Drenge’s New Single Backwaters

Drenge's New Single Backwaters

In common with many it seems, we are thoroughly enjoying the noisy, unholy, vibrant racket cooked up by Castleton brothers Eoin and Rory Loveless, aka Drenge.

Their debut single was the brilliant, incendiary punk rock of Bloodsports (which we posted here) and now comes new single Backwaters, which we think is even better. This is rock’n'roll at its most thrilling and visceral – swaggering, galvanising and jagged – listen below, but handle with care.

It is out on July 1st via Infectious.

And you can download the b-side for free…

Scott & Charlene’s Wedding – New Single & Album

Scott & Charlene's Wedding - New Single & Album

Drawing on the ramshackle melodies of the Lemonheads, the lo-fi drawl of Pavement and some of the self-deprecating humour of Art Brut, throw in some Velvet’s chug and Stooges sonics and you have a reasonable approximation of Scott & Charlene’s Wedding.

We’ve known about the band for a while, but it has been since the relocation to New York from Melbourne and the reissue of the sublime Gammy Leg from the outstanding Two Weeks EP that they have really caught our attention.

Next up will be their first new recordings for more than two years with the release of a new single, Fakin’ NYC, which in turn is taken from forthcoming new long player Any Port In A Storm (out July 22nd via Fire Records). The single is a typically ragged anthem of wry observation as frontman Craig Dermody reflects on adjusting to life in a new city, job-hunting, and feeling totally out of place as a security guard for a trendy wine bar. Sex in the City it ain’t.

Download it here, and check their first ever UK tour dates below.

And in case you missed it…

Those tour dates:

June 29 – Glastonbury @ Glastonbury Festival
June 30 – London @ The Garage
July 1 – Brighton @ The Haunt
July 2 – London @ Green Door Store
July 4 – Cardiff @ Undertone Bar
July 5 – Southsea @ Registry
July 6 – London @ The Victoria
July 13 – London @ East End Festival
August 7 – Liverpool  @ Shipping Forecast
August 8 – Newcastle  @ Heart Attack & Vine
August 10 – York @ Rook & Gaskill
August 12 – Hull  @ Adelphi
August 13 – Leeds @ Wharf Chambers
August 14 – Colchester @ Arts Center
August 15 – Derby @ Hungry Dog
August 16 – London @ Yes Way Festival

A Third Track From Blank Realm…

Blank Realm Go Easy

Having first been been fascinated by the seven minute melancholic churn and burn of Blank Realm’s Cleaning Up My Mess, then charmed by the scuzzy guitars and 90s slacker indie of second track (and album title) Go Easy, we have now been left grinning like maniacs after listening to the utterly seductive, completely irresistible, and totally infectious Working On Love.

It pairs an increasingly frantic and frazzled chorus with an inspired rock’n'roll stomp that has been dragged from a 1950s diner, turned upside down and shaken until all its secrets have fallen out its pockets. Unstable, slightly bonkers even, but so very, very good!

Download it below and order yourself one of the albums of the year so far from Fire Records here.

Roll Up, Roll Up: Round Up Time Again

Round Up Time Again

Here is another collection of fifteen top tunes lovingly collected and filtered for your listening pleasure. So gather round and invest some time in these – a veritable aural treasure trove of tracks.

First up is another track of swaggering blues rock and roll in the shape of New York Avenue from the Delta Routine’s recently released album, Cigarettes And Caffeine Nightmares.

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In a similar vein, the bravely named Velvets from down under, have a big, sleazy blues sound going on with their free download of Shoot You Down.

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Darren Hayman has shortened his Long Parliament and returns with a new album of seventeenth century folk songs called Bugbears, which is due out on Fika Recordings in July. A companion piece to previous release, the very well received The Violence, have a listen to Seven Months Married.

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Graham MacRae has shared a new single from his album Dundrearies and by the sound of Game Changer, those Bill Fay and Bill Callahan comparisons seem pretty much on the money.

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Granite City is the lysergic new single from Aussie psych indie-rockers Deep Sea Arcade.

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London’s Low Moon Low are set to release their first official single with Calm Now, sweetly melodic indie-folk that errs on the side of dreamy.

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The wonderfully skewed world view of Justin Farren featured on MM back in March last year and he is back with a new album Another Bluebird Day from which we have Mostly In My Mind. This time he plays it a little straighter on the back of an upbeat folky strum and some scalpel sharp lyrics. Great stuff.

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Spectrals have given us another track from new album Sob Story. Inspired by Dave EdmundsA Heartbeat Behind has a great riff and is full of rockabilly twang and heartbreak lyrics. No longer are the brothers low key, lo-fi merchants and it bodes very well for the album indeed.

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Two Inch Astronaut have given up Blood From A Loyal Hound for download, a convulsive rocker propelled by a muscular power-pop melody.

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Quilt hail from the eastern shores of Massachussets, where the band formed out of a tight-knit art collective in the winter months of 2009. They combine traditional folk vocal harmonies, reverb-drenched fingerpicking and meditative drum repetition in a patchwork of eclectic psych-folk ideally suited to their name. Open Eyes comes from a recent split single with MMOSS.

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Carmen Villain, aka London-based Carmen Hillestad, recently released her fiery debut album, Sleeper. Introduce yourself to the darker and more psych-oriented side of the album via Made A Shell.

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Half The Time, the A-side of recent 7″ single by Nick Ferrio & His Feelings is a psychological thriller, exploring one man’s realization that his love is unrequited and only exists within the confines of his fallible mind.

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Like the excellent Allah-Lahs, The Young Sinclairs mix folk rock and garage rock with plenty of jangle in the style of The Byrds or Rain Parade and their most recent single Hurt My Pride is a top-notch example of what they are capable of.

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Though we were late to it, we are loving the gorgeous Hymnal by In The Valley Below, a duo from Echo Park in LA who are a new musical pairing, delivering hushed swirls of male and female vocals forged with dark stories of brooding riddles and romance.

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And lastly (for now) we have a taste from Robert Pollard’s (of Guided By Voices fame) new album Honey Locust Honky Tonk. The song, I Killed A Man Who Looks Like You is already one of our favourite titles of the year so far and thankfully the tune itself more than lives up to its title.

Better Late Than Never – Black Manila Offer Up Free Download

Black Manila

How we missed this in our in-box (from way back in March) is beyond us, but miss it we did. We need to right that wrong!

Black Manila have featured a few times on MM with their blend of classic west coast garage riffs, Detroit proto-punk and British charm, that combined makes a heady and compelling marriage.

To celebrate the recent release of their debut single Shake That Thing, they are giving away the infectious and addictive Père Lachaise as a free download. For anyone enthralled by the recent success of Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin, The Allah Las et al, or a lover of the 60s sounds of the Sonics or the Seeds, you will find much to enjoy here. In fact we defy anyone with functioning ears not to be toe-tappin’ and head-bobbin’ before you’re halfway through this song.

Videos of the Day: The Handsome Family || Dead Confederate || Jonny Fritz || Foxygen

Videos of the Day

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“.

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Some Free Stuff You Need

free

There has been a little burst of free samplers and downloads hit the web recently and some are very much worth a few moments of your time to check out and get hold of – after all what is there to lose apart from your e-mail privacy?

First up is the brilliant Garage Swim compilation, curated under Adult Swim’s Williams Street Records label. It consists of fifteen never-before-released tracks from both emerging and iconic garage rock bands including Bass Drum of Death, Thee Oh Sees, JEFF The Brotherhood, Black Lips, Mikal Cronin, Mind Spiders, The Gories, King Khan, and Weekend amongst others. The album also includes custom album art and interview pieces with King Tuff and Mikal Cronin. You can grab that one just by clicking here.

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Next is Dead City Radio’s second volume of their free sampler series, which is available from their Bandcamp page for a free/pay-what-you-want deal here. This one also has fifteen tracks and includes Burnt Ones, The Wands, Lil Daggers, The Janitors and Black Lung amongst others.


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Insound Vinyl MixtapeInsound currently have two free samplers available for a limited time. Their latest Vinyl Mixtape can be downloaded by clicking here, and includes tracks from Catholic Spray, Georgiana Starlington, PC Worship, Piatcions, Plates of Cake, The Shivas, The Snails, Soft Reeds, Teenage Moods, Universe People, and We Are Loud Whispers.

Meanwhile their May Digital Sampler has tracks from Baptist Generals, Cassandra Jenkins, Cool Ghouls, Coyote Cleanup, Dead Stars, English Singles, Jesse Ruins, Mick Harvey, Phoenix Foundation, and Vision Fortune. You can get that one by clicking here.

Download Teenage Moods – Rock Man mp3 (from May 9, 2013 Insound Vinyl Mixtape)

Download Cool Ghouls – Natural Life mp3 (from Insound May 2013 Mixtape)

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cheyenne mizeNoisetrade are currently offering a free sampler from the haunting and enchanting songstress Cheyenne Mize who is known for her emotionally intense songs.

She has recorded with the likes of Bonnie “Prince” Billy and earned praise from The New York Times and NPR. The Louisville native is currently gearing up for her upcoming release, Among The Grey, and the sampler contains seven tracks including two from the new  album. To grab that one, just click here.

Download Cheyenne Mize – Path mp3 (from Noisetrade Sampler)

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fbfyAnd finally the latest monthly FeelBadForYou free mixtape is live featuring eighteen contributions of all kinds from music bloggers all over.

Like they say, it is any song, any year, any genre, and it always contains a few great new discoveries within it. To download it, and to see what we contributed for the month of May, just click here.

MM Shorts 371: Carton

MM Shorts 371: Carton

A four-piece, hailing from Windsor, Vermont, Carton are noisemakers par excellence, navigating the tumbling rapids of garage rock and psychedelia with aplomb whilst retaining a presence in the murky backwaters of drone rock.

Their latest release is the six track Sunburst EP and in July they will follow up with a split 7″ release from Negative Fun Records, with Carton’s tune Fingertips, alongside a track from North Carolina’s Alpha Cop. It will be the third edition in the label’s split 7″ series.

Have a listen to one of the tracks from the EP, and purchase it from their Bandcamp page here.

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New EP From The Orwells

New EP From The Orwells

Over the past 12 months or so, The Orwells have been gererating quite a buzz for themselves in the blog-o-sphere (and wider) with their frenetic blending of garage rock with a healthy dose of punk swagger and attitude.

The next release, an EP titled Other Voices, will see the light of day on the 25th June via East End/Canvasback and here in the UK via East End/National Anthem.

Have a listen to the title track.

Videos of the Day: The Away Days || The Detroit Rebellion || Paradise || Green Apple Sea

Videos of the Day

Musical films today in the shape of a hazy, tripped out offering from The Away Days, some brilliant dirty blues rock from The Detroit Rebellion, and an incendiary live performance from Paradise who continue to single-handedly keep the sixties mod revival going in Portland, Oregon. Finally, take a sepia tinged road trip for the indie folk of Green Apple Sea.

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