GOIN’ PLACES – Better Things To Do EP

Staten Island’s Goin’ Places first made their mark on the underground punk scene with the ‘Girl Songwriting’ LP in 2002. It would take a decade for follow up ‘Relationship Sneakers’ to hit the shelves, suggesting that the band members saw their musical ventures as more of a hobby than a career concern. It’d be a further eight years until the world heard from the band again, but frontman Richie Holes made up for lost time in 2020 by moonlighting as a member of 60s inspired garage rock band Gallows Birds. Although not really offering anything much for the Ramonescore fan, their ‘Quaranteenage Kicks’ LP band brought a lot of entertainment in its own way, with trebly production values and songs about Lambretta scooters supplying a very retro and fun listen.

Almost as if making up for lost time, Holes re-appeared as frontman with Goin’ Places a couple of months later. This three track EP appeared almost out of nowhere and although it’s essentially a prelude to a new album slated for ’21, ‘Better Things To Do’, it actually plays very well in its own right.

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CLASSICS OF LOVE – World Of Burning Hate EP

By the summer of 2020, the year had totally gone off the rails. The world had been almost blindsided by a global pandemic; cases of the bubonic plague were being reported in the far east; Australia had already been ravaged by bushfires; a strain of killer hornets had been discovered in the US and, by the end of July, Donald Trump was spoiling for a war with China. He’d already failed to have one with various other countries under dictatorships and – still running the country as if he were a sheriff in a TV western and the planet were his plaything – was obviously getting desperate. 2020 was dogged by so many disasters that it seemed nothing could actually surprise us any more.

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Rubies & Rudders: The Real Gone Sampler 2020

It’s that time of year again when Real Gone takes stock of all of the great music that’s been sent our way over the last twelve months.  Changes in how people consume their music has meant shifting from providing a free download to offering an album length stream, but the variety and quality of the new music remains very high.

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THE JASONS / BLACK RUSSIANS – Saving The World From… EP

In terms of split releases, this EP from The Jasons and The Black Russians ranks among the most high octane discs ever. With three songs apiece, the US horror punks and the ragged “Sovietcore” troupe do battle across a blistering fifteen minutes where classic Ramones obsessions sit beside sharper punk influences, and by the time The Black Russians go all out punk ‘n’ roll on an old Jasons tune, there’s even a suggestion that this could be just a little broader in appeal than your average Ramonescore record. Okay, maybe not that much broader, but it’s always a pleasure to hear a great band branching out a little.

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Real Gone’s End of Year Round-Up 2020

By the end of 2019, few people would have suggested we’d live through a year any more devastating than 2016. That year, famous musicians seemed to be dying on a weekly basis. 2020 had even more of a drastic effect on the music industry with a global pandemic putting a halt on gigs and forcing various small, grass roots venues to close their doors forever.

On the plus side – and you always have to look for a positive, even in the most dire of circumstances – a dramatic change in circumstances has forced musicians to change their way of working. For those with home studios, it’s meant we’ve seen an increase in output. We’ve even been given unexpected albums – right at the end of the year, there were surprise releases from Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift and various other interesting albums were put together remotely. …And as we take stock on a terrible year, it seems that the gift of recorded music has been one of our only constants: 2020 may have been an absolute bastard in so many ways, but we’ve all found new music to love.

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