild’s 2022 long player ‘New York Stories’ was a record brimming with good tunes. The multi-talented musician filled its metaphorical grooves with a variety of sounds ranging from Strokes inspired garage rock (‘Summer of ’21’, ‘Sweetest Thing’), echoey semi-acoustic rock that sounded like ‘Space Oddity’ era Bowie fused with Tindersticks (‘Wizard’), moody singer songwriter fare with a gentle Nick Cave-ish undercurrent (‘God, Ghost and A Ship’), and even arty rock meeting with a slacker vibe (‘21st Century’). It showed a man capable of turning his hand various styles with relative ease.
NIGHTFREAK – Speed Trials EP
Nightfreak are a band who, in their own words, play “feral punk ‘n’ roll”. Bands sometimes have a skewed idea of how they sound, or of the intents and complexities of the music they play, but in this case, these three lads from Chicago are under no illusions. Their second release ‘Speed Trials’ fills a brutal ten and a half minutes with unrelenting material that pulls the best from Black Flag and Germs and marries that hardcore intensity to rock ‘n’ roll riffs that sound like bits of Rocket From The Crypt and New Bomb Turks colliding with Keith Morris performing with a genuine anger.