Tag Archives: Colleen Green

Mad Mackerel’s Best Of The Month: March 2013

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Mad Mackerel's Best Of The Month: March 2013

Here are the very best of our downloads from March’s posts together with a few new tunes for your listening pleasure. So close to 30 tracks in all – a perfect playlist to kick off April.

Quite Parade – Edge of the Ocean
A perfectly judged slice of Canadian indie rock, it is an anthem about a dying town that seems hopeless but is still worth fighting for.

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Conner Youngblood – Vegas
Kicks off with some ominous ringing guitar over which vocals echo and swirl before slow but hypnotic percussion cuts in and the song gradually increases in intensity before finally fading away like a firework over a night sky.

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Download Colleen Green – Heavy Shit mp3 (from Sock it to Me)
Perfectly judged pop-punk.

Blank Realm – Go Easy
Takes 90s slacker indie and buries it in a heady swirl of scuzzy guitars and stoned vocals.


(Click through to download for free)

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Download Pairs – Part Songs mp3 (from If This Cockroach Doesn’t Die, I Will)
Clocks in at just over 2 minutes of buzzsaw guitars, machine gun percussion and lyrics about dead shipmates, date-rape and all manner of other sordid topics.

Beams – Be My Brother
Lush instrumentation and lovely vocal harmonies hide the fact that lyrically something altogether more discomforting and baleful lies beneath the surface.

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Wooden Wand – Dungeon Of Irons
Yet another stand out track from an outstanding album.

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The Burning Hell – Grown-ups
Deep, baritone vocals reveal a caustic, almost savage, black humour and brilliantly observed comments on the minutiae of life that can make you squirm with embarrassed recognition.

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Thirty Pounds Of Bone – Home Faring
Possessed of a singular and unique vision, where distraction, desolation, and despair are constant companions and distortion and drone are artfully used to heighten emotions and force the listener to really partake of what is going on.


(Click through to download for free)

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Lower Plenty – Nullarbor
A perfectly judged track of hazy countrified melancholia.

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Monuments & Statues – Red Dress
Beautifully anchored by banjo with animated cello and vocals alternately assuming lead status.

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The Thermals – Born To Kill
Dark, brash, and violent.

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Download Kurt Vile - Never Run Away mp3 (from Wakin On A Pretty Daze)
Another hazy, woozy taste from forthcoming album.

Download Dirty Fences – Heaven Is Tonight mp3 (from Too High To Kross)
Razor sharp riffs and perfectly executed harmonies.

God Tiny – Fearless
Oozes primal garage rock and psych-blues creds in a way that is impossible to resist.

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Broken Anchor – Never Leave Me Alone
Infectious, catchy, anthemic indie rock.

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Download Owl Fly South – Blink (Incandescent Days) mp3 (from Blink/Castle)
More than promising garage/psych/pop.

Steady Sun – Eyes Wide
A lovely blend of gentle psychedelia and pastoral folk.

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Blood Sister – Bart Simpson
Noisy trash-pop.

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Upside Drown – Go
Naggingly catchy garage pop.

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Pure X – Someone Else
Synths, guitars and tortured vocals make a compelling package.

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Virginia Wing – Red Sails
Their sound veers from the minimalist post punk of Young Marble Giants, to the twisted 60s psych bliss of Arthur Lee and Love and the cinematic krautpop of Broadcast.

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Hawk And Dove – Things We Lost So Far
Acoustic country with a classical influence make for a unique take on Americana.

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And to finish we have new tracks from The Scanners, the jaunty indie strum of Mexico comes from their new self-titled EP, while the brilliant and haunting Bullet From A Broken Heart by Dillon Hodges is Americana at its absolute finest and is taken from forthcoming album Rumspringa. Our third new track Wait comes from Graham MacRae’s new album Dundrearies, a perfectly judged downtempo contemplation of loneliness, disappointment, and how to live well. Lastly we have the high octane indie-folk of Killing Fields Of Ontario and the riotous, gypsy-tinged tale of disaster that is Twisted Little Theatre, which comes from new album How The World Ends.

Videos of the Day: The Futurebirds || Colleen Green || TOY || The Men

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Videos of the Day

Today’s videos are from our favourite southern fried country rockers The Futurebirds, Colleen Green as a cabbie in her new video for Taxi Driver, indie psych-rockers TOY’s video for latest single Heart Skips A Beat, and a 1990s VHS inspired video from The Men for I Saw Her Face, one of the moodier tracks from excellent new album New Moon.

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MM Shorts 329: More From Colleen Green

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MM Shorts 329: More From Colleen Green

Here is a second track from punk-popster Colleen Green’s forthcoming full length, Sock It To Me. It is out later this month on Hardly Art. We’re intending to catch her at SXSW next week.

This is Heavy Shit. Enjoy!

Download Colleen Green – Heavy Shit mp3 (from Sock it io Me)

Download Colleen Green – Time In The World mp3 (from Sock it to Me)

Mad Mackerel’s Best Of The Month: January 2013

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Mad Mackerel's Best Of The Month: January 2013

So, all things considered January got off to a rip-roaring start where new tunes are concerned. Here is our selection of our best of the month’s downloads (27 in all) and a few new tunes too – more than 30 to pick from, so blow those January blues away with these babies.

Prissy Clerks – Bruise or Be Bruised
Mix of fuzzed up punk and slacker indie with garage pop undertones managing to balance a confused, dark isolation with some tender sweetness.

Download The Chaw – The Whole Night Through mp3 (from The Chaw)
Propulsive rhythms and guitar squalls drenched in reverb, referencing soundtracks of the classic spaghetti westerns, big open bar chords and barky low register guitar leads ala Dick Dale.

Download Water Liars – Fake Heat mp3 (from Wyoming)
Plaintive vocals building over the slowly increasing guitar distortion creates a real treat of a first taste from forthcoming album.

Big Harp – Waiting For Some Drunk
Literate Americana, with fuzzed-out, needle-sharp textures.

Download Indian Wars – Sweetheart Of The North mp3 (from Songs From The North)
First taste of new album is a cracker from countrified rockers.

Download Airstrip – Pleasure Center mp3 (from Willing)
Hypnotic and dark “nightmare pop”

Download Colleen Green – Time In The World mp3 (from Sock it to Me)
Showcases vintage synth tones alongside Green’s trademark multi-tracked harmonies, deep-fried guitar chords, and spartan drum machine beats.

Download Milo Greene – Parents mp3 (from Filter Presents: Milo Turns 50)
Eerily hushed and woozy version of the scathing 1982 classic Descendents track Parents. Cover of the month undoubtedly.

Lower Plenty – Strange Beast
Hazy, beautifully melancholy, suburban-country music. Click through to download for free.

Download Tom Morgan – Taste For Blood mp3 (from Orange Syringe)
Stripped back and laconic folk laced with self effacing black humour.

Download Swallows – The Winnowing mp3 (from Witching & Divining)
Rasping, gravelly vocals, sombre cello and chanted junkyard chorus call to mind Tom Waits and The Wicker Man in equal measure.

Wooden Wand – Outsider Blues
No description needed – best album of the month. Mellow, oak-aged, yet still oddly warped folk. Brilliant.

Download Summer Aviation – Love So Fine mp3 (from Love So Fine single)
Combine the fresh, supercharged sound of 60s pop arrangements with post-punk avant-garde: Think Burt Bacharach meets My Bloody Valentine.

Honeyslide – Sugar Routine
Warm distorted guitars, complex hooks and captivating melodies swathed in reverb to create piercing sonic landscapes.

PRAVADA – Campfire Song
Catchy-as-hell tune filled with swirling guitars and sugary indie pop harmonies.

Download Frontier Ruckus – Dealerships mp3 (from Eternity of Dimming)
Wonderfully folky Americana from much anticipated new album.

Harry George Johns – Hospital Blues
Raw personal folk, an incredibly personal diary of a dark and desperate time.

Download Cobalt Cranes – Head In The Clouds mp3 (from Head In The Clouds)
Blend elements of desert, psychedelic and shoegaze sounds, taking a modern approach to classic California rock.

Download The Lovely Bad Things – Fried Eggs mp3 (from The Late Great Whatever)
Garage-punk masterclass.

Download Torres – Mother Earth, Father God mp3 (from Torres)
Minimal, ragged, and raw folk from singer-songwriter’s debut release.

As Elephants Are – Lucifer
Another blistering slice of epic, widescreen indie rock.

Download Fletcher C Johnson – Happy Birthday mp3 (from Salutations)
A nostalgic paean to the 60s with a sweet melody and chorus. Perfect garage pop.

Download The Futurebirds – Man With No Knees (demo) mp3 (from Exhume)
Brilliantly ramshackle Americana and pedal-steel inspired psychedelia.

Download Little Wings – Sandy Babe mp3 (from LAST)
Little Wings at their warmest and most mellow.

Pickering Pick – Standing Stone
Warm, sensitive, thoughtful and restrained – perfect fare from singer-songwriter par-excellence.

Download Lazy Talkers – Killing Time mp3 (from Lazy Talkers)
Sweet, easy-going jangle from indie-folksters.

Jack James – Three Names
Brooding slice of dark folk (click through to download for free).

And to finish off, new tunes from Screaming Females with the sinewy and rickety Poison Arrow from their forthcoming tape release Chalk Tape, a second (brilliant) track from John Grant’s much anticipated new record Pale Green Ghosts, the excellent literate Americana tinged indie of Yellow Red Sparks and the song that gave them their name, and finally the mesmerising brilliance of Secret Mountains and their haunting track Coasting.

Download Screaming Females – Poison Arrow mp3 (from Chalk Tape)

Download John Grant – Black Belt mp3 (from Pale Green Ghosts)

Download Yellow Red Sparks – Yellow Red Sparks mp3 (from Yellow Red Sparks)

Download Secret Mountains – Coasting mp3 (from Rainer)

New From Colleen Green

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New Album From Colleen Green

On March 19th, Hardly Art will drop one-woman pop-punk band Colleen Green’s latest full-length album, Sock it to Me. It follows last year’s excellent Milo Goes To Compton, which had an awful lot of spins on the MM stereo.

First single Time in the World showcases vintage synth tones alongside Green’s trademark multi-tracked harmonies, deep-fried guitar chords, and spartan drum machine beats. It is an especially contagious introduction to the album.

Grab it here.

Download Colleen Green – Time In The World mp3 (from Sock it to Me)

Mad Mackerel’s Best Of The Month: February 2012

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

Musically, the year is starting to really kick into gear now and February saw lots of top quality tunes hit the web. Here is our pick of the best of last month’s posts along with four brand, spanking new tracks for you to download, sample and treasure. All in all over thirty great songs in one great mix.

Download Hoots & Hellmouth – Why Would You Not Want To Go There? mp3 (from Salt)
Country rocker with a slow-burn intensity that builds in tandem with some expertly judged flourishes of piano and electric guitar.

Download Mirel Wagner – No Death mp3 (from Mirel Wagner)
World-weary, doom-laden, sparse and skeletal. Oh and stunning too.

Download Mark Lanegan – The Gravedigger’s Song (from Funeral Blues)
Brilliant electronica-style drum beat throughout, with the trademark ML growling vocal delivery.

Download Dr. Dog – That Old Black Hole mp3 (from Be The Void)
Classic vintage, ramshackle country rock from excellent new album.

Download Orpheum Bell – Poor Laetitia mp3 (from The Old Sisters’ Home)
Seductive, yet slightly mocking tale of a beautiful, but awkward girl with a haughty tango beat and muted trumpet.

Download Jesse Thomas – Fire mp3 (from War Dancer)
Raw, whiskey soaked folk.

Download The Pharmacy – Dig Your Grave mp3 (from Dig Your Grave)
As good an example of indie-pop-garage bliss as you’ll find.

Download Benjamin Shaw – Kick The Dog mp3 (from The Birds Chirp And The Sun Shines Single)
Idosyncratic, perverse folk ramblings.

Download The Chromatics – Into The Black mp3 (from Kill For Love)
Sublime chilled out cover of Neil Young’s classic.

Download Maps & Atlases – Winter mp3 (from Beware And Be Grateful)
Typically tight and dense, but still catchy indie-pop.

Download Shrouded Strangers – Featherbed mp3 (from Lost Forever)
Skuzzy slacker anthem - a glorious amalgam of surf guitars, krautrock rhythms and fuzzed up hillbilly stomp.

Download Moonface – Teary Eyes And Bloody Lips mp3 (from With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery)
A stormer – all buzzing guitars, massive keyboards and nailgun percussion.

Download Cheers Elephant – Doin’ It, Right mp3 (from Like Wind Blows Fire)
A sublime slice of upbeat sunshine pop that morphs into a brief kaleidoscopic freakout before settling back down again.

Download Black Mountain – Mary Lou mp3 (from Year Zero Original Soundtrack)
Almost eight minutes of perfect heavy riffage.

Download Horse Feathers – Fit Against The Country mp3 (from Cynic’s New Year)
Typically rustic folk from one of Portland’s finest.

Download  Guy Capecelatro III – Girlfriends mp3 (from North For The Winter)
Another slice of quirky folk with sly observation and mischievous lyrics.

Download Zulu – Sistine Chapel mp3 (from Wa Of The Zulu)
Clear the cobwebs with this brilliant tribal rumble and punk rock swagger.

Download Teitur – Let The Dog Drive Home mp3 (from Let The Dog Drive Home)
Gently upbeat, elegant, and expansive folk rumination.

Download Wooden Sky – Malibu Rum mp3 (from Every Child A Daughter, Every Moon A Sun)
A beautifully paced folk ballad tinged at the edges with the faint wisp of melancholy – lovely.

Download Damon Moon & The Whispering Drifters – Lungs, Dirt, & Dreams mp3 (from Lungs, Dirt, & Dreams)
A downtempo slow burn of barely picked electric guitar washes over sighed vocals that gradually swell to an appropriately lugubrious and mournful climax.

Download Colleen Green – Worship You mp3 (from Milo Goes To Compton)
Throbbing garagey guitars over a sweetly saccharine vocal.

Download Band In Heaven – Sleazy Dreams mp3 (from Sleazy Dreams 7″)
Visceral, pulsating industrial punk riffing of the very best kind.

Download Drifterswift – Rule Of Twelfths mp3 (from The Rule Of Twelfths EP)
Spacey dream pop, slightly fuzzy and a 100% bona fide ear worm.

Download Ray Wylie Hubbard – Drunken Poet’s Dream mp3 (from Daytrotter Session)
Sublime version of standout track from country outlaw’s last album.

Download The Crocodiles – Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9) mp3 (from Endless Flowers)
Full on, catchy indie rock. Noisy.

Download Coke Weed – Magpie mp3 (from Nice Dreams)
Gently haunting and woozy-at-the-edges folk psychedelia.

Download Ceremony – Adult mp3 (from Zoo)
Loud, fast, uncompromising. This is searing punk rock.

And to finish off we have new tracks from These United States and their rambunctious melting pot of rock-and-roll, folk balladry, and outlaw country that went into taster track Dead And Gone as well as the psych rock influenced indie of Temporary from White Rabbits, one of the best things we’ve heard from them. Exitmusic have a new album scheduled and title track Passage is typically powerful and haunting with layered guitars and drums building to an extraordinary crescendo. Lastly it is the sonic guitar blast of Yellow Orchestra on their outstanding new track The Shakedown.

Download These United States – Dead And Gone mp3 (from These United States)

Download White Rabbits – Temporary mp3 (from Milk Famous)

Download Exitmusic – Passage mp3 (from  Passage)

Download Yellow Ostrich – The Shakedown mp3 (from Strange Land)

Tuesday Means Eight Of The Best

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Tuesday Means Eight of the Best!Here is another in our semi regular round-ups of new tracks that have found their way into our iTunes library via our inbox, some of our favourite blogs, and the internet. So eight artists and ten tracks to check out. Jump in. Be our guest. Have a browse. Pick and choose. Take what you want. Its all yours.

Let us start with one of our favourite tracks of the moment: the throbbing garagey guitars of Worship You by Colleen Green together with a bonus second track from new album Milo Goes To Compton, the slightly sweeter Goldmine. In a similar vein we have the more visceral, pulsating industrial punk riffing of Band In Heaven and a track from their self-titled 7″ called Sleazy Dreams.  Next up is reunited fuzz-popsters Black Tambourine offering up their cover of the Ramones’ What’s Your Game.

Sonny Smith of Sonny & The Sunsets and latterly of his 100 Records series will release Volume 3 next month. This cut has him performing under the moniker Danny Dusk & The Twilights and with a name like that, what else could he do but deliver a sound that could have been directly appropriated from the 60s. Give in to the urge to spark the joss-sticks as he howls mournfully over a chugging guitar and organ swirls.

Jim From The Moon plays acoustic tunes about girls, the devil, and similar distractions. They flow in the vein of Loudon Wainwright III and Neil Young, sung with a voice soaked in years of Irish storytelling. Other times he expels far-out electric rock which is primal and spaceward, with hints of Hendrix’s blues. This cut, a heartfelt ode to the consequences of self-harming called Alarms comes from the former camp. Meanwhile singer-songwriter Jordan Bolton belies his tender years and hints at a pretty substantial talent with new offering Love Was Always Cruel, It Just Wasn’t Cruel To Me with its easygoing rhythm and vocal nod to the National.

The Dirty Names offer a welcome excursion into classic rock, all bar-room blues swagger and greased up riffs with Puppy Love, and finally we have the effortlessly beautiful indie rock and dream pop of Boston four-piece Drifterswift with two spacey, slightly fuzzy and 100% bona fide ear worms from forthcoming EP The Rule of Twelfths.

I know, I know. You’re welcome…

Download Colleen Green – Worship You mp3 (from Milo Goes To Compton)

Download Colleen Green – Goldmine mp3 (from Milo Goes To Compton)

Download Band In Heaven – Sleazy Dreams mp3 (from Sleazy Dreams 7″)

Download Black Tambourine – What’s Your Game mp3 (from OneTwoThreeFour EP)

Download Danny Dusk & The Twilights – Life Ain’t Clear mp3 (from Sonny Smith’s 100 Records Vol. 3)

Download Jim From The Moon – Alarms mp3 (from I Am Going To Steal You EP)

Download Jordan Bolton – Love Was Always Cruel, It Just Wasn’t Cruel To Me mp3

Download The Dirty Names – Puppy Dog mp3 (from)

Download Drifterswift – Rule Of Twelfths mp3 (from The Rule Of Twelfths EP)

Download Drifterswift – Can’t Fight Me mp3 (from The Rule Of Twelfths EP)