Clean Lines isn’t necessarily the best known name in punky circles, but the band have put in some hard yards on the live circuit in the US. They’ve shared stages with Me First & The Gimme Gimmes and The Kids, and have creative links with Geraldine Fibbers and Circle Jerks. They caught the attention of The Briefs’ vocalist Steve E. Nix, who eventually joined their musical ranks.
Tag Archives: punk
Real Gone Presents: A Boston Round-Up, June 2025
Over the previous couple of months, the submissions for the popular Real Gone Singles Bar have been more than plentiful. It’s actually got to the point where we’re getting so much good stuff, it’s been almost impossible to keep on top of it all. When compiling a recent column, it came to our attention that we’d had a huge amount of submissions from Boston based bands. Since we were massive fans of albums produced by Paul Q. Kolderie & Sean Slade at Fort Apache back in the 90s and, in more recent times, our site has received regular support from a few Boston based bands, PR companies, labels – including the sadly missed Red On Red Records – it seemed to make sense to take some of these great tracks and highlight them in a feature of their own. The Singles Bar will continue as normal, of course…but this bunch of tracks, shared as a selection in its own right, features some great material. Please join us in giving a hearty shout out to a great city with a thriving music scene… As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!
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MUGGER – Get A Clue EP
Following their very promising demo from 2022, which shared eight tracks of blistering hardcore punk, noise-making Texans Mugger sound a little more polished on their first “proper” release. It’s clear, though, within a few bars of the first track, that any actual polishing is relative. Yes, their ‘Get A Clue’ release (being touted as an EP, despite only featuring two tracks) sounds bigger and a touch more professional, but it really doesn’t present the band in any more of a commercially viable manner.
JUDO CHOP! – Cosmic EP
When a band advertises themselves as “throwing melodic punk, thrash metal, martial arts and Jimmy Barnes into the pit, with no rules, no ref and no care for the victor!”, you’ll get a sense of a band who value fun as much as musical prowess. Although it’s not entirely clear how one of Australia’s national heroes actually figures in Judo CHOP!’s work, the rest of those descriptors are a fairly good fit for five of the six tracks that make up their ‘Cosmic’ EP.
THE BRIEFS – High Society / You Can Move Me
Back in 2000, when the rock press seemed to spend a lot of their time getting excited by debut albums from A Perfect Circle and Linkin Park, and most punk was starting to be treated like old news, The Briefs burst onto the US punk scene with their debut album ‘Hit After Hit’. Behind its ironic title, the record shared a bunch of hard edged tunes, bristling with riffs on loan from The Ruts and The Clash, along with the kind of gang vocals that drove the second wave of UK punk. They sat alongside other revival bands like Lower Class Brats and Street Dogs, but were clearly superior musicians and songwriters from the get go. Twenty plus years on, their ‘Sex Objects’ album showed off slightly bigger production values, but the band’s songwriting and musical approach had clearly held firm. With a bunch of speed driven numbers that showed influences from The Clash, Buzzcocks and Lurkers, The Briefs still shared a love for older British punk, but – from a US standpoint – some of the material shared the furious energies of The Germs. In terms of style, it was a great record.