Tag Archives: Cate Le Bon

Mad Mackerel’s Best Of The Month: July 2012

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Mad Mackerel's Best Of July Mix.

You know the score. Some of our favourite downloads from the past month neatly parcelled up into one tasty mix and decorated with a few new tunes too. Nearly forty in all. Jump in!

Download Wye Oak - Spiral mp3 (from Adult Swim Singles Series)
A change of approach and tempo from experimental folkies

Download Unnatural Helpers – Hate Your Teachers mp3 (from Land Grab)
Raging. Ferocious. Punk

Download Wake Up Lucid – Feel It mp3 (from Feel It)
Combines sex-drenched vocals, high octane guitar, and a glorious lo-fi sludge that is garage rock at its purest and most dangerous

Download Keston Cobblers’ Club – For Words mp3 (from One, For Words)
Sweetly harmonious, banjo led folk song

Download White Wires – All Night Long mp3 (from WWIII)
Fun, infectious, and recalls some of the very best of the power-pop tunes of the late 70s

Download Deep Time – Homebody mp3 (from Deep Time)
Densely melodic slice of restlessly minimalist indie pop

Download Sun Sister – Sore Eyes mp3 (from Sun Sister Single)
Lo-fi dreampop with warm melodies, gorgeous reverbed vocals and rough jangly guitars

Download The Black Cadillacs – Choke mp3 (from Run)
Pure rock -  strong guitar melodies that are matched with catchy lyrics

Download Crooked Cowboy & The Freshwater Indians – Annalog And Her Hopeful Diaries mp3 (from Annalog And Her Hopeful Diaries EP)
Psychedelic whirlwind tinged with an unattainable nostalgia for a western era of dusty corrals and one-horse towns

Download Talk Normal – Bad Date mp3 (from Sunshine)
Hypnotically brilliant blend of punk and krautrock

Download People’s Temple – Looter’s Game mp3 (from Looter’s Game 7″)
Keeping a groovy, 60s psych vibe going

Download Wobbly Lamps – Alice The Goon mp3 (from Wobbly Lamps)
Takes an intro that sounds like it has been dragged kicking and screaming from a sweaty Detroit basement club in the 60s, attaches it to a thrumming, hypnotic riff, and then slams a sleazy proto-punk chorus over the top

The Lovely Sparrows – While Sailing
Gorgeous, pastoral folk

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Download The Felice Brothers – Lincoln Continental mp3 (from God Bless You Amigo)
Classic ramshackle Americana. Just about as good as it gets!

Download Aaron Embry – Moon Of The Daylit Sky mp3 (from Tiny Prayers)
Spare, captivating, and beautifully simple folk

Download Cate Le Bon – What Is Worse mp3 (from CYRK II)
Beautifully reminiscent of The Velvet Underground at their weary, foggy best – an uncomplicated and unadorned slice of late night melancholic pop

Download Damon Moon & The Whispering Drifters – Ten Sleep, WY mp3 (from Lungs, Dirt & Dreams)
Fractured, unassailable beauty that begins with a sentiment any of us over a certain age can identify with, before it breaks out into a more expansive guitar showdown/meltdown

The Wilderness of Manitoba – The Ark
Beautiful slice of chamber-folk

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Download Grassfight – Nassau mp3 (from Icon EP 2)
With shades of Interpol in the hypnotic, propulsive percussion, echoes of Dinosaur Jr in the swirling guitar, and a classic indie deep, monotone vocal, the track successfully ticks all the necessary boxes for a post-punk extravaganza

Freedom Fry – Summer In The City (from Summer In The City single)
Infectious, sunshine indie-pop at its very best

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Download Two Gallants – My Love Won’t Wait mp3 (from The Bloom And The Blight)
Rollicking tune showcases the duo’s heavier side

Download Outer Minds – We Are All Stone mp3 (from Behind The Mirror)
Perfectly judged garage-psych voodoo rumble, with a reverential nod to the Doors

Download Lord Huron – Time To Run mp3 (from Lonesome Dreams)
Galloping, infectious dusty folk chime

Download Spook Houses – American mp3 (from Trying)
Lo-fi slacker indie rock loaded with the energy of the band’s rambunctious punk roots

Steakhouse – Spider Bite
Hear the sound of Johnny Cash’s electric guitar come floating in over the hypnotic, pulsing rhythm and be seduced by the strange blend of krautrock and C&W

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Download D.B. Rouse – Never Home Again mp3 (from The Good Land)
Another folky gem from travelling troubadour

Kalle Matson – The Shore (from Lives In Between EP)
Folk with an experimental edge that is equally at home dropping in a bit of punk distortion as it is with some funky basslines

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Download Delta Spirit – Tear It Up mp3 (from Delta Spirit)
Another brilliant uptempo cut from outstanding recent album

Download Denver – Reno mp3 (from Denver)
Perfect country twang from Blitzen Trapper led indie supergroup

Download The Mountain Goats – Cry For Judas mp3 (from Transcendental Youth)
New album cut from quirky indie-rock royalty

Download Chelsea Light Moving – Frank O’Hara Hit mp3
Trademark guitar squall and distortion from Thurston Moore’s new project

Download John Murry – Southern Sky mp3 (from The Graceless Age)
Emotive and soul-wrenching mix of Americana and electronica

Download The Wild Leaves – Sister mp3 (from Sister)
Evocative and poignant, the notes sweetly swirling around the room like dust mites in the sunlight, as though the story it tells could have been hummed on back porches for decades gone by

Last American Buffalo – That Woman (from Here She Comes)
Brilliant blues stomp and folk swagger

Download Woodpecker – Married To The Movies mp3 (from Thanks Anyway)
Indie folk and banjo ramble including occasional bloodcurdling zombie screams

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The Most Powerful Telescope In The Universe – Lectures On Quanta (from Lectures On Quanta)
A brilliant psych-pop nugget of mellotron led drone

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And to finish off, here is Pony Boy’s The Murder Ballad Of Carrie Lee, inspired by an actual teenage couple who gained notoriety during a cross-country crime spree in the late 1950s as well as a first taste of Hot Freak Nation. We have the beautifully crafted psych tinged rock of The Asteroid Shop and the melodically rich and compelling new track Fifty Fifty from The Luyas.

Download Pony Boy – The Murder Ballad Of Carrie Lee mp3 (from The Murder Ballad Of Carrie Lee single)

Download Hot Freak Nation – All The Right Things mp3 (from Lifetime To Lifetime)

Download The Luyas – Fifty Fifty mp3 (from Animator)

Download The Asteroid Shop – Alone mp3 (from Distant Luxury EP)

New From Cate Le Bon

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New From Cate Le Bon.

We’re loving this first taste from Cate Le Bon’s forthcoming EP release CYRK II, out on 20th August via The Control Group. It follows on from last year’s excellent CYRK album.

During the CYRK sessions, back at the beginning of 2011, a grand total of 15 songs were recorded. As they began to form as finished articles they naturally pooled into two camps and CYRK II is the older sister, bearing songs of a more starkly confessional nature.

What Is Worse is beautifully reminiscent of The Velvet Underground at their weary, foggy best – an uncomplicated and unadorned slice of late night melancholic pop.

Download Cate Le Bon – What Is Worse mp3 (from CYRK II)

Mrs Mackerel’s TFI Friday (10th February)

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Mrs Mackerel's TFI Friday (10th February). Bang on the money this week: gin in hand, more snow outside, Andy Williams is playing…

You know that feeling (maybe?) that you just want something to dance to that your Dad used to play on vinyl when you were small… I still have the moves, Pops: Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, followed by a bit of Moon River.

Anyway, enough of that. You can just hear that needle ripping across the record… focus, focus.

This week I’m enjoying Cate Le Bon’s Puts Me to Work (should be my anthem), Sneak Into My Room by James Levy and the Blood Red Rose, and Tom Williams & the Boat’s My Bones, interspersed with a hefty dose of Mr Lanegan’s latest offering, naturally.

Back to the kitsch and my own kind of revelry in the kitchen: dancing on my own!

Enjoy your Friday!

Mrs Mackerel

Download Cate Le Bon – Puts Me To Work mp3 (from CYRK)

Download Mark Lanegan – The Gravedigger’s Song (from Funeral Blues)

Download Galaxie 500 – Snowstorm mp3 (from On Fire)

Download Andy Williams – Moon River mp3 (from Moon River & Other Great Movie Themes)

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Get Tom Williams single My Bones from their website here.

Mad Mackerel’s Best Of The Month: January 2012

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Mad Mackerel's Best Of The Month: January 2012.

Here are the best of our January posts together with a few tasty new tracks. All in all nearly forty great tunes compiled and neatly presented in one lovely mix. As always, don’t forget to check out all our previous monthly mixes listed in the sidebar on the left.

Download Night Genes – Soaring Through The Chromosomes mp3 (from Like The Blood)
Infectiously catchy, military folk stomp. A real gem.

Download Cheyenne Marie Mize – Wishing Well mp3 (from We Don’t Need EP)
A mix of r&b tinged staccato vocals and adventurous modern pop.

Download Howler – Back Of Your Neck mp3 (from America Give Up)
Buzz band deliver with this slice of catchy, infectious garage influenced rock that calls to mind vintage Strokes.

Download Ceremony – Hysteria mp3 (from Zoo)
Viciously uncompromising and brilliant hardcore punk.

Download Frankie Rose – Know Me mp3 (from Interstellar)
Dreamy pop jangle.

Download The Owsley Brothers – Rotten On The Vine mp3 (from Rotten On The Vine Single)
New single from our favourite experimental blues boys.

Download Kam Kama – Called Up mp3 (from The Tiled House EP)
Propulsive percussion and dark, sinewy guitar lines are the order of the day. Sinister vocals are intoned and the overall effect is one of delightful queasiness and uncertainty.

Download Laura Gibson – La Grande mp3 (from La Grande)
Cantering desert-folk.

Download The Mind Spiders – Wait For Us mp3 (from Meltdown)
Perfect, primal garage rock.

Download Disappears – Replicate mp3 (from Pre Language)
Brain splintering psych-rock.

Download Donovan Quinn – Shadow On The Stone mp3 (from Honky Tonk Medusa)
Perfectly judged excursion into classic storytelling territory backed by gentle guitar lines and a slightly weary, melancholy tinged vocal.

Download First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar mp3 (from The Lion’s Roar)
Title track of new album showcases those gorgeous and beautiful folk harmonies.

Download Guy Capecelatro III – Like Anything mp3 (from North For The Winter)
As much a carefully constructed poem as it is a song. There are no wasted words, and each one is sung in a minimal, whispering voice accompanied by sparse instrumentation, including a haunting saw, creating a mood that is beautifully sombre.

Download Gabriel & The Hounds – The World Unfolds mp3 (from Kiss Full Of Teeth)
Deceptively seductive song that calls to mind artists from across the decades and as diverse as The Byrds to the Silver Jews.

Download The Great American Canyon Band – Tumbleweed mp3 (from Tumbleweed 7″)
Alt-country duo use just 2 old guitars to create a sound that is intimate, honest and ethereal.

Download Town Hall – Charlie mp3 (from Sticky Notes & Paper Scraps EP)
Try the gorgeous slow burn of Charlie, which is as captivating a song as we’ve heard this year.

Download Stephen Paul Smoker – Green City mp3 (from Ripe Fruit)
Pulsating psych-rock groove and foot stomping rhythm, marvellous.

Download Shearwater – You As You Were mp3 (from Animal Joy)
Impassioned tune galloping along on the back of an urgent piano refrain.

Download Cate Le Bon – Puts Me To Work mp3 (from CYRK)
Sultry and gently hypnotic folk.

Lower Dens – Brains (from Nootropics)
Brilliantly hypnotic and menacing track from experimental folksters.

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Download D.B. Rouse – Full Time Job mp3 (from Meal-Ticket)
Fine example of this wandering troubadour’s unique view of the world married to a sharp lyrical delivery.

Download Capybara – Neighbor Crimes mp3 (from Dave Drusky)
Warm, organic indie rock that manages to be both simple and catchy.

Download Toy – Left Myself Behind mp3 (from Left Myself Behind single)
Krautrock rhythms melded with buzzing indie guitars and a vocal that recalls the halycon days of British indie rock.

Download Damon Moon & The Whispering Drifters – Loose Ends mp3 (from Lungs, Dirt, & Dreams)
An absolute gem, a gentle strum, a loosely insistent rhythm, hoarsely whispered vocals and a sweetly climactic chorus.

Download Young Prisms – Floating In Blue mp3 (from In Between)
Beguiling mix of dreamy psychedelia over a fuzz of shoegazey guitars and reverb.

Download The Ex-Girlfriends Club – The Witch mp3 (from Boo Hoo Hoo)
Incendiary mix of distortion, proto-punk and voodoo blues that manifests itself perfectly in the primal stomp of this cover of the Sonics classic The Witch.

Download Terry Malts – Nauseous mp3 (from Killing Time)
High octane, clattering punk riffage.

Download Big Deal – Chair mp3 (from Chair EP)
Harmonious, sweetly strummed indie-pop with a nice touch of reverb.

Download William Fitzsimmons – Blood and Bones (Acoustic Version) mp3 (from Noisetrade Free Sampler)
Alternative version of track from deluxe edition of acclaimed album Gold In The Shadow.

Download I See Hawks In L.A. – Dear Flash mp3 (from New Kind Of Lonely)
Authentic acoustic Americana.

Download The Low Anthem – Stories Of The Street mp3 (from The Songs Of Leonard Cohen Covered)
The wonderful Low Anthem put their stamp on a track from Leonard Cohen’s classic debut.

Download Vacant Fever – Kill Kill Kill mp3 (from Kill Kill Kill EP)
Recalls some of the classic work of bands like Wire or Gang Of Four. It is jerky, minimal and, best of all, genre-defying!

And to finish off this month’s bumper offering we have the new track from folksters The Bowerbirds, some cascading guitars and thunderous rhythms from The Jealous Sound’s new release, A Gentle Reminder and a six minute sonically layered slab of climactic indie rock from LA band Louden Swain that we’ve got on repeat here. We have some swirling, 60s tinged psych-rock from The Pharmacy and finally the breezy jangle of Wild Nothing’s new single, Nowhere.

Download The Bowerbirds – In The Yard mp3 (from The Clearing)

Download The Jealous Sound – Your Eyes Were Shining mp3 (from A Gentle Reminder)

Download Louden Swain – Cigarette mp3 (from Eskimo)

Download The Pharmacy – Dig Your Grave mp3 (from Dig Your Grave)

Download Wild Nothing – Nowhere mp3 (from Nowhere 7″)

Wednesday Means Eight of the Best

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Wednesday Means Eight of the Best!

Here is our round-up of the best new tracks and releases we’ve collected from our in-box, our favourite blogs and the internet.

This time we have the the sultry and gently hypnotic folk of Cate Le Bon, the raucous, boozy new track from John McCauley’s latest roots supergroup Diamond Rugs, the brilliantly hypnotic and menacing track from experimental folksters Lower Dens, more enchantment and swirling, celestial folk from Julianna Barwick, some perfect Primitives style indie jangle from Strawberry Whiplash, and for contrast the brooding, gothic indie of Royal Baths.

We have the latest urgent, rasping garage from Cloud Nothings forthcoming album and lastly the woozy, backwoods thrum of the latest track to be aired by the Babies.

Download Cate Le Bon – Puts Me To Work mp3 (from CYRK)

Download Diamond Rugs – Gimme A Beer mp3 (from Diamond Rugs)

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Download Julianna Barwick – Never Change mp3 (from Sanguine)

Download Strawberry Whiplash – Stop, Look And Listen mp3 (from Stop Look And Listen 7″)

Download Royal Baths – Black Sheep mp3 (from Better Luck Next Life)

Download Cloud Nothings – No Sentiment mp3 (from Attack On Memory)

Download The Babies – Trouble mp3 (from Trouble)

Mad Mackerel’s Best Of The Month: September 2011

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Mad Mackerel's Best Of The Month: September 2011. Another bonanza month of top tunes, all rounded up for you in one perfect download mix. Here are the September highlights together, as always, with a couple of top-notch new tracks too.

Download The Migrant – The Hurricane mp3 (from Amerika)

Distinguished by a slow blues refrain, handclaps and a mournful vocal, it is one of those tunes that sounds like it has been around forever.

Download Diarrhea Planet – Warm Ridin’ mp3 (from Loose Jewels)

A magnificent cacophony of guitars, pounding bass, thundering drums and begs for an open road, a booming car stereo and a warm night.

Download Black Pussy – Marijuana mp3 (from On Blonde)

Another track crying out for the open road, beer, and a bag of weed. This one comes barrelling down the road a whoopin’ and a hollerin’, wearing a shit-eatin’ grin and its anthemic heart firmly on its sleeve.

Download Vanish Valley – The Bottom mp3 (from Get Good)

Perfectly blending elements of folk, country and psychedelia into a roll-your-window-down backcountry cruise.

Download Kurt Vile & The Violators – The Creature mp3 (from So Outta Reach EP)

Another cracking slice of woozy, indie rock.

Download Ha Ha Tonka – Made Example Of mp3 (from Death Of A Decade)

Country rock par excellence.

Download Brown Bird – Thunder And Lightning mp3 (from Salt for Salt)

Darkly dramatic folk.

Download Acid Baby Jesus – Oh, Aurelia mp3

Full throttle, scuzzy garage rock.

Download Sic Alps – Breadhead mp3 (from Breadhead 7″)

A lo-fi, garage gem of tambourine, guitar squall and hippy vocals.

Download Icarus Himself – On Your Side mp3 (from Career Culture)

Built on a loop of a drum machine hi-hat and a fuzzed-out Casio synth and recalling artists like Kurt Vile, Deerhunter, and David Bowie.

Download Henry’s Funeral Shoe – Dog Scratched Ear mp3 (from Donkey Jacket)

Raw blues boogie, and song of the month for us!

Download Thee Oh Sees – Carrion Crawler mp3 (from Carrion Crawler / The Dream)

Loose, rattly garage with sneering vocals and a sinewy riff.

Download The Soft Moon – Total Decay mp3 (from Total Decay EP)

Ominous, swirling, bleak and nihilistic.

Download Acid Glasses – My Pale Garden mp3 (from My Pale Garden 7″)

Tripped out psychedelia in an outlandlishly hallucinogenic world.

Download Wooden Wand – Nails And Spikes mp3 (from Archives Vol 3)

Another gem of lo-fi folk genius from the most underrated lyricist around.

Download The Skeleton Dead – Keep Your Eyes To The Ground mp3 (from The Skeleton Dead)

Pure, mesmerising folk melancholia.

Download Woodsman – Specdrum mp3 (from Mystic Places EP)

Another cut of sublime spacey, psychedelia from their forthcoming Mystic Places EP.

Download The Felice Brothers – Behind That Locked Door mp3 (from Mojo Tribute To George Harrison)

The ramshackle Americana of The Felice Brothers take on George Harrison. Win.

Download Real Estate – Green Aisles mp3 (from Days)

Spacious, fluid, psych-tinged pop from the new album.

Download Sick Figures – Whiskey Song mp3 (from Two Ghosts)

Military beat, chaotic sounds and chanted lyrics that calls to mind a nursery rhyme composed by Charles Bukowski at his most pissed (and pissed off).

Download A.A. Bondy – Surfer King mp3 (from Believers)

First cut from folk troubadour’s eagerly awaited new album.

Download Bleached – You Take Time mp3 (from Carter 7″)

Ultra-catchy garage goodness.

And the new ones: we have a taste from Giant Sand’s Chore of Enchantment anniversary reissue in the shape of Music Arcade (which originally appeared on the tour only CD The Rock Opera Years), an epic slice of alternative rock Aussie style from Eddy Current Suppression Ring, a new one from unusual Welsh folkie Cate Le Bon, and punk rock ‘supergroup’ Wild Flag’s single Romance.

Download Giant Sand – Music Arcade mp3 (from Chore Of Enchantment 25th Anniversary Edition)

Download Eddy Current Suppression Ring – Walking In Unison mp3 (from Walking In Unison)

Download Cate Le Bon – Puts Me To Work mp3 (from CYRK)

Download Wild Flag – Romance mp3 (from Romance single)

The Villagers Live

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So last night it was off to Oxford to see recent Mercury Prize nominees The Villagers supported by Cate Le Bon. I was accompanied by major-league Villagers fan Stu, so was hoping that expectations would be met…

We only managed to catch the end of Cate Le Bon’s set (on at a ridiculously early 7.30pm), but what we heard was enough to make us wish we’d arrived earlier. A voice that recalled vintage Grace Slick and a sound that strayed enticingly into the experimental, rather than ploughing a straight and narrow folk furrow, meant that the rapidly growing audience were soon stilled into attentive silence.

And so to the main attraction. Appearing at first with what looked like a toy acoustic guitar, Conor J O’Brien is the epitome of chic-geek, engagingly awkward and even a little coy, his talent, however, is clear from the first few notes – transforming him into a confident and cool operator. What was a good and highly accomplished debut album is brought vibrantly and heartbreakingly to life on stage. From Twenty Seven Strangers to Becoming A Jackal and a mesmerising Ship Of Promises he possesses that rare quality of being to hold an entire audience to attention with little more than his voice and a few sparsely plucked notes.

Joined by his band for the main part of the set the sound swelled for album staples such as a thrilling Home and closed with the overwhelmingly beautiful and achingly poignant Cecilia & Her Selfhood, a short encore later we left with expectations more than met.  Mr O’Brien is a songwriter of great talent and rare presence.

And lastly a special mention to Jon Mackay, who took the photographs thanks to a chance introduction on the night from Stu, and who as you can see knows how to handle a lens properly – unlike us! Huge thanks to him for the pictures and more of his excellent work can be seen on his website here.

Visit Villagers MySpace here. Visit Cate Le Bon’s MySpace here.

Buy the Villagers from Amazon here. Buy Cate Le Bon from Amazon here.

Download The Villagers – Becoming A Jackal mp3 (from Becoming A Jackal)

Download Cate Le Bon – Shoeing The Bones mp3 (from Me Oh My)