THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #38

Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the individual mp3s that have landed in our inbox over the past few weeks. We’ve got a great selection for you as we move further into 2024: there’s a glam infused pop-rocker, some solid sounding country rock, melancholy folk, some absolutely huge indie rock, and more besides. As always, if you discover anything new you’ve enjoyed, stop by and tell us! We’d love to hear from you…and if you’ve got something you think might suit a future feature, please get in touch.

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HECTOR AND THE LEAVES – Flowers

Over the years, Tom Hector has shown a massive love for retro sounds on his self-financed recordings. 2016’s ‘Little Bee’ from Hector And The Leaves presented songs that had traces of Brian Wilson and other power pop singer-songwriters lurking within its melodies; the simpler ‘(interiors)’ from the following year teased with a lo-fi sound, but carried timeless influences from Nick Drake and Elliot Smith. At the heart of the material – no matter the style – there’s a man with an old soul, and that old soul ensures 2023’s ‘Flowers’ continues his DIY voyage in a similar vein.

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NICK SHANE – Live At Blend Coffee House, Dundee

Nick Shane is one of those musicians who deserves to be better known. The Dundee based singer songwriter has been giving the world some rather solid mod-inflected pop/rock since the release of his ‘An Introspection of Now Here’ album in 2014, but hasn’t really reached household name status – at least outside of Scotland. Even 2019’s ‘Come Under Cover’ – with Nick falling back on the time honoured covers album to attract new ears – didn’t really gain the kind of traction it so warranted, and at the point where 2022 seemed ready to pull to a close, his Discogs page remained strangely incomplete. Nevertheless, the hard working musician isn’t without his share of fans, and at Scotland’s very first Rainbow Awards in 2015, Nick received an award for “Outstanding Contribution to Music & LGBT Rights”. For most, the road to stardom isn’t taken overnight, but quite why Nick isn’t thought of with the same reverence as Miles Kane is a mystery.

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FRED ABONG – Yellowthroat

Released towards the end of a troubled 2020, at a time when the Coronovirus global pandemic appeared to be at its height, Fred Abong’s first full length album ‘Our Mother of Perpetual Help’ was a suitably moody affair. Comprised of songs largely played from an oddly tuned acoustic guitar and featuring lyrics that captured a genuine emotional fragility, its lo-fi charms felt like a step up from his earlier, hastily recorded EPs.

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GOODBYE BLUE MONDAY – Self-Indulgent One-Take Woefuls EP

Goodbye Blue Monday’s third release, the ‘Misery Punk Ruined My Life’ EP, was one of 2018’s strongest DIY punk releases. Between a barrage of massive riffs and some thoughtful lyrics dealing with mental health issues, the Glaswegian band marked themselves out as one of the UK scene’s most intelligent acts.

Despite sterling support from Make That A Take Records and some very positive online press, things seemed to go quiet in the GBM camp a short time after. It wasn’t until 2020 any new material materialised, but a pair of digital singles (‘Love In The Time of Corona’ and ‘Exile’) made good on the promise of earlier recordings by way of musical crunch and more social commentary. A world grinding to a halt and a lack of social interaction enforced by a global pandemic also meant that fans would have to wait even longer for a brand new EP or album, but the band closed the first half of 2020 with a surprise acoustic EP to tide everyone over.

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