Canadian three-piece Cowlick’s second album Wires was released back in August – we’ve only just got hold of a copy, but it has been well worth the wait. They, like many before them, describe the album as wildly unpredictable, forceful, bursting with ideas. They, unlike many before them, are absolutely right! Reminding us of everything from The Gorillaz to Massive Attack to Queens of the Stone Age … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Cowlick
A bit like desert murder ballads, anything coming into our in-box calling itself ‘voodoo trash blues’ is going to get our attention. And so it was with The Black Knights, a due hailing from Salford in the north of England who recently released their debut album Sickle Cell Saturday Night. With influences from The Birthday Party to Jon Spencer to The Dead Weather, theirs is … Continue reading Introducing…The Black Knights
We have been thoroughly enjoying the lo-fi, dreamy folk and fuzzy electric meanderings of Seamonster and their EP Two Birds recently. Although it has been out for a little while and it is the track Oh Appalachia that seems to be attracting the most attention, we have become very taken with The Philosophy Of Andy Warhol, a track that blends an upbeat, slightly drone-like rhythm … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends..Seamonster
The rather oddly named (to our ears anyway) Pappy evokes images of preachers, ramblin’ gamblers and whiskey stills draped over Appalachian Mountains acoustic guitar and fiddles. His banjo figures largely into this 12-song record titled Pappy Time, but this is not a bluegrass album. Not entirely. The performances are low-key and understated, but the musicianship is of the highest order – laidback, never-in-a-rush songs, with Pappy’s … Continue reading Introducing…Pappy
We are loving this hypnotic cover of Outlaw Blues by the Morning Benders, which comes from a compilation titled Subterranean Homesick Blues: A Tribute to Bob Dylan’s ‘Bringing It All Back Home’. A quality line-up features J.Tillman, Laura Veirs, Castanets, Sea Wolf and William Fitzsimmons amongst others and the album is faithfully recreated right down to five outtakes from the original recording sessions. The album was … Continue reading Morning Benders Cover Dylan
In this their second release, the simply titled Trust EP (out via Park The Van Records), New Orleans natives Generationals have become a band that is audibly transitioning from a jangling, sun-kissed sound in the vein of Aztec Camera or Felt to pop drones distinctly more hypnotic, textured, and far more challenging to conjure accurate comparisons for. The shimmering hooks, girl-group choruses, and late-summer breeziness of impressive debut … Continue reading Generationals release New EP
When a song arrives that is described as “It’s the desert-rock murder ballad of a dancing girl and her two boyfriends at a strip club called Deja Vu Showgirls in Colorado Springs, CO, near where I grew up”, I cannot imagine a song I would want to hear more. The song, So Much Faster, is by a band called Salesman. It is the previously unreleased … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Salesman
It’s been a week of away fixtures. First, a trip to Cardiff with my dearest friend and today, I cast my net across the water to Ventnor, where me and big brother will undoubtedly regress into a bit of sibling banter. I’ll be missing the rest of the mackerel clan big time and undoubtedly the sprats will have eaten more than their fair share of … Continue reading Mrs Mackerel’s TFI Friday
The Lost Cavalry are a London-based alternative folk band formed in 2009 by vocalist Mark West, formerly the guitarist of Fanfarlo. Their new single The Elephant of Castlebar Hill is released on 15th November on their own label Two Six Heave and will be available as a digital download. This beautiful song tells the story of a giant circus elephant that collapsed and died in … Continue reading Introducing…The Lost Cavalry
In just under two weeks on October 26, The War On Drugs new EP Future Weather will be available in stores in the U.S. (and early 2011 in the U.K.). However, you can pre-order the album today and you’ll get an instant download of the record. In celebration Secretly Canadian are releasing a second single from Future Weather, the closing track The History of Plastic. … Continue reading The War On Drugs Offer up Second Track from new EP
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