Siskiyou’s new album Keep Away The Dead is an unsettling one. The vocals of Colin Huebert are probably the antithesis of what should be considered good and proper – the epitome of wavering, or quavering perhaps – and yet they work beautifully on this collection. The music itself is a restless blend of country rock, folk, and grander orchestral rock and like a musical butterfly, the … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Siskiyou
Another month, more than 20 great tracks selected from our October posts and five new ones too. Download and dive in. Download The Minks – Araby mp3 (from Araby 7″) Endearingly gloomy slice of indie-pop. Download The Bloody Hollies – Dirty Sex mp3 (from Yours Until The Bitter End) The dark side of raw garage punk with touches of organ, violin and xylophone. Download Bare Bones – Hope & Feather … Continue reading Mad Mackerel’s Best Of The Month: October 2011
While we’re not great ones for themed mixes on MM, Halloween is one of the exceptions we like to make. Here is a perfect mix for whatever ghoulish event you’ve got lined up today! Fifteen corking tunes, from the skewed new wave pop of XTC and off-kilter indie of the Mountain Goats to the trashy surf rock of The Cramps and from the folk-stomp of the Men … Continue reading Free Halloween Mix 2011
There is a nice free digital mix currently available from American Songwriter that features some of MM’s favourites including Deer Tick, The War On Drugs, Cass McCombs and Real Estate. Here are a couple of our favourites from it – the sultry folk of the Smoke Fairies and Strand Of Oaks aka Timothy Showalter’s outrageous elegy for John Belushi from a certain Ghostbusters star. Alternatively … Continue reading Free Mix From American Songwriter: The Muse
Mat Gibson is a London based, Canadian born acoustic musician and troubadour. Produced in collaboration with various members of Oxfordshire based fast rising stars The Epstein, Mat’s new mini-album Forest Fire, recently released on Clubhouse Records, is a joy to behold. For comparisons sake, think Nebraska era Springsteen or Wilco’s Being There. Switching from a sparse, finger picked strum to reverb heavy vocal phrasing the … Continue reading Introducing…Mat Gibson
All Hands Electric is releasing this excellent 7″ single (on vinyl and digital formats) by The Gang Violets – it is out today. Their blend of psychedelic Americana effortlessly shifts from sunshine-pop to space-rock, while making more than a few country, folk, and blues detours along the way. Black Clouds rises up like a campfire despite moody lyrics, and is impossible to forget with its hook laden cadences, … Continue reading Introducing…The Gang Violets
Mirror Test is the debut EP from The Thinking Men, self-released on November 7th. The 5-track EP was recorded in Norwich during the snowstorms of early 2011 and showcases the band’s folk-inspired blues rock with huge sophistication. Their influences include Tom Waits, The Doors and Nick Cave, and they’ve already started to create quite a buzz for themselves. The band will be celebrating their new … Continue reading Introducing…The Thinking Men
Tyler Ramsey (guitarist with Band of Horses) has released a solo album titled The Valley Wind. The title track is a lovely, evocative slice of countrified rock that recalls vintage Neil Young with its rustic imagery and sense of solitude and mystery. Download Tyler Ramsey – The Valley Wind mp3 (from The Valley Wind) Continue reading MM Shorts 19: Tyler Ramsey
Communicating Vessels is releasing part two of their lavishly packaged 7″ vinyl recordings of secret songwriters from the southeast of the USA. Born equally of bright lights and seedy charm, The Grenadines might be Birmingham, Alabama’s sexiest band. Fronted by husband and wife team Michael and Lauren Shackelford and thrust into widescreen by guitarist David Swatzell and bassist Jesse Phillips, The Grenadines have been making a name for themselves in … Continue reading Communicating Vessels 7″ Series
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
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