The Barettas are a trio from Hamilton, Ontario. We’ve never been, but their e-mail said it’s a city known for it’s industrial decay, grittiness, and blue-collar roots. Each member of the band has taken on a couple of jobs, usually a combination of cleaning houses during the day, and tending bar at night in order to reap the reward that it lets them make music … Continue reading Introducing…The Barettas
Over the past few days our ears have invariably pricked up whenever Get Older by Tom Williams & The Boat comes on Radio 6 (which has been with increasing frequency). Some songs require a dictionary to navigate through obscure lyrics or to divine a meaning from a myriad of choice and some songs just give it to you straight. When Tom Williams spits with unconcealed … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Tom Williams & The Boat
Friday is here once again; a little late perhaps after a particularly lovely Skype with the Swiss outpost. Despite the loose remit being to concentrate on the old, this week I’ve been drawn to the new. It’s a bit like life really: we may look back and reflect on what’s gone past. But so it goes, do we move on? Do we learn anything new … Continue reading Mrs Mackerel’s TFI Friday (4th Feb)
It is fair to say we have been waiting for the debut album from Middle Brother with a more than keen sense of anticipation, them being an indie super-group of sorts, and featuring the not inconsiderable talents of MM faves Deer Tick (John McCauley), Delta Spirit (Matthew Vasquez) and Dawes (Taylor Goldsmith). And at last, here we have it. Me Me Me is the tasty, … Continue reading At last…Middle Brother offer up mp3
If Oxford can be said to have an iconic music venue then it would undoubtedly be the Jericho Tavern in Walton Street. The beer-sticky room over the pub having paid host to many of the indie greats, the indie up-and-comers, and the indie flash-in-the-pans over the past thirty years or so. And so it was there that Scottish folk experimentalists The Phantom Band kicked off … Continue reading The Phantom Band: Live Review
A good while ago we posted a track from Daddy Lion’s self-titled debut EP. A little while ago a new track, The Scientists Lament, arrived in our in-box, but for some inexplicable reason it took us until this morning to play it. Now we’ve corrected that oversight, we’re more than happy to share it. An uptempo indie rocker in the classic vein that has enough … Continue reading New from Daddy Lion
We picked up That Rabbit by The Whalers from the always excellent Rollo & Grady blog and it was one of those first play moments where you get to the end and say to yourself “how good was that?”, before hitting repeat. So we figured we ought to share the track here for anyone who has missed out on the band so far plus another … Continue reading Introducing…The Whalers
Unique NY folk-rockers O’Death are back with their third album Outside. Despite some really difficult personal times for the band, they’ve kept going, and if advance track Bugs is anything to go by, we should be grateful they did. There are echoes of their ramshackle and punkish best, but this time it is cocooned in something more subtle and thoughtful too. A pleasure! Outside sees … Continue reading New from O’Death
Hot on the heels of our Flashguns post comes another new band, indie duo The Sorry Kisses who release their album Keep Smiling later this month (21st Feb). Theirs is a sound lovingly carved from the 90s US slacker alt-rock movement and freshened up with some sunny, fuzzed-up surf pop that combines to make a pretty heady and beguiling brew. It’s the sort of sound that … Continue reading Introducing…The Sorry Kisses
We often post about the free digital mixtapes put up by Insound and their February mix is up now. We’re pleased to say it is a stonking return to form after a couple of slightly weaker mixes – this one has nineteen tracks including Beach Fossils, British Sea Power, Cut Copy and Warpaint. We were also pleased to see that they’ve included a few tracks … Continue reading New Insound Digital Mixtape
The Mad Mackerel 