New Jersey’s FRND CRCL have been slowly making a name for themselves over the past couple of years, but their new single, ‘Complications’ is strong enough to bring them much wider attention. ‘Complications’ is a straight up slab of pop punk that calls back to the genre’s glory days of the late 90s/early 00s and takes cues from some of the greats.
Listen: Real Gone’s New Release Round-Up – April-June 2021
It seems unbelievable that we’re now half way through the year, but here we are. We discovered and shared a truckload of new music during the first quarter, half expecting things to fizzle out as we moved towards the northern hemisphere summer, but it really wasn’t the case. If anything, the year’s second quarter was every bit as strong.
COLIN MOULDING – The Hardest Battle EP
After XTC’s career came to a slow and somewhat unceremonious end, with Andy Partridge recording ‘Spiral’ and Colin Moulding recording ‘Say It’ for, in Moulding’s own words, “the XTC album that never was”, Colin retreated even further from the limelight. Fans wouldn’t hear any more from him for almost a decade. In 2015, he appeared as a guest performer on Billy Sherwood’s ‘Citizen’ album before he withdrew again, seemingly having no interest in fame or re-igniting his career on a full time basis.
The previously unthinkable happened three years later, when ex-XTC drummer Terry Chambers returned from Australia and recorded new material with Moulding, instigating new musical project TC&I. Their sole studio recording was a little scrappy, but somewhere within its DIY style, Colin’s gift for melodies remained obvious. The TC&I project really came into its own the following year when the duo took to the stage for three nights of shows in Swindon, resulting in an excellent live document placing the new material in context with some old XTC classics. A few weeks after those shows, Moulding announced his retirement, effectively putting fans back in the mindset of 2006: was that it? Would we never hear from him again?
OFF PEAK ARSON – Self Titled EP
Off Peak Arson is a new band for 2021, but garage punk/noise rock fans will certainly recognise a couple of the musicians involved. Tyler Harrington (vox/bass) has previous connections with The Wirms along with OPA guitarist Skyler Gambert, as well as being a member of the insane Musclegoose. For this project, they’ve collaborated with drummer Devan Theos and guitarist Matt Thornton, both of whom are members of Ten High, and between them, they make a ferociously brilliant noise.
Watch the new video from Chaser
Still riding high from the praise of their 2020 7″ ‘Look Alive’, US skate punks released their fourth long player ‘Dreamers’ in the spring of 2021. With thirteen new songs that really capitalised on the strength of the previous single, the album was rightly praised by a broad selection of punk zines and websites. From the anthemic sounding ‘Echoes’ with a barrage of whoahs used effectively throughout, the social commentary of ‘2020’, and the outright optimism of ‘See You At The Show’, it was an album that offered a broad spectrum of modern punk fans something to enjoy.