Watch the new video from Bowling For Soup

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Like most bands, Bowling For Soup haven’t had the easiest couple of years. The global pandemic forced them to postpone a whole run of shows in 2021, and the latest acoustic tour has now been postponed until 2022. It’s been a long hard road for the band and the fans, but the night they played the Brighton Centre in February 2020 (in the middle of Storm Dennis, causing various people to wonder if they’d actually make it back out of the venue safely) now seems like a lifetime ago.

There’s a little bit of good cheer to end this year, though, with the the band sharing a fun new video clip for their recent single ‘Killin’ ‘Em With Kindness’, which you can watch in full below.

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Ewan MacFarlane reflects on ‘This Year’ with new xmas single

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With its easy blend of adult pop and narrative driven lyrics, Ewan MacFarlane’s debut solo album ‘Always Everlong’, released in 2021, set the Scottish singer songwriter on a very accessible musical path this year. Displaying the kind of talent that makes him appealing to a broad audience, it was easy to hear traces of Tom Petty in the title cut, but there was far more about the album’s maudlin moods that shared a heart with past works by fellow Scotsman Blue Rose Code, even without the material taking a pop/rock route rather than an obvious country influence. Whatever your take on it, the album – which took shape during the first lockdown of 2020 – couldn’t be any further removed from MacFarlane’s earlier recordings with Apollo 440.

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SONIC ANGELS – Up & Down EP

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Garage punks Sonic Angels are billed as promising “high octane, lo-fi fun” on their self titled release from ’21. Those already familiar with the band will more than know what to expect from their music, but the fact that the band continue to plough a familiar, loud and fast furrow is actually something to celebrate. After all, when you do something so well, why mess with a winning formula?

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VARIOUS ARTISTS – Red On Red Hots: Year One Compilation

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Throughout their first year in business, Justine Couvault’s Red On Red Records gave a platform to various great underground bands. The acts were often of the power pop or garage rock variety, but the coming together of the label and the largely US based acts provided a lot of entertainment during its first twelve months and often felt like a sister project to the equally fun Rum Bar label.

A few digital releases by Justine And The Unclean continued to give their fans enjoyable hook-driven sounds beyond their two excellent full length/EP releases, and label favourites Kid Gulliver more than showed how old style power pop will never die. With these artists providing something of a backbone, the label couldn’t fail, but their first year brought so much more. ‘Red On Red Hots’ pulls together seventeen tracks from the Red On Red stable, placing the familiar with the new, creating a perfect introduction for anyone who hasn’t yet stumbled across any of their releases, as well as a treat for fans looking for a couple of new tracks.

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