We don’t know about you, but here at Real Gone Towers there’s a feeling that this year has disappeared far, far too quickly.
It’s December already and that can mean only one thing: it’s time for our countdown to xmas!
For the next three (and a bit) weeks, we’ll be bringing you a selection of hopefully entertaining clips in the build up to the big event. A new clip will be added each day, so don’t forget to keep checking back!
In 2010, an unexpected power pop gem appeared in the release schedules by an unknown band named Oranjuly. The release played almost like a history of power pop, pulling influence from Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney, Jellyfish and Weezer on a strong set of songs. A year or so passed and we hadn’t heard much from the Oranjuly camp at all…until multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/songwriter Brian E. King re-appeared in a band named Parks. In the autumn of 2014, Real Gone caught up with Brian to find out what happened to the Oranjuly project and why they seemed destined to a be a one album deal.
***
As part of our “catching up” series, Real Gone caught up with Mark Bacino, last seen in our columns in 2011.
Bacino gained some positive notices in the power pop community with his third full-length release ‘Queen’s English’, a mature album that moved away from his previous bubblegum styles and bought more Billy Joel and Randy Newman influences to the fore. It was a concept album of sorts about growth and family, the album shared Bacino’s love of New York. We hoped for a similarly classy follow-up, but the years passed and nothing appeared.
With Real Gone celebrating its fifth anniversary in November 2014, we thought it would be a good time to catch up with a few faces and bands not featured in our columns for some time. Bands move on, bands split, bands plough on… In a first instalment of an ongoing series, we caught up with Brian E. King, mastermind behind Oranjuly to find out about his current activities.
***
It is October 21st 1993. An ordinary autumnal evening for many, but for two lads from Kent this is a Thursday night like no other. For these two – at this point aged approximately 17 and 19 and only some six weeks into a friendship – this is to be a very momentous occasion. For both, it is a first gig experience and they are going to see Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, a band with somewhat of a cult following. By this point, Carter USM – still a duo with drum machine and a world of pre-programmed trickery – have scored a run of hit singles and have four hit albums under their belt, including a number one. They’ve rugby tacked Phillip Schofield on live TV (a man still young enough to care about dying his hair) and only within the last couple of weeks have appeared on the long running chart showcase Top of the Pops. Indeed, the very idea that this band would venture into the middle of Kent and play a show in a leisure centre seems like a visit from music royalty. Almost surreal– especially in the eyes of these two teenagers, keen to immerse themselves in a world of live music – but here they are, ready to promote their current full-length release, Post Historic Monsters.