It’s been a couple of months since we visited Boston, but in that time there’s been a few very interesting things happening. Our ten song selection for September celebrates the best sounds from the city’s underground, bringing you not only the usual dose of garage rock, but even tracks by a couple of great singer songwriters and an alternative rock tune teetering on the fringes of melodic punk. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy…
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There’s so much new music being released in the modern world, it’s become all too easy to miss the good stuff. This fact hasn’t escaped The Morning Line. Their 2026 release ‘Stars’ provides a handy recap of the best bits of the San Franciscan band’s catalogue, even stretching as far as including a couple of the year’s singles. It’s more than a standard compilation, though; for those who’ve been on board for a while, there’s still interest, since ‘Stars’ goes to the effort of remixing some of the previously released stuff to bring it up to scratch. With that in mind, and whichever way you look at it, ‘Stars’ has all the makings of a career defining disc, showcasing a superb blend of college rock, power pop and other retro sounds.
When Kurt Baker relocated from Maine to Madrid, he embarked on a very important musical journey. Not only did the formation of The Kurt Baker Combo allow him to experiment with a slightly rougher garage rock sound compared to his US based KB Band, but he also stretched out further, collaborating with power poppers Bullet Proof Lovers, sharing some excellent punk as a member of the K7s, and even appearing on recordings by Spanish punks Neuvo Catecismo Católico. In all, it was a massively prolific time.
Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the more interesting individual tracks that have landed in our inbox over the past few weeks. This time around, we’re pleased to share a piece of retro pop, a great track from an up and coming singer songwriter, a slab of ambient desert rock, and more besides. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!
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For a band rooted within the northeastern US, The Northern Line adopt a very British sound on parts of their debut EP. The crashy opening of ‘Lightning Strikes’ makes no secret of a love of The Who, and occasionally the number slips into a riff or two that’s reminiscent of early Dodgy. It isn’t a straight up homage to old mod or mod adjacent Britpop sounds, though: the swirling organs and crashing beats that run through the centre of this energised number carry more than a faint echo of old Northern Soul bangers, and a reverbed vocal leans a little more into a garage rock sound. If you’re going to borrow, it might as well be from good stock, of course, and what The Northern Line manage with their spoils here has a genuine spark throughout. With a slight echo applied, the lead vocal takes on a retro sound that is genuinely great, but is soon outshone by a world of lead guitar courtesy of Pete Kitchener, a man clearly able to redress a couple of Dave Davies inspired runs with the power of 90s Britpop to give the track an extra feeling of gusto. It’s all very familiar to say the least, but what this menagerie of sound represents feels far greater than the actual outcome. This is the sound of a band with a lot of energy and a band who are able to recycle bits of the past in a way that feels genuinely exciting.