This month’s Mojo magazine cover CD is a re-imagining of the Beach Boys classic Pet Sounds. A tribute to their seminal 1966 album, it features The Flaming Lips, Neil Cowley Trio, Saint Etienne, Jodie Marie, Gaz Coombes, Tim Burgess, Jeffrey Lewis with Wooden Wand, Here We Go Magic and more. Two of our favourites below – you can buy Mojo at any decent newsagents or … Continue reading Mojo Magazine’s Pet Sounds Revisited
Restavrant play a unique mix of maniacal junkyard blues, hillbilly stomp, and electro-punk, but expertly make the sum of these parts into one glorious cacophony of pent-up fury. Whilst their second album Yeah, I Carve Cheetahs was released at the beginning of the year we have only just come across a few tracks from it. This Victoria, Texas bred, Los Angeles based duo delivers a diverse cannon … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Restavrant
Family by Irish four-piece The Cast of Cheers was one of the first singles to really catch our ears at the start of this year, being an infectiously raucous slice of indie-rock that mined a similar vein to Howler or Spector. Ahead of the release of their first proper debut album later in the year, the band are releasing Animals, another rousing, raucous monster of a … Continue reading New Single From The Cast Of Cheers
RIP Levon Helm. A true bonafide musical genius and a genuine legend. Download Levon Helm – White Dove mp3 (from Electric Dirt) Download The Band – Whispering Pines mp3 (from The Band) Continue reading Levon Helm 1940-2012
The new video for Blitzen Trapper’s Stranger In A Strange Land from their American Goldwing album features landscapes found in Nome, Alaska, where there are no indigenous trees or mountains within plain sight, interspersing footage of the Iditarod finish line, the Bering Sea, and singer Eric Earley with shivery hand-held pans in 20 below zero conditions. a Continue reading MM Shorts 144: New Blitzen Trapper Video
I hear the train a comin’, it’s rolling round the bend… This term’s inaugural school journey saw the introduction of Johnny Cash week, in my attempt to give the sprats an all-round musical education. We’ll spin the bottle and see where it lands next week – everyone a winner! Frankly, not much to laugh about this week. Little Liberty and HP still marooned in hospital; … Continue reading Mrs Mackerel’s TFI Friday (20th April)
We’ve posted a couple of times about melancholic, wise-before-his-years, south London singer-songwriter Ned Younger, aka Monument Valley. His latest single is the darkly tender Your Cover Blown, which is starkly informed by the death of one of his closest friends and sees a release on May 21st via community label Everybody’s Stalking. It is sure to bring more praise and critical acclaim his way. Watch the perfectly … Continue reading Monument Valley’s New Single
We first mentioned the scuzzy country rock and bar-room boogie of Aussies Black Creek back in November when we posted a track from their album Ragged Shark. They are back with a new digital single titled Not For The Faint Of Heart backed with Gone Is The Darkness and it is another muscular example of their ragged, raw take on Americana, a sound they describe as … Continue reading New From Black Creek
The track Juarez by St Augustines has rapidly become a firm favourite in the Mackerel household over the past few weeks, and many a reference to rattlesnake guts have been made by the sprats recently. Opportune then that we should receive details of a new video to accompany the song. The clip captures a road trip across the border towns of the Southwest as an … Continue reading MM Shorts 143: St Augustines Video
In the 1980s Crass, and their whole anarchist commune collective, was a huge influence on my safe, rural, middle-class upbringing and made me aware of political issues and wider moral injustices that I may otherwise never have been. For that reason alone I will always have a fondness for them and the many bands like Zounds, Conflict, The Mob and others that appeared on their … Continue reading Win Win Cover Crass
The Mad Mackerel 