Some heavy rock is just too good to pass up. Black Mountain push all the right buttons with this, the second track and new single, to get released from their much anticipated forthcoming album Wilderness Heart. Even the track title calls up an era of stoned Hells Angels with straggly hair having fun on their Harleys while terrifying your mum. Marvellous. Pre-order the album from … Continue reading More from Black Mountain
Along with Howling Owl, The War Crimes are probably MM’s favourite discovery of 2010. Ever since we fell for the sinister charms of their single Treatise we have been eagerly awaiting every new offering with much anticipation. Now we have a new track, Levin As I for you. A bit slower yes, but every bit as disquieting and unsettling in a downtempo, fatalistic way as their … Continue reading More from The War Crimes
The new single from The Jim Jones Revue is called High Horse and is out on the 23rd August. It is a typically frenetic slice of rock ‘n’ roll in the band’s own inimitable style and precedes their new album Burning Your House Down on 6th September. Enjoy the video for the single… Continue reading New Video from The Jim Jones Revue
This weekend was our first visit to Truck, an intimate and friendly music festival held on a farm near Oxford. This was their 13th such event and was blessed with sunshine throughout. Mrs Mackerel and I took the three Mackerel sprats along on both days and had a thoroughly good time whether it was learning the Poyes(? – top left) , sampling the Rotary Club’s … Continue reading The Mackerels go to Truck
There is an increasing amount of really good music being given away by artists via Bandcamp and Soundcloud. A couple of our more recent discoveries are below. Ghost Animal offer a twisted, haunted take on surf-pop. They have a number of free EPs available from their Bandcamp page and all are well worth adding to your iTunes library. We also have their latest track for you, In … Continue reading Recommended Freebies: Ghost Animal, King Post Kitsch, Superhumanoids, Paul & The Patients
The Screaming Females are a band that MM likes a lot. So it is to our own detriment that we didn’t even know that before she was in the band, guitarist Melissa Paternoster had recorded for a number of years under the name Noun. A discovery like this is always better late than never though, and Paternoster released her first official full length entitled Holy … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Noun & Screaming Females
Well, what a week. There really is nowt so funny as folk: if a few more of the adult population learned how to expunge a meaningful mea culpa once in a while, wouldn’t we all rub along a bit better? Is this resistance to accepting responsibility for one’s actions something we learn with age? Vulnerability is not a sign of weakness, nor is making the … Continue reading Mrs Mackerel’s TFI Friday
We’re a bit late with this one we know, as it has been doing the blog rounds for a little while and we have been meaning to post it for ages. The reason is we have caught ourselves humming and nodding along to Shadow by Grass Widow on countless occasions recently. It is from their forthcoming album Past Time, due next month on Kill Rock Stars. Grass … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Grass Widow
We discovered the delights of Bridal Party from the good folk over at Sonic Masala. Immediately boasting one of our favourite covers of the year so far with the Tim Burtonesque sleeve to Born Again On Dark Star, the band are offering a completely free download of the album on their Bandcamp page here. Not even asking for an e-mail address in return either. The music is a … Continue reading Introducing…Bridal Party
Truth is MM was pretty ambivalent about the debut album by The Mt St Helens Vietnam Band. It was solid certainly, good without being memorable enough to make us want to hit repeat very often. However, the two tracks we have been sent in advance of follow-up Where The Messengers Meet are a different beast altogether. Both songs, the new single Hurrah, and Leaving Trails are … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…The Mt St Helens Vietnam Band
The Mad Mackerel 