With two gigs taking place at the Dreamland venue, it’s a busy night in Margate. Most people are assembled at the Scenic Stage to witness a double headliner between Orbital and Leftfield, marking the end of this year’s big outdoor shows for the summer. A more select crowd have chosen to spend the evening indoors at the Hall By The Sea welcoming Ocean Alley, visiting heroes from Australia.
Tag Archives: pop
THE HALF-CUBES – My Girl / Someday
This two track release from The Half-Cubes is, in power pop terms, pure gold. Its pedigree is assured thanks to two different aspects. Firstly, as their name suggests, this band are made up from half of power pop legends The Flashcubes and, secondly, the tracks featured are both re-workings of classics from the Eric Carmen catalogue. Although neither track has been drastically rethought, both sound great with a brighter production sound than Carmen’s original recordings were ever afforded. ‘My Girl’, in particular, plays like a genre classic for 2024, despite its mid 70s vintage.
THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #68
Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the individual tracks that have landed in our inbox over the previous few weeks. We offer a great selection this time around, taking in power pop, something synth based, some retro sounds leaning towards the goth-esque, a massively talented singer songwriter…and more besides. Hopefully, as usual, something new will catch your ear and encourage you to dig a little deeper!
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VARIOUS ARTISTS – Can’t Seem To Come Down: The American Sounds Of 1968
Between the release of The Beach Boys ‘Pet Sounds’ in May 1966 and the first Woodstock Festival in August 1969, the American rock and pop scenes went into overdrive. With the groundbreaking ‘God Only Knows’, Brian Wilson had shown how grand “pop” could be in the hands of a master; the birth of psychedelia meant that garage rock grew into something much bigger and more interesting than a selection bands churning out variants of ‘Louie Louie’, and the blues morphed into sprawling jams which birthed a generation of guitar heroes. A prolonged period of experimentation arguably reached its peak in 1968, with The Byrds releasing their last works with David Crosby (at least for a time), Moby Grape issuing a double LP (‘Wow/Grape Jam’), the arrival of Spirit’s debut (helmed by the fantastic ‘Fresh-Garbage’), The Velvet Underground’s ‘White Light/White Heat’ proving their Warhol overseen debut wasn’t just some arty fluke, and the Grateful Dead issuing their show piece ‘Dark Star’ as a single. Even Simon & Garfunkel got a little out there on their fourth LP ‘Bookends’, with their masterful folk-pop joined by the vaguely psychy ‘Punky’s Dilemma’, and feeling brave enough to include Art’s audio verité ‘Voices of Old People’ as a key album track.
THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #60
Welcome back to the Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the individual tracks that have landed in our inbox over the previous few weeks. This time around, we’ve mixed the familiar with the new, to bring you something that sounds like a superb tribute to AM radio pop, some contemporary rock sounds, a feel good pop track, a re-working of an old dance classic and more besides. As always, we hope you like what you hear, and discover something new!
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