AS THE SUN SLEEPS – As Good As Gold EP

14882266_1120510311330619_5449958456927785368_oSince the turn of the millennium, a vast amount of music peddled as pop-punk hasn’t resembled the classic pop-punk sound of the nineties at all, but shifted rather more towards whining emo-dom or lightweight post-hardcore. The UK’s As The Sun Sleeps not only play pop-punk in the traditional sense, but are also bloody good at it.

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CANKER BLOSSOM – That’s So Killer

canker-blossom-epWhen a band advertises themselves as Ramonescore, you know almost exactly what you’ll get. Four chords, short songs and a fairly carefree attitude, resulting in something that – at best – resembles the second Ramones LP (the peerless ‘Leave Home’), or – at worst – ends up a lo-fi, tossed off approximation of Joey and Johnny that never quite works out. Baltimore’s Canker Blossom are not the best band you’ll ever hear. On the fraudulently titled ‘That’s So Killer’, they’re rarely inspiring.

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BLEEDERS – Gash EP

bleeders-gash-cassetteIn the run up to the release of this cassette, Bleeders had been steadily building a following on the live circuit on their home turf of Pennsylvania and the surrounding areas. That sort of makes sense since they have a sound that would surely work much better live; on record, their no-frills, no-wave, distorted, zero budget approach is hellishly ugly. So much so, that it makes label mates The Meltaways seem like a manufactured, multi-million dollar, radio groomed pop rock trio by direct comparison. The recording of ‘Gash’ is so raw and unrelentingly grotesque, it borders on being unlistenable. Looking at it another way, it’s so hard going, that’s an achievement in itself.

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New video from UK punk-poppers As The Sun Sleeps

We’re nearing the end of the year.  It’s been a mixed bag.
2017 is set to begin in style when British punk-pop band As The Sun Sleeps release their new EP in January.  It’s one of the best things to come out of the genre in a very long time, equal to classics from early blink-182 and Sum 41.  If you can’t wait until the EP release, check out the new video for lead track ‘Beering’.  It’s a really catchy track and a good indicator of the quality of the EP.

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A Million Ways To Change Your Life (A Real Gone Sampler)

In 2016, Real Gone celebrated it’s seventh full year online. This year also marked the sixth year we’ve given away new music at the end of the year. Now a staple of the RG catalogue, the free album-length download is looked forward to by a core of our supporters and in turn helps bring new readers and listeners to our site.

2016 hasn’t been quite as notable for new music compared with a couple of years previously, but that’s not to say it hasn’t thrown up some great stuff. On the first of Real Gone’s free compilations for 2016, we take a look at a broad selection of tunes from punk, country, singer-songwriter fare and more… [a selection of metal oriented artists can be found over here]. If you’ve been paying attention to our website over the past twelve months, a few of these names will be familiar. If not, it’s time to say hello to new music. If you find a couple of things to love, our work here is done!

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