MIKEY ERG – Bon Voyage EP

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Best known as a member of The Ergs!, Worriers and sometime collaborator with For Science and House Boat, the ever-busy Mikey Erg embarked on a solo career in 2011. His second full-length album, 2019’s ‘Waxbuilt Castles’, found Erg moving away from his typical pop-punk and taking more of a singer-songwriter stance. Often veering into (pre-country music) Ben Kweller territory, it sort of suited him, but came as a surprise for some fans.

For those who disliked Mikey’s more reflective side on that album, some consolation comes with 2020’s ‘Bon Voyage’ EP’ moving back to punk. The EP was specially commissioned by Stardumb Records and Mikey immediately thought about the punk EP’s of his youth, of how they were often a gateway to a new band, often featured exclusive tracks and often featured a cover tune along the way. ‘Bon Voyage’ ticks all of those boxes.

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Dave Greenfield: 29/3/1949 – 3/5/2020

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The Stranglers were an important part of the first movement of British punk.  Not so much in that they were capable of writing angry, antagonistic songs, but more in the fact that they managed to inject various elements of late 60s dark psychedelia into the then new musical phenomenon.

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BLACKLAB – Abyss

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BlackLab’s debut album ‘Under The Strawberry Moon’ was devastatingly heavy. With an under-produced and over-driven sound, the Japanese duo truly raised the bar in terms of fuzzy stoner riffs. The album didn’t reach a wide audience upon its first release, but a restructured and remixed version (released via the UK’s New Heavy Sounds label in 2018) went some way to giving the band an audience outside of their home country and received some really enthusiastic press.

Naturally, their minimalist set up of drums, guitars, vocals and three thousand distortion pedals never really allowed for a broad musical palate, so their sophomore disc ‘Abyss’ offers much more of the same, but if Blacklab appealed to you before, more of the same is exactly what you’d hope for… If anything is a little different, you might even say BlackLab have become even heavier and more intense, as ‘Abyss’ is a genuine skull-crusher.

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Real Gone Sessions #5: The 1957 Tail-Fin Fiasco – Dream Pharma

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In April 2020, adult pop heroes The 1957 Tail-Fin Fiasco made an unexpected return with their video single ‘Dream Pharma’.  It had been almost eighteen months since the world heard from them, and the band themselves weren’t entirely sure they were going to make new music, but here they were.

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The Great 80s Project: 1983

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Looking back, it’s easy to see that 1983 was a massive year.  It represents the point where a few of its stars were making huge steps to being the decade’s megastars.  Five years into his career, Prince had finally succeeded in gaining worldwide success with his ‘1999’ album (a double platter of much filthiness); with their ‘War’ album, U2 made the leap from successful rock band to being an act with much bigger potential and Madonna showed early signs of being more exciting than your average pop performer.

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