Tag Archives: rum bar records

MONO IN STEREO – Can’t Stop The Bleeding EP

Posted on by

Formed from the ashes of pop punk band Mulligan Stu, Mono In Stereo really mixed things up on their debut LP, 2015’s ‘Long For Yesterday’. On numbers like ‘Start Again’ and the title track, their punky roots were more than obvious, but other material suggested the combined band members had an equal love of trashy rock ‘n’ roll like The Replacements. The album highlights ‘Woke Up In Haight’ and ‘Never Coming Down’ even showed off a big love for Soul Asylum and the noisier end of the Americana spectrum.

It took the band four years to craft a follow up…and while that turned out to be an EP rather than a full album, ‘Can’t Stop The Bleeding’ proves yet again that quality will always trump quantity – and a couple of the songs are actually better than anything from the older full length.

Continue reading →

Real Gone’s End of Year Round-Up, 2019

Posted on by

It’s been a great year at Real Gone. Not only did the website celebrate its tenth birthday, but we got more requests and submissions for review than ever! This year, everything felt like it had truly come together and paved the way for the next phase of the website’s lifespan.

This year, Real Gone received hundreds upon hundreds of review items and digital streams. Obviously, there isn’t enough time to review everything…but from the mountain of stuff we got to listen to and review, there was a lot of great music.

Continue reading →

45 RALLY – Tweets For My Sweet

Posted on by

With a truckload of 60s riffs, an organ sound stolen from ? & The Mysterians and a frivolous sense of humour, 45 Rally deliver something special on their 2019 release ‘Tweets For My Sweet’. Not only do their sounds serve up a few lovingly created homages to a garage rock past, but they juxtapose their love of the retro with the more modern concept of social media used for malicious purposes.

As the title more than hints, ‘Tweets For My Sweet’ blends the familiar concept of 60s teenage love and other things with a bunch of Donald Trump’s most awful tweets, creating a potent mix of retro sounds and sensationalism. Not that 45 Rally use any of this to create any big(ly) political statements – more as a springboard for hooky choruses and fun. Obviously, though, when it’s made so obvious how and where the songs got their names, there’ll always be a certain feeling of commentary…even if, as in this case, its more of an impish subversiveness.

Continue reading →

THE GOTHAM ROCKETS – Blast Off! EP

Posted on by

New York’s Gotham Rockets are first and foremost a party band. Representing so much you loved about the mid-late 70s and recycling it for a twenty-first century audience, their debut EP features four feel good tunes, heavy on the saxophone and even heavier on high octane good vibes. The production values are a little ragged, but its songs provide a good old rock ‘n’ roll injection that’ll appeal to fans of the band’s label mates The Dirty Truckers and Nat Freedberg along with a few other retro sounds from yesteryear.

Continue reading →

NAT FREEDBERG – Better Late Than Never

Posted on by

A cult hero from Boston, Nat Freedberg has recorded with The Titanics, The Clamdiggers, The Flies…and likely lots of other acts labelled with the definitive article. Always a champion of a natural sound, his best works have a very old spirit and the best bits of 2019’s ‘Better Late Than Never’ could stand alongside Strange Majik in terms of exuding an all-round retro cool…at least on musical terms.

Continue reading →