QUIZ SHOW – Flotsam EP

On the surface, Quiz Show appears to be a rather inauspicious name, but on their debut album, this band immediately showed a vast amount of potential. Then again, that’s something that should be expected from a gathering that originally included Guided By Voices drummer Kevin March with Shudder To Think’s Jesse Krakow and Chris Matthews. Their first release created a great buzz around the still new band, and despite a line up change – Joe Billy replaces March, who was likely busy recording one of the year’s twenty GBV albums – the three tracks that make up this follow up EP make it very clear why.

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A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS – Change Your God / It is Time

For those who’ve followed the musical progress of New York shoegazers A Place To Bury Strangers since their early days, the band’s gradual, and very natural shift into more commercial sounds has likely formed a very interesting journey. For those who discovered the band a little later, these “commercial sounds” could still feel cold and confronting, but somewhere beneath their distortion and darkness, it should’ve become increasing clear that these Jesus & Mary Chain obsessives were capable of wielding a great tune.

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Watch: Fred Abong shares ‘Heaven’ ahead of new album

At the time of this single’s release, it really doesn’t feel that long since Fred Abong released his ‘Fear Pageant’ album. That makes sense, as it’s only been eight months since the world last heard new music from the former Throwing Muses and Belly man.

Ahead of a new album (‘Blindness’, scheduled for release on May 9th), Fred has shared a new track, ‘Heaven’, and the full video can be seen below.

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IZZY AND THE BLACK TREES – Go On, Test The System EP

With amps fully cranked, the four songs that make up Izzy and The Black Trees’ ‘Go On, Test The System’ EP have a brilliant, live in the studio sound. The results mightn’t be as explosive as, say, the early works of A Place To Bury Strangers, but this Polish act have a similar love of distortion, and of reworking 90s influences to create an intensive experience. On this release, their no frills, full fuzz approach results in arrangements that explode with a really natural buzz; songs that owe a debt to Sonic Youth, The Jesus & Mary Chain, early PJ Harvey, and overlooked acts like Hammerbox and Yur Mum, yet still convey just enough of their own style to remain interesting.

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THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #45

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 previous few weeks. This time out, we bring you a rather eclectic bunch of tunes, ranging from synthpop to light pop, from 90s inspired rock to post-goth. We’ve even managed to contrast a dance track and a soul pop based number with something very heavy, ensuring there’s something here for almost everyone. As always, we’ve had a truckload of submissions over the past seven days, so there’s more good stuff to come…

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