Here at MM we have a soft spot for The Bees (or A Band of Bees as they are known over in the States). Maybe it’s because they have a base in Ventnor in the Isle of Wight, a place we know well and love very much, and maybe it’s because of that location that they they effortlessly seem to craft some of the sunniest, … Continue reading New from The Bees
Secret Colours are purveyors of a very fine blend of psych-pop with a classic retro feel that has more than an echo of the late 60s and early 70s heyday for such things. Their self titled LP gets a release on August 3rd (though you can stream it all over on their Bandcamp page) and Jellybean the taster track we have is evocative of lava … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends Secret Colours
A little while ago we posted about The Streets on Fire and their rather magnificent forthcoming album This Is Fancy. The record, the band’s first full length, gets its official release tomorrow and we have a new track for you to sample and, better than that, three copies of the vinyl to give away. For those that don’t know, Streets on Fire play a brilliantly … Continue reading New from Streets On Fire and Vinyl Giveaway
Pretty confident we’ve given you a hat-trick of great posts and songs now. After the skewed, unsettling brilliance of Lower Dens and the promise of newbies Rare Grooves comes the downright catchy, 60s inspired, garage-psych of The Fungi Girls (who you won’t be surprised to learn are an all boy trio from Texas). We first became aware of them last year with promising debut album Seafaring … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…The Fungi Girls
Rare Grooves have emerged from the ashes of The Widow Babies and are a duo consisting of Tabor Allen on drums and Danny Miller on guitar. They got in touch with their self-titled debut 7″, which came out recently and we’ve been thoroughly enjoying it. The band name made us (wrongly) think we were going to hear a throwback to a northern Soul band, but … Continue reading Introducing…Rare Grooves
Tuesday next week will see the release of Twin-Hand Movement, the debut album by Lower Dens. It is the new vehicle for the renowned, but as yet relatively unknown, Jana Hunter. Weirdly beautiful, it is throbbing, insistent drone-pop on the one hand and haunting, ghostly freak-folk on the other. It brilliantly mixes styles and approaches in a way that is accessible, surprising and despite some … Continue reading Mad Mackerel (thoroughly) Recommends…Lower Dens
We’re going to keep the tempo up today, so following the start given to us by the frenzy of the Ten Kens earlier, we can now offer you Cardiac Arrest In D from Hillstomp. And if the title of the song doesn’t tell you all you want to know, they go on to describe themselves as Mississippi trance blues, a bit from the hills of … Continue reading New from Hillstomp
For Posterity is the second album from Toronto four-piece Ten Kens. Having not come across them before, the blurb with the release mentioned inspiration from psychedelia to hardcore, which had to make them worth a listen. Now, we also know better than most that the blurb can often bear no relation to the sounds coming from the speakers. But not this time! Johnny Ventura, the … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Ten Kens
No falling asleep on the job this week and waking up and finding out Friday’s gone and Saturday’s in its place. This week I’ve been quite excited (yet again) over listening to the new offering – Hawk – from Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan (whose name must be spoken in hushed tones in this house). A review will follow just as soon as we know … Continue reading Mrs Mackerel’s TFI Friday
Last month we posted a couple of excellent tracks by The Vitamin Sees, now Stuart from the band has been in touch with this offering from another band he is involved in called Viva Stereo. Knee High Boots comes from the bands fourth long player, Roar Lion Roar and while it doesn’t quite have the recurring visceral impact of The Vitamin Sees it still packs … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Viva Stereo
The Mad Mackerel 