2014 was an absolutely great year for music from DIY bands or releases distributed through independent labels. There was so much great music this year that Real Gone found that just one free sampler just wasn’t enough!
A free sampler containing tracks from ten different metal bands can be found here. For those who’d like a few free gems from other genres – rock, pop, punk etc – in ‘Idiots & Idols’ we’ve got a similarly top-notch collection for you!
Cloud Atlas is a melodic rock/prog rock band based in York, formed from the fragments of various other prog rock/folk-prog bands. Vocalist Heidi Widdop will be known to some listeners as being the first vocalist with Mostly Autumn, as well as being a integral part of subsequent off-shoot Breathing Space and the short-lived Stolen Earth, the latter a band that also featured future Cloud Atlas guitarist/bassist Martin Ledger. Joining them is drummer Ian Halford and – new to the sometimes confusing and rather incestuous MA family tree – keysman Dave Randall. A guest bass is supplied by Stu Carver (also ex-Mostly Autumn).
Around the same time Mark Bacino released ‘Queens English’, over in Boston, singer-songwriter Scott Janovitz was working with his band The Russians. Their sole album ‘Crashing The Party’ was well received by the power pop community in 2010, but never followed up. What happened?
Garage rock duo Knuckle have recently issued a new video clip filmed on tour in France set to the soundtrack of ‘Bad Brains’, taken from their 2014 digital EP ‘This Week’s Been Hell’.
The full clip – as well as a stream of the EP – are embedded below.
Southern rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd are set to release a lavish box set in January 2015.
The box will contain each of their classic 1970s studio releases plus the essential double live LP ‘One More From The Road’, pressed on high quality audiophile 180g vinyl.