1) Taking their name from a Willard Grant Conspiracy song is always going to meet with our approval.
2) To see The August List then self-proclaim themselves as “backwards country porch-folk”, was also going to pique our interest that little bit more – we love those country porch sing-a-longs.
3) And to have our friend Ronan at Nightshift compares them to The Handsome Family and the Carter-Cash partnership meant that we were definitely going to put this husband and wife duo’s debut EP Handsome Skin right to the top of our ‘must listen’ pile.
We’re glad we did.
Originally hailing from Dorset and now residing in our neck of the woods in a small barn perched on a hill in Oxfordshire, this self-released EP via their own Ubiquity Project Records is an absolute gem. Consisting of four tracks of perfectly judged Americana tinged with a dash of southern-gothic flavour, they are perfectly told campfire stories wrought from dying embers, and borne away on woodsmoke to drift and linger overhead.
Sometimes frantic, occasionally creepy and expertly switching between the uptempo, toe-tappin’ hoedown of Death Penalty and Bird House Song to the contemplative, languid melancholy of Homeland, this is an EP that enthrals and enchants in equal measure. We’re pretty confident this will appeal to anyone with a soft spot for Shovels & Rope, Roadside Graves, or even Wilco.
Believe it or not, Mad Mackerel has been around for more than five years now. During that time we’ve posted more than 4,000 times, and offered more than 5,000 songs for your listening pleasure. And more than three quarters of a million people have paid MM a visit during our lifetime on Google’s godawful blogspot and since April 2010 on WordPress.
We asked some of the regular MM contributors to give us their top twenty songs since MM first went live and we’re also going to give you one big mega-listing shortly, but first up with their personal top twenty is the right honourable Dr Roddy.
Through good fortune and fine sailing I have been lucky enough to be involved with this blog and it has provided me with some of the finest music in genres I maybe wouldn’t have looked in. So when asked to compile a top twenty of tunes from the last five years, I kicked aside the memories of musical turmoil that is involved with the yearly top tens, poured a stiff drink and set about it with relish.
20 Dan Auerbach – Heartbroken, In Disrepair
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19 Dirty Bourbon River Band – Train Is Gone
Download Dirty Bourbon River Show – Train Is Gone mp3 (from Volume 2)
10 The Cave Singers – I Don’t Mind
Wonderfully carefree and happy song that could so easily be heard drifting out of a doorway in Haight Ashbury with some interesting smelling smoke circa 1967. Yet this song never bows or becomes a pastiche of that, it rises above it all with its own verve and character.
9 Brown Bird – Wrong Black Mare
Sullen, desperate story songs are a bit of a fave of mine and to be honest I think I can trace it back to this song. A tale of woe, desperation and unpaid debts are told here with such clarity, it’s as if you’ve got drunk with Brown Bird and they have decided to spill their guts to you. You understand though, ‘coz at some point we have all backed the “Wrong Black Mare”
8 Mummy Short Arms – Cigarette Smuggling
When I wrote my first review of this song I thought I had described quite well. Upon re-reading it, I can safely say that my view has changed and will probably change on my next listen to it. The insanity, confusion, and babbling of this song are what holds my love for it. It’s an enigma wrapped in a riddle, all encased in a funky B-line, foot tapping beat, gravel throated, roister of a song.
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7 Strayfolk – What Wouldn’t I Do
This is such a beautifully crafted song. Simple, but packed with a rich warm sound that feels like it lends weight to the honesty of this tale of lost and forlorn love. Perfect Americana direct from Sweden.
6 Withered Hand – Religious Songs
A piece of lyrical mastery is on display here. A fantastic sing-a-long arrangement supports the witty word play that Dan Wilson sings with a vulnerability to his voice. This doesn’t stop him from punching the words that need emphasis. This song also ask the obvious question “How does he really expect to be happy, when he listens to death metal bands?”
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5 Tweak Bird – Weight
I love the in-your-face nature of this song. Right from the start, it sets its stall out – flat out, foot on the amp rock, and proud of it to boot. The guitar plays a gritty riff that sounds angry and frustrated, while the drummer is hell bent on punishing every bit of his kit.
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4 Grass House – A Cradle A Short Breath
The deep sombre tones that lay across this song act as a perfect partner to the bass as it pounds along at a merry old pace. It never fails to make me give a wry smile as I bob along to it’s woeful chorus of “A cradle, a short breath”.
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3 Roadside Graves – Far And Wide
I still think Roadside Graves is the best band name of this century and Far And Wide is a song that has stayed with me since my first listen – I was hooked. A great country riff lures you in and you hardly notice that the song fills with more and more sound and pleasure until it finishes and you’re left with a hole where the music once was, so you reach for the replay button, you know like musical heroin.
Download The Roadside Graves – Far And Wide mp3 (from My Son’s Home)
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2 Wooden Wand – Servant To Blues
As this track rolls effortlessly on, Wooden Wand spills his bleak melancholy tale of a servant to blues. In other words, the relationship equivalent of the Church’s pious man. I love the rhythm of this track, it almost seems to tick along like a clock. The peacefulness of this song is speared through the heart with a great screeching guitar solo, this then just seems to ebb back into the shadows it leapt from, only to be covered by the warm sound of the organ. Truly blissful…
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1 Henry’s Funeral Shoe – Stranger Dig (Everything’s For Sale)
For just two guys damn! They make some noise. Great heavy blues tinged riffs and rolling drum beats – I’m loving that all day long. There is talent and passion in abundance here. I’m sat here trying to write something for this whilst listening to it, that has had to stop, as when it plays it just grips me up and I can’t do anything other than get right into it. If you’re looking for something new rock wise I beg you to check them out, live if possible. Disappointment won’t be on the menu.
American Songwriter’s latest free Muse sampler is a gem featuring twelve tracks that includes such MM faves as Phosphorescent, Caitlin Rose, Water Liars, Cheyenne Marie Mize and Futurebirds alongside some Americana heavyweights like Son Volt and Will Johnson and the new-wave inspired indie rock of the Features.
Just head over to their Bandcamp page here and download it all for nothing.
Videos today from the wonderful Parson Red Heads and their studio film for new track Times, and also a brand new video from the Lumineers for Stubborn Love. Lastly we have Barry Brusseau’s new video for Til The Wind Blows Everything from his wonderful album The Royal Violent Birds.
We’re perhaps a bit late with this as Eastbound Jesus released their latest album Northern Rock last month.
This is the upstate New York sextet’s third full length in as many years, and although it’s tempting to call the music bluegrass due to the omnipresent banjo, Northern Rock sees the band expanding on the sound of their previous records by further exploring the boundaries of psychedelia, old school country, and straight up rock ‘n roll.
The songs themselves are tied together by the stories they tell and vivid pictures they paint as they sonically express the experience of living life and getting by in a small upstate town. A couple of our favourite tracks are below (especially the excellent 54 Miles) and you can pick up the album from their Bandcamp page here.
Vandaveer is the project of Mark Charles Heidinger, releasing their debut album Grace & Speed in 2007 before following it up with the acclaimed 2009 release Divide & Conquer, which was the record of theirs that first made us sit up and take notice. Since then we’ve had the equally excellent Dig Down Deep in 2011, and now the wonderful Oh Willie, Please… a fabulous re-interpreting and re-imagining of age-old murder ballads and songs of self ruin.
In fact these themes of “people doing very bad things, and then we sing about them“, have long been central to Vandaveer’s work, making them a nigh on perfect fit for Mad Mackerel. Death, hauntings, tales of evil, retribution and regret combined with plenty of pedal steel guitars, banjos, pianos and vocal harmonies are a mighty fine combination, and one that Vandaveer do far, far better than most.
You can order the new album from the band’s website here, and here are Mark’s answers to the usual set of Five to One questions.
Five words to describe your music:
Available mostly everywhere starting tomorrow.
One book you’d recommend to an alien:
John Steinbeck’s East Of Eden.
Five bands (or albums) that have most influenced you?
Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy.
Pink Floyd’s Meddle.
Bob Dylan’s Desire.
Tom Waits’ Alice.
In that order.
One moment in time you’d like to have witnessed:
When I recommended Steinbeck’s East Of Eden to that alien visitor.
Five people (living or dead) you’d love to share a stage-jam with:
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr & Billy Preston.
One biggest regret in your career (to date):
Not sharing a stage-jam with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr & Billy Preston.
Five things on your perfect rider:
There are only five things on our rider, so if we score ‘em all that’s pretty much perfect at this point.
One hour to live – who would you spend it with, and why?
My wife & my son. And my dog. And our cat. In one big pile.
Five perfect songs:
Um, Louis Armstrong’s – What A Wonderful World
The Beatles -Two Of Us
Ben E. King – Stand By Me
Beethoven – Moonlight Sonata
U2 – One
Jeez, that’s a little man-heavy… maybe Nina Simone’s version of Just Like A Woman, should be in there too…
One song of yours that you’d most like to be played in 50 years time:
Beat, Beat, My Heart.
The brilliantly weird Americana of the Handsome Family has long been a fave at MM and new album Wilderness is awaited here with much eagerness. For now, enjoy the video for Woodpecker about the famous 1890s Wisconsin window smasher Mary Sweeney (pre-order the album here) and stream a second album track in the shape of Caterpillars.
We’ve already posted a couple of times about Dead Confederate this year and new album In The Marrow is a triumph of muscular crunchy guitars and swaggering, drawled vocals. Watch their boozy new video for Vacations. We also have Jonny Fritz’s brilliant fireworks and dancing video for Goodbye Summer and Foxygen’s new video for No Destruction, our favourite track from their excellent album We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic. Like they say “There’s no need to be an asshole, you’re not in Brooklyn anymore“.
Our video selection today includes JAN’s brilliantly creepy video for her excellent single Work For The City, which takes being leered at and pawed over to a whole new level, and David Ramirez’s monochrome view of the long drives and late nights of a touring musician in The Bad Days. We have Shellshag’s model village excursion for Driving Song (another top tune too) and Lake Isle’s energetic film for indie rocker Steel Rails.
Better late than never, here is our monthly round-up of the best of our April downloads together with a handful of brand new tracks. More than twenty songs especially prepared for you to put together an eclectic and appealing mix to impress all your friends and bore your boring work colleagues.
Hey Anna – Tiny Kiss
Intimate vocal harmonies perched atop poppy folkish melodies that meet soaring, atmospheric alt-rock.
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The Lost Souls Club – Son, You Look Like You Need Jesus
Taking its cue from the darker end of the psych-blues spectrum, this track gleefully careers off the road into the verge, happily making a home in the margins of mainstream rock’n’roll and spitting sly malevolence at anyone who comes too close.
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Owls Of The Swamp – Hypnotist
A masterpiece of elegiac fingerpicked folk, softly spun melody, and ghostly backing vocals.
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Young Hunting – Baby’s First Steps
Lush, woozy and seductive evoking a sense of back porch bonhomie and marijuana enhanced well being.
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Belle Mare – The Boat Of The Fragile Mind
Dreamspace of acoustic and synth textures, weaving folk with dream pop.
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Sunjacket – Alligator
Indie rock with a laconic, hazy chug and sweet falsetto chorus.
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Download Brass Bed – Please Don’t Go mp3 (from The Secret Will Keep You)
Three minutes of infectious indie-rock perfection with a soupçon of garage rock attitude.
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Amanda Jo Williams – 2000Hell
Idiosyncratic mix of twangy rockabilly and weird Americana
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The Baptist Generals – Broken Glass
Haunted, claustrophobic take on drunken folk.
Click through for free download.
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Torches – When You Gonna?
Opens with a tasty riff and settles into a nice, easy-going melodic groove that calls to mind The Shins or Spoon.
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Georgia’s Horse – Ginger
Dusty Americana shot through with a melancholy and sadness that is almost real enough to touch.
Shawn Mrazek Lives! – Man In The Grass
A tale of self-discovery and freedom that snaps, snarls and sparkles in equal measure.
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Download Shannon and the Clams – Into a Dream mp3 (from Dreams in the Rat House)
Slow-dance-ready instrumental with darkly bucolic lyrics.
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The Builders & The Butchers – Dirt In The Ground
Sonically heavier perhaps, but just as distinctive dark-hearted folk as always. Wonderful.
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And new tracks to dive into from Morningbell’s experimental psych-tinged art rock to Honeymilk’s infectious indie, and two tracks of gorgeous stripped back folk from Dark For Dark. Finally, try the simplicity and honesty from Young Readers indie-folk, shot through with a dreamy, imaginary quality that (whisper it) calls to mind Sparklehorse or Jason Molina.
Boasting some of the best album sleeves around, together with a fantastic brand of rollicking, dark-hearted folk, The Builders And The Butchers have been longstanding staples of MM playlists for a number of years. They now have a new album, Western Medicine, in the pipeline that draws its inspiration from the post-apocalyptic stories of Cormac McCarthy no less.
The first taste is Dirt In The Ground, sonically heavier perhaps, but just as distinctive as always, and just as good. It is unmistakably The Builders And The Butchers, and for that we are immensely thankful.
In fact these themes of “people doing very bad things, and then we sing about them“, have long been central to Vandaveer’s work, making them a nigh on perfect fit for Mad Mackerel. Death, hauntings, tales of evil, retribution and regret combined with plenty of pedal steel guitars, banjos, pianos and vocal harmonies are a mighty fine combination, and one that Vandaveer do far, far better than most.
Five people (living or dead) you’d love to share a stage-jam with:
