Wooden Wand || Café Oto, Hackney || 29 June 2012 Review by Chris T Popper Ever since I knew Wooden Wand was touring our little island again I have been in a state of high anticipation… mixed in with a sizeable chunk of excitement. In February 2011, Dr Roddy and myself were lucky enough to interview and have a couple of ‘sharpeners’ with James Jackson Toth … Continue reading Live Review: Wooden Wand
Image (c) Big Pic A cracking month for new releases. Here is the some of the best of our posts from June, together with a couple of newbies for the perfect June mixtape. Check out some of the other ‘Best ofs’ in the sidebar too. The Hunting Accident – Aubergine Angular, compulsive, propulsive thump. a Download Damon Moon & The Whispering Drifters – The Fool mp3 (from Lungs, … Continue reading Mad Mackerel’s Best of the Month: June 2012
Thoroughly enjoying this, the first taste from the Boombox Hearts debut album. It’s called 100 (The Latest Flame), and it’s very much pop the 60s way with some noisy indie-style guitars (and yes, the title’s a reference to Elvis!). According to the band, “basically, it’s about: pop, love, a girl perhaps named Marie, cigarettes and wine and the Isle of Wight“, a winning combination in anyone’s … Continue reading New Single From The Boombox Hearts
So then, half way through the year already. Time to take stock and see what the first six months have delivered up in terms of new tunes and bands. We asked some of the regular MM contributors to pick three songs that have particularly struck a chord (sorry) with them in the first part of 2012. Kyle Adem – Brother Follow Unlike Brains by Lower Dens … Continue reading Mad Mackerel’s Best of the Year (so far)
Must be a day for folky covers of other genres! Hot on the heels of our earlier post of the Smoke Fairies covering The Cult, we have Town Hall Plays The Classics Vol 1, a free EP of five covers by the NY folksters. Each member of the band picked a favourite song and each was then given the Town Hall treatment. It comes hot on the heels … Continue reading Town Hall’s Free Covers EP
A little over a year ago we posted about Louisiana singer-songwriter Zachary Cale. Back then we said “His voice draws you in, it is inviting and hypnotic and works beautifully with the gentle folk accompaniment as he strums away in true troubadour style. They are reflective, poignant and emotive and he has that rare talent of being able to make you forget what else is going on … Continue reading Zachary Cale Is Back
Screen Gems are a new band to us, but we were told about this track Jazz Records by the wonderful Savaging Spires who produced it, so we knew it would be worth a listen. In typical fashion, all they revealed was “London / Washington DC based band. Recorded in Stoke Newington, London. In a studio surrounded by massive foxes roaming the streets with narrowed eyes that … Continue reading Introducing >>> Screen Gems
With Another Time, Sonnet Cottage offer rich, rootsy rhythms and melodic vocals carrying listeners on a modern journey through the woodsy folk and honey-dipped hymns of yesteryear. Virginian sisters Rachel and Torey Russell’s ethereal voices conjure up the laid back sweetness of Norah Jones and Lisa Hannigan as they gently meander over the warm acoustic backdrops provided by the band’s creative spearhead, Kent Heckaman. The simple arrangements fit like a … Continue reading Introducing >>> Sonnet Cottage
No Direction Home Festival || Welbeck Abbey, Nottinghamshire || 8-10 June 2012 The omens were not good for the inaugural No Direction Home music festival, setting out in heavy rain that only got heavier as the traffic got slower the further north I went. However, despite the slate grey skies and constant brake lights of the M1, a journey of over 5 hours was rewarded … Continue reading No Direction Home Festival: A Review
The Mad Mackerel 