Tag Archives: singer songwriter

ABSENT FRIENDS: Mark Bacino

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As part of our “catching up” series, Real Gone caught up with Mark Bacino, last seen in our columns in 2011.

Bacino gained some positive notices in the power pop community with his third full-length release ‘Queen’s English’, a mature album that moved away from his previous bubblegum styles and bought more Billy Joel and Randy Newman influences to the fore.  It was a concept album of sorts about growth and family, the album shared Bacino’s love of New York.  We hoped for a similarly classy follow-up, but the years passed and nothing appeared.  

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EDWARD O’CONNELL – Vanishing Act

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Edward O'ConnellSinger-songwriter Edward O’Connell released his debut album  in 2010 to unanimous approval from power pop/retro pop aficionados. As for the world at large, the album did indeed remain ‘Our Little Secret’. While all of the influences were worn blatantly upon his sleeve  – literally, too: the front cover parodied Nick Lowe’s ‘Jesus of Cool’, the rear paid a gentler homage to Tom Petty’s ‘Damn The Torpedoes’ – O’Connell’s gift for melody shone brightly through each of the album’s songs and the love for his forebears couldn’t be any more flattering.

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GAY ELVIS – Has Left The Building EP

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gay elvisGay Elvis is the long-serving bassist with New Jersey based alt-rock/power pop band Readymade Breakup.  In between work with that band, he’s tinkered with extra-curricular recordings, the first fruits of which surfaced as a free download track ‘Morning Cigarette’ in 2012.  Since then, he’s embraced fatherhood.  Various songwriting sessions since then yielded the bones some thirty or so songs, but by the musician’s own admission, those songs tackled the same topics repeatedly – how it sucks to grow up, how growing up can turn you into a loser and ultimately how growing up is inevitable…and cool.  No matter how the tunes sounded, the sentiments were always pre-occupied with maturity.  In this sense, he had hoped that his solo release would “be [his] ‘Pet Sounds’ or ‘Abbey Road’”.  Things don’t always turn out as planned and after shelving lots of incomplete material for a later convenience, the result is this three song EP.  Judging by these songs, it’s a shame we didn’t get just a little bit more…

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Frank Turner set to release ‘Third Three Years’

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In November, Frank Turner will release a twenty one track rarities compilation focusing on recordings from 2011-2014.
‘The Third Three Years’ follows popular similarly themed comps ‘The First Three Years’ and ‘The Second Three Years’, now available via Xtra Mile Recordings.

The full details – including tracklist – are laid out in the press release below.

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FRANK TURNER – The First Three Years

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FT3After the demise of hardcore band Million Dead, frontman Frank Turner embarked a relentless touring schedule.  Playing most nights throughout 2006 helped build a strong and devoted following for his semi-acoustic folk-punk material.  Appearing both deeply personal yet accessible, his debut album ‘Sleep Is For The Week’ – released in January 2007 – attracted very positive  responses.   His second release ‘Love, Ire & Song’ saw a huge leap in terms of quality and although not a huge seller upon its release, this album set Turner on the route to stardom.

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