The Cave Birds and are just 1 gig / 1 recording into their existence and sit somewhere between the guitar pop of Guillemots, and the mass grandeur of Wild Beasts. This is their debut single, out on the 7th November via Plumpton Presents label. However, only 100 CD copies of Some Lightning Thrill will be pressed, so make sure you attend the single launch at … Continue reading MM Shorts 17: The Cave Birds
The Sunparlour Players are one of our favourite bands of the past five years. Both 2007’s Hymns For The Happy and 2009’s Wave North were superb albums chock full of wonderful folk tales, stomping bluegrass, anthemic country rock and impassioned lyrics. Euphoria would give way to melancholy and back again in two sets of perfectly judged and executed records that reminded us of a Canadian … Continue reading Return Of The Sunparlour Players
Here are three corking tunes that could all loosely fall under the garage rock banner. Bleached stray into the territory of those classic 60s girl groups with Searching Through The Past while the excellently named Batwings Catwings offer up the explosive Radio. Lastly, Heavy Times live up to their name with a cut from the more visceral end of the garage spectrum with the propulsive percussion, … Continue reading Let’s Go Garage
Son Cats are a psychedelic garage-rock group hailing from Portland, OR. The Cats have also lived in the backseat of a Honda Accord and done time in Missoula, Montana and Brooklyn, New York. Alex Reed Wilson howls and rips on the guitar and Jasmine Dreame Wagner thrashes the drums. They released their debut single last month in the shape of O’Dell backed with 1971. Both … Continue reading Introducing…Son Cats
My Pet Monster are a Cardiff-based Noise-Pop band and they recently put out a free EP titled Soundtracks that is (a) pretty tasty and (b) downloadable for free from their Bandcamp page here. Download My Pet Monster – Radio mp3 (from Soundtracks EP) Continue reading MM Shorts 16: My Pet Monster
Last week Extra Arms released their new album In Parallel. On first listen you might think it is another record of well-done indie rock, but invest a bit of time with it and quite quickly you discover there is actually quite a bit more going on under the surface. Lyrically strong, and with an undercurrent of the blues faintly present in the background, the music … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Extra Arms
New Underground Railroad single 8 Millimeters (out today on One Little Indian) – was inspired by the bar of the same name in Berlin’s hip Prenzlauer Berg district, visited during a break from the recording of their latest album White Night Stand. The strange atmosphere down there is what give the words their disassociated millennial feel, and the song its uneasy descending blues. The overall … Continue reading MM Shorts 15: Underground Railroad Video
Perhaps best known as the singer-songwriter of the phenomenally successful and much-loved Hefner, Darren Hayman is now six albums into an increasingly idiosyncratic career path; writing the theme tune and staring in a Spanish Sitcom, playing a 30 people capacity show in a 100 year old paper mache observatory and playing possibly Britiain’s most remote festival on the Isle of Eigg. It could also be … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Darren Hayman
It was Mrs Mackerel who first discovered the exquisite, starkly beautiful folk of the Söderberg sisters, aka Swedish duo First Aid Kit. Their debut album The Big Black And The Blue more than confirmed all of the early promise that they had shown, but this new single The Lion’s Roar is a further step up the ladder of intelligent, innovative songwriting. Like the equally young Laura Marling, … Continue reading First Aid Kit: New Single
Kyla La Grange releases her new single, the double A-side Heavy Stone/ Lambs through Chess Club Records next Monday, 17th October. Ahead of this, she has now made Lambs available for free download from her Soundcloud profile. It is another excellent example of her dramatic pop folk and captivating storytelling. a Continue reading MM Shorts 14: Kyla La Grange
The Mad Mackerel 