DROOL BROTHERS – Psychology

Around the turn of the millennium, the oddly named Drool Brothers delivered a self-titled debut LP that shared a world of different rock and funk influences to create an interesting listen. ‘Fullerton’ somehow managed to fuse baggy-centric rhythms, garage rock guitars, psychedelic elements and semi-spoken vocals without sounding too messy; ‘Happiness Fair’ filled a couple of minutes with heavily treated voices and dance-y beats; ‘Can’t Lick It’ threw a world of fuzz guitar over an upbeat groove and peppered with it with a world of surf tinged melodies and a keyboard sound that felt as if it paid homage to ‘Schoolhouse Rocks’; ‘Blue Velvet Pig Mask’ sounded like a Funkadelic tribute, by way of a rock band deep into experimentation. Better yet, the album’s stand out, the effortlessly cool ‘Lay With It’, worked keys and horns into a soul groove that paid homage to Jr. Walker & The All Stars. There might be many words to sum up such a record, but “eclectic” fit the bill better than most, and while it didn’t always sound like the creative endeavours of the same band, somehow, the Brothers managed to make it all work.

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Listen: The Peppermint Kicks deliver a ‘Number One Record’

In the middle of the “lockdown years”,The Peppermint Kicks released their debut album, a ten track collection of retro workouts, pretty much guaranteed to thrill fans of the musicians involved. Like many releases on the Rum Bar label, it received positive praise from the underground press, but didn’t really reach beyond “cult status”.

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THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #128

This week’s visit to the Singles Bar brings a whole world of variety. Bookended by two genuine power pop bangers, this selection of tracks also takes in some really tight funk, a new track by a cult singer songwriter from Scotland, the long overdue return of a dreampop inspired indie band, a loving recreation of a cast iron classic…and more. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!

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Real Gone Presents: A Boston Round-Up, October 2025

As the Real Gone inbox continues to fill up, Boston continues to be a city that delivers a huge amount of new music every month. This trip back to the US will reacquaint people with a few familiar names: Lovina Falls presents some terrific alt-pop, Tiberius share a moody number that showcases their low key approach really effectively, and scene stalwarts The Dogmatics show their more melodic side on a great single. There are new faces to be discovered too, with a band celebrating a perfect post punk sound, a slice of reggae to remind you of the summer you’ve just left behind, and something dubbed “low rock”, which blends genres in an interesting way. We’re sure this lightning tour with the some of the city’s cult acts will see you coming away with a couple of new favourites!

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THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #126

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. As usual, we’ve received a huge amount of submissions – this continues to be one of the most popular aspects of our website – and we’ve picked eight tunes that we feel captures the true spirit of the great sounds floating around the underground as we move squarely into a cold, northern hemisphere autumn. Among other things, there’s a 60s cover from a familiar name; some brilliant indie pop; a pleasingly downbeat number with some great orchestration, and a country influenced track from a superb singer songwriter. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!

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