Category Archives: Rockabilly

Mad Mackerel Recommends…Amanda Jo Williams

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Mad Mackerel Recommends...Amanda Jo Williams.

Amanda Jo Williams latest offering, The Bear Eats Me, is chock full of catchy rockabilly band numbers, with multi-layered recordings featuring cherubic choruses and good ol’ honky tonk. It’s dusty jukebox rock that will wake the kids in the middle of the night for a boot-stomping, moon-invoking dance party on the back porch.

Comparisons? Try Hank Williams Jr., Joanna Newsome, Melanie or June Carter, Lucinda Williams as well. But that’s not all, there is a surreal taste to the album, something quirky and off-kilter. Add Devendra Banhart to the list and you’ll be getting somewhere in the vast musical playground that Amanda Jo Williams inhabits.

The Bear Eats Me is released on Neurotic Yell Records, June 19th. Grab the title track now.

Download Amanda Jo Williams – The Bear Eats Me mp3 (from The Bear Eats Me)

MM’s Slightly Contrived Easter Mix

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Free Easter mixtape. It is Easter. I’m using it as an excuse to give you an entirely contrived and slightly spurious soundtrack for that Egg hunt. On the other hand, some cracking tunes to add to your iTunes library.

Download The Faith Brothers – The Easter Parade mp3 (from Eventide)

Download Easterhouse – Whistling In The Dark mp3 (from Whistling In The Dark 7″)

Download Brimstone Howl – Easter At The Lewises mp3 (from Big Deal, What’s He Done Lately?)

Download Loch Lomond – Egg Song (Daytrotter Session) mp3 (from Daytrotter Session)

Download Giant Sand – Temptation Of Egg mp3 (from Chore Of Enchantment)

Download Adam & The Ants – Never Trust A Man (With Egg On His Face) mp3 (from Dirk Wears White Sox)

Download Simone White – Bunny In A Bunny Suit mp3 (from Yakimo)

Download Girls – Honey Bunny mp3 (from Father, Son, Holy Ghost) Removed by order some uninformed halfwit – available everywhere else for free on the web

Download The Chesterfield Kings – Little Beach Bunny mp3 (from Surfin’ Rampage)

Download Uncle Tupelo – Chickamauga mp3 (from Anodyne)

Download Flight Brigade – Good Friday mp3 (from Flight Brigade EP)

Download Wooden Wand & The Sky High Band – Crucifixion, Pt. II mp3 (from Second Attention)

Live Review: Dennis Hopper Choppers

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Live Review: Dennis Hopper Choppers.

Review: Chris T Popper

It was with some excitement Banner, Boney B (shouldn’t that be M?), Dr Roddy and myself made our way to the Jericho Tavern in Oxford to catch Dennis Hopper Choppers playing live in our own backyard

Opening with MM fave Good To Me we stood transfixed as he delivered a near perfect rendition of what we already consider a classic. In a small but perfectly formed venue the vocal and melody meant we occasionally looked at each other and could only grin with smug contentment.  Despite the fact he opened with our favourite tune it was followed by a stunning set.

Encouraging everyone to get to the front while dedicating Don’t Run From Me to the people hiding round the corner (shame!) we were treated to the full DHC repertoire.  The band were excellent, delivering a barnstorming performance but the focus never wavered from the vocals of Ben Nicholls.

A break in tempo saw the marvellous Blue given an airing as well as being treated to Girl Walked Out Of Town and All Could Come True.

Finishing off with the sublime The Ballad of Fu Manchu And The Red Bride the gig finished on another high. I literally stood watching and at the ripe old age of 38 thought “I want to be doing that” as my thoughts drifted off once again to learning an instrument… Unfortunately there isn’t much call for Kazoo players.

So to sum up… it was one of those that I’ll reminisce about with the other Mackers until the cows come home. In fact after a MM team talk we rated this as one of the best live performances we’ve been to for a while. We were lucky enough to have a chat with Ben after the gig and he was particularly accommodating when we spent an age trying to get a photo in the gloom.

I went out knowing it would be good but it passed ‘good’ like the sad adjective it is. I had a brilliant time (despite being pulled over by Dibble on my way home!). I didn’t have the heart to reply when asked why I was doing 60mph in a 30mph zone was to ‘get away from you’. I’m with Smiley Culture but the bastards gave me ‘a producer’ anyway.

Well I saw the flashing blue lights and instinct told me to run…

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Dan Sartain: New Single & Album

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Dan Sartain: New Single & Album. Dan Sartain and his 50s style greased back rockabilly swagger and pencil-thin mustachioed menace have long been favourites here at Mad Mackerel. Therefore we are looking forward immensely to his forthcoming album Too Tough To Live which crams 13 tracks into 19 frenetic minutes of rock’n'roll.

This is the first track from the album, the 80 second long Now Now Now featuring ex-Go Go Jane Wieldin.

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And while we’re at it, here is the video for Nam Vet. This one a lengthy 1.43!

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Blast From The Past – Barry-Sean Discovers ‘Lost’ 1987 Mixtape

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Blast From The Past: Barry-Sean Discovers Lost 1987 Mixtape. So Barry-Sean was in his parents attic over Christmas sorting some stuff out and discovered some old mixtapes that we used to listen to a lot – this was one from 1987 that B-S has modernised into a digital playlist on his iTunes.

Even though it is nearly 25 years ago – there are some cracking tunes on there from many of the cream of that era’s indie-crop, and perhaps some that haven’t stood the test of time quite so well (Fields of the Nephilim, two tracks from the Alarm…).

Anyway, we thought you might like to hear a few….try the perfect two-minute indie jangle of Mighty Mighty, or the heavier indie wallop of the Mighty Lemon Drops, Andy White’s catchier than hell forgotten folk classic Reality Row, the Faith Brothers bitterly poignant anti-Falklands lament and equalling them in the protest stakes were The Redskins and their soul-punk hybrid The Power Is Yours. Finally we have the brilliant rockabilly infused stomp of the criminally underrated The Screaming Blue Messiahs from their wonderful debut EP, and the uncompromising punk of North-East stalwarts the Angelic Upstarts.

Download Mighty Mighty – Built Like A Car mp3 (from Built Like A Car 7″)

Download Andy White – Reality Row mp3 (from Rave on Andy White)

Download The Mighty Lemon Drops – Happy Head mp3 (from Happy Head 7″)

Download The Screaming Blue Messiahs – Someone To Talk To mp3 (from Good And Gone EP)

Download The Angelic Upstarts – We Defy You mp3 (from Still From The Heart)

Download The Redskins – The Power Is Yours mp3 (from Neither Washington Nor Moscow)

Download The Faith Brothers – The Easter Parade mp3 (from Eventide)

Mad Mackerel’s Best Of The Month: November 2011

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Mad Mackerel's Best Of The Month: November 2011. Despite the end of the year fast approaching, thankfully the quality of new music shows no signs of slowing. Here are the best of our November offerings, together with some tasty new tracks to round off the mix.Over thirty great songs – just right for the roaring fire and the cocoa!

Download Siskiyou – Twigs And Stones mp3 (from Keep Away The Dead)

Brilliantly judged restless blend of country rock, folk, and grand orchestral rock.

Download The Cloud Nothings – No Future / No Past mp3 (from Attack On Memory)

Intense indie rock – their best yet?

Download The Morning Birds – Born To Be Alive mp3 (from Surrender To This EP)

Skips along on the back of a groove so funky that it sounds like it was kidnapped from a 1970s New York disco and dragged into the new Millennium.

Download A Place To Bury Strangers – So Far Away mp3 (from Onwards To The Wall EP)

This on the other hand is a storming slab of pulverising noisemongering!

Download D.B. Rouse – The Hungover Lowdown Beat Up Burnt Out Blues mp3 (from Repent EP)

Folk yes, but beautifully judged with poignancy and pathos, self-reflection, regrets and dreams.

Download New London Fire – The Dirt The Blood The Faith mp3 (from The Dirt The Blood The Faith)

Sumptuous folk-western that howls its defiance and stands righteous in its anger at injustices suffered.

Download Black Creek – The Mustang mp3 (from Ragged Shark)

Dirty country rock and barrelling bar-room boogie.

Download Wounded Lion – Roman Values mp3 (from IVXLCDM)

Two and a half minutes of insane garage punk that is driven along by a heavyweight riff, pulsating percussion and a classic shouted vocal.

Download The Whalers – Lighthouse mp3 (from Paddle Easy EP)

Hypnotic, surf-inspired indie rock.

Download Lissy Trullie – Madeleine mp3 (from Lissy Trullie)

Slow-burning indie with echoes of the Velvets, even a bit of shoegaze maybe, but all is anchored by a distorted groove and her brilliant voice.

Download The Great Lakes – Blood On My Tooth mp3

Country jam given a healthy injection of rockabilly rhythm.

Download Monument Valley – Dear John Letters mp3 (from Tongues EP)

Excellent slice of introspective, melancholia from new singer-songwriter.

Download Bear Driver – Never Never mp3

Woozy, four-minute slice of delicious fuzz-pop.

Download Sharon Van Etten – Serpents mp3 (from Tramp)

Stunning advance track from forthcoming new album.

Download Fairlamb – The Way It Goes mp3 (from People Change)

Waspish lyrics and gently strummed acoustics.

Download The Dodos – So Cold mp3 (Previously Unreleased)

More indie-folk par excellence.

Download Galaxy Sunrise – When Pigs Fly mp3 (from When Pigs Fly single)

Lovely excursion into hazy psych-pop.

Download The Boombox Hearts – Crank It Up mp3

Lo-fi melancholic folk from Denmark.

Download Electric Flowers – Circles mp3 (from Electric Circles EP)

A sonic epic. Nuff said.

Download The Quiet Americans – Be Alone mp3 (from Medicine EP)

Old fashioned, fuzzed-up rock’n'roll.

Download Joakim Fritzner – Thoughts On Us 23-3 mp3 (from It’s Not Me…)

Catchy, folkish strum and guaranteed earworm.

Download Wooden Wand – Winter In Kentucky mp3 (from Briarwood)

Masterful ramshackle countryish-rock.

Download The Dead Jerichos – Please Yourself mp3 (from Please Yourself EP)

Drenched, droney guitar lines and shattered fragments of disco, punk, and post hardcore rhythms.

Download The Royal Sea – This Summer mp3 (from The Royal Sea)

Surf-drums and sugar coated adrenalin rush - this should have been the woozy, feel good hit of the summer. Our pick of the month.

Download Pontiak – Lions Of Least mp3 (from Echo Ono)

Pulverising psych-rock.

Download Secret Colours – Faust mp3 (from EP3)

Channels the finest of the greats of late ’60s psychedelia, ’90s newgaze reverence, and a touch of driving, bucolic, no frills RnR straight from the greasiest of garages.

Download i am Love – Truest mp3 (from Truest 7″)

Rich, thoughtful folk with beautifully paced ebb and flow.

Download Rob St. John – Sargasso Sea mp3 (from Weald)

Simply stunning excursion into a shifting, twilight world that slowly builds on the back of a sparse, plucked guitar and almost spoken vocals into a swirling, epic peak of rhythmic guitars and cracked vocal harmonies.

And there’s more. To round off the mix we have a gorgeous new one from MM faves, the folky Bowerbirds who will release a new album in March on Dead Oceans, the first taste of individual bubblegum garage from Hunx (as in & His Punx) solo effort appropriately called Hairdresser Blues, the effortlessly sleazy Black Bananas (formerly RTX) and Rad Times from their forthcoming album Rad Times Xpress IV and lastly former Dawes member Alex Casnoff has a new band Harriet and a new EP Tell The Right Story. I Slept With All Your Mothers is the brilliantly named and gripping lead track.

As always…enjoy!

Download The Bowerbirds – Tuck The Darkness In mp3 (from The Clearing)

Download Hunx – Always Forever mp3 (from Hairdresser Blues)

Download Harriet – I Slept With All Your Mothers mp3 (from Tell The Right Story EP)

Download Black Bananas – Rad Times mp3 (from Rad Times Xpress IV)

MM Shorts 41: The Great Lakes Unreleased Track

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MM Shorts 41: The Great Lakes Unreleased Track. We picked this up via the excellent Piaptk Blog and figured it had to be worth a repost. The Great Lakes are a psych-Country act from Brooklyn who we posted about back in the summer of 2010 when they released their lovely album Ways Of Escape. That was a record of introspective folk and country tunes, and while this is in the same vein, there is a healthy chunk of rockabilly rhythm in there too. This is a previously unreleased track and it is a crackerjack. The band have a new album due in 2012.

Download The Great Lakes – Blood On My Tooth mp3

Mad Mackerel Recommends…Vagabondage

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Mad Mackerel Recommends...Vagabondage. Vagabondage is a Bay Area, California based folk-punk band that was born over nachos and wine on a tiny stage in an empty theater in San Francisco’s Mission District. They have been getting people up on their feet, yelling, drinking and singing along to their songs since 2008.

Their new album was conceived at San Francisco’s Secret Studios over a bottle of cheap bourbon – Whiskey & Starlight is a combination of the anecdotes, tall tales, and memories shared over countless empty glasses in innumerable shadowy dive bars. They describe it as being “full of road trip blues, and gallows heartbreak” and that seems pretty accurate to us. Like they also say, this brand new album from Vagabondage is the perfect companion for a late night drive to nowhere.

Buy the album from their Bandcamp page here.

Download Vagabondage – Cicada Song mp3 (from Whiskey & Starlight)

Free Halloween Mix 2011

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Free Halloween Mix 2011. While we’re not great ones for themed mixes on MM, Halloween is one of the exceptions we like to make. Here is a perfect mix for whatever ghoulish event you’ve got lined up today! Fifteen corking tunes, from the skewed new wave pop of XTC and off-kilter indie of the Mountain Goats to the trashy surf rock of The Cramps and from the folk-stomp of the Men They Couldn’t Hang and the gothic drive of Ghost Dance to the pounding blues rock of the Scissormen and 22-20s. Enjoy.

Download Ministry – Every Day Is Halloween mp3

Download Ghost Dance – The Grip Of Love mp3

Download Green On Red – Zombie For Love mp3

Download The Roadside Graves – Demons (Aquarium Drunkard Encore Session) mp3

Download The Scissormen – The Devil Is Laughing mp3

Download The 22-20s – Devil In Me mp3

Download Lonesome Wyatt & The Holy Spooks – Macabre Holy Pleasure mp3

Download Ghoultown – Killer In Texas mp3

Download The Men They Couldn’t Hang – Ghosts Of Cable Street mp3

Download The Seeds – Evil Hoodoo mp3

Download The Cramps – I Was A Teenage Werewolf mp3

Download The Bodeans – Pretty Ghost mp3

Download The Mountain Goats – Damn These Vampires mp3

Download The Skeleton Dead – Lock The Doors mp3

Download XTC – The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead mp3

And don’t forget our 2010 Halloween mix either – still available here.

It’s Round Up Time Again…

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It's Round-Up Time Again... Once again we’re deluged from all sides by some top notch tunes. So here is the best of what we’ve picked up via the web and into our in-box recently. Consider a smorgasbord of musical sounds – all you gotta do is take the ones you like. Easy!

First up is a new track from the Dex Romweber Duo. The Death of Me is another fine example of their feral blues mixed with some freewheeling rockabilly guitar licks.

Download The Dex Romweber Duo – The Death Of Me mp3 (from Is That You In The Blue?)

Gloom and doom merchants, Esben & The Witch have returned with a new EP called Hexagons – this is the suitably dark and eerie Hexagons II (The Flight).

Download Esben & The Witch – Hexagons II (The Flight) mp3 (from Hexagons EP)

Seattle Bound is the new taster from Big Tree’s album This New Year which was officially released a couple of days ago. This is quirky, infectious indie-pop of the finest variety.

Download Big Tree – Seattle Bound mp3 (from This New Year)

A short while ago we posted the video for the Dum Dum Girls track Bedroom Eyes. Now here it is for you in all its glory of 50s jangle and 80s New Wave haughtiness.

Download The Dum Dum Girls – Bedroom Eyes mp3 (from Only In Dreams)

Abbie Barrett & The Last Date give us a dreamy, Pink Floydesque ballad in the shape of Draw Me In, a track on their new EP, The Triples Volume 1.

Download Abbie Barrett & The Last Date – Draw Me In mp3 (from The Triples Volume 1)

Similarly Annie Williams is no ordinary singer-songwriter either. She wrote and recorded two EPs of decidedly different flavors concurrently - This Mountain and Midnight Window - releasing both on November 15th. While conceptually different, both are rife with Annie’s sense of exploration and equally deserving of your ears.

Download Annie Williams – Roll On Hills mp3 (from This Mountain EP)

Download Annie Williams – Midnight Window mp3 (from Midnight Window EP)

The Hours are back with an optimistic new single, I Want More. Here’s a radio edit to tempt you.

Download The Hours – I Want More (Radio Edit) mp3 (from I Want More EP)

Forbidden Friends is a new solo project of Thermals frontman Hutch Harris. Forsaking some of the latter’s punky snarl for some bouncier guitar jangle, new single Totally Low is a sub two minute indie-pop gem.

Download Forbidden Friends – Totally Low mp3 (from Totally Low 7″)

And lastly we have the jaunty indie-folk of Rebekah Higgs that matches her sweetly playful vocals to perfection. Gosh, Darn, Damn comes from Odd Fellowship.

Download Rebekah Higgs – Gosh, Darn, Damn mp3 (from Odd Fellowship)