Photos: GOLLYLAGGING Release Debut Album REAL LIFE Via Disposable America

Boston-based DIY indie rock band Gollylagging has shared its debut record Real Life, out now via Disposable America. Over ten carefully crafted tracks, the band leans into the power of community and each other to accept difficult circumstances, break patterns and grow over an eclectic mix of rock, punk, bedroom pop and indie-folk sounds.

Last night, they celebrated the album with Allston Pudding at Cambridge's Brattle Theatre featuring a special screening of Albert Brooks' Real Life (1976). On November 14, they'll celebrate the album at NYC's The Broadway with My Guitar Is Trying To Kill Me, fashn, ditch and Gavin Sultan. On November 19, they'll play their hometown record release show at Deep Cuts in Medford, MA with Jonny Tex, Bus Crush and Kings Evil.

The title track is collaborative and silly, with bassist Joey Lorant's mom playing violin on the track and the band and their family all taking part of the final big harmony. Jules Skiffington (vocals, guitar) reflects, 'We made this one in the studio on Easter and it felt really special. None of us are particularly religious or traditional, so we weren't with family or anything for the holiday but I liked that it kinda felt like a celebration. It was just really collaborative and fun.'

On their debut album, Gollylagging collaborate like never before, with each band member contributing on at least one track. On its hard-hitting subject matter, Jake Regulbuto (vocals, guitar) shares, ''Real Life' is about feeling dissatisfied with where you are in your life and trying to reach a place of acceptance with that. It confronts the feeling of being stuck in the same patterns with relationships and day to day problems while feeling powerless of changing.'

Through pain and hardship, the album, with its fuzzy guitars and dual vocalists, serves as a reminder of the power, importance and healing nature of friendship and community.

The recently shared 'Red Fish' is a playful tune that came together quickly and doesn't take itself too seriously. Regulbuto says, ''Red Fish' is about a stretch of my life where I felt awkward in a lot of social interactions. I was getting the feeling that a lot of people are too focused on being 'cool.' This song is a silly, sarcastic response to people like that.'

The previously released single 'Comet' sees the band channel anger about the collapse of a long-term friendship. Written by Skiffington, the track balances catchy melodies and bright lyrics with dark subject matter.

In May, Gollylagging shared 'Jackknife' with a matching video, where they detail the ugly, shameful parts of a friendship painfully falling apart. Over cutting, layered electric guitar riffs and melancholic vocals, the four-piece sink into these emotional intricacies with honesty.

Gollylagging is a Boston-based quartet who has spent the last several years cutting their teeth across bars and venues in Boston and the greater New England area. The band, made up of Jake Regulbuto (vocals, guitar), Jules Skiffington (vocals, guitar), Andrew Garas (drums) and Joey Lorant (bass), shared a split EP in 2023 called fauna with going222jail and Dino Gala and was followed up by Dry Rot in 2024 with a string of singles in between.

Earlier this year, the group shared 'Bronco,' which Chasing Sundays called 'an absolute scorcher.' Vanyaland added, 'The tune's emotional weight seems to stretch its runtime far beyond two and a half minutes, as repeated laments of 'don't remind me' simmer underneath a bedrock of post-hardcore.'

They've played Boston's Something in the Way Festival and recently played NICE, a fest with Otis Shanty. They've also shared bills with Ohio State Fair, Soup Dreams and My Guitar Is Trying To Kill Me.

Blending sounds across shoegaze, bedroom pop, garage rock, punk, indie-folk and alt-country, the group continues to chart their own territory. With their debut album out in the world, Gollylagging are thrilled to share their most self-assured work yet as they cement themselves in the indie rock space.

Real Life Tracklisting

01. Bronco

02. Comet

03. Red Fish

04. Kill Devil Hills

05. Scarecrow

06. Heart of Ice

07. Real Life

08. Giant

09. Jackknife

10. Terminator

Gollylagging Live 2026

Nov. 14 - New York, NY - The Broadway w/ My Guitar Is Trying To Kill Me, fashn, ditch, Gavin Sultan

Nov. 19 - Medford, MA - @ Deep Cuts, Real Life Record Release Show w/ Jonny Tex, Bus Crush, Kings Evil, presented by Allston Pudding

About Gollylagging

Big brothers of the Boston scene, the four members of Gollylagging have spent the last few years sharpening their rock and roll axes at DIY venues, bars, opening gigs, and bedrooms around New England, with a smattering of singles, EPs, and splits to show for it. Now, after enough reps to find the sound they were in search of, they're ready to bring their ideas together on their first full-length project. Shedding the emo-inflected sound of their earlier singles but holding onto their sonic density, Gollylagging's debut album is a statement to the band they've always been from the band they've been becoming.

Two guitars, one bass, one drumkit, a handful of pedals, four guys, and a couple of pinch hitters. They like Pavement, they like Dinosaur Jr., and Alex G, and Lil Wayne and Future, they like chilling, they like playing loud and fast and sometimes not. The sounds are all there—those we've become familiar with after ten-ish years of shoegaze, bedroom pop, punk, alt-country synthesis—but, as with any band worth writing about, they're played with brand new color, restructured and reconsidered by the particularities of Real Life.

Longtime frontman and guitarist Jake Regulbuto splits vocals for the first time with lead guitarist Jules Skiffington, both of their voices resting in an upper register that finds melody naturally. Their guitar conversations are shepherded through time by Andrew Garas on drums and Joey Lorant on bass, whose sharp playing partakes in but gives shape to the fuzz that Gollylagging embraces so intentionally.

About Disposable America

Disposable America is an independent record label in New England, originally formed in 2012 as a strictly cassette tape focused launchpad for Boston local projects. Over the years, it has developed a deep and diverse cross-genre discography of artists worldwide, spread across all physical formats—from industry-standard vinyl or compact disc to the lesser seen Nintendo cartridge or photo and lyric zine.

DA has acted as a springboard for bands like Horse Jumper of Love or Soft Blue Shimmer by helping to release their debut outputs, it has been home to lesser known side projects like Dee-Parts or Cloud Cover, it has shined light onto undersung artists involved with other labels like Infinity Girl, Pink Navel, or bedbug, and it currently boasts a sonically mixed but mighty lineup that includes Main Era, How Strange It Is, Grace Givertz, Carol, (T-T)b, Otis Shanty, Really Great, etcetera.

Nearing a decade and a half, the Disposable America discography remains the curated labor of love of founder and sole personnel Dustin J. S. Watson, but maintains a strong emphasis on building upon and fostering community among both its active and former roster, its orbit of often-associated-but-not-actually-technically-really-on-the-label artists, and especially its listeners—lovingly all known as 'true believers.'

Beyond physical releases and with crucial help from friends, Disposable America has booked or otherwise promoted countless IRL shows, festivals, parties, and other events. Conversely, DA has also organized numerous digital compilation records and was an early leader in the livestream concert circuit, hosting hundreds of artists to raise funds for dozens of charities online. With yet another handful of unreleased albums now on the way and more in the pipeline, Disposable America aims to continue unraveling its ongoing thread of remaining 'for true believers only' while subverting industry expectations and highlighting the best music possible as it approaches its fifteenth year.

Photo Credit: Lizzy McEleney