1) Taking their name from a Willard Grant Conspiracy song is always going to meet with our approval. 2) To see The August List then self-proclaim themselves as “backwards country porch-folk”, was also going to pique our interest that little bit more – we love those country porch sing-a-longs. 3) And to have our friend Ronan at Nightshift compares them to The Handsome Family and … Continue reading Introducing >>> The August List
Believe it or not, Mad Mackerel has been around for more than five years now. During that time we’ve posted more than 4,000 times, and offered more than 5,000 songs for your listening pleasure. And more than three quarters of a million people have paid MM a visit during our lifetime on Google’s godawful blogspot and since April 2010 on WordPress. We asked some of … Continue reading Mad Mackerel The Last Five Years – Dr Roddy Looks Back
American Songwriter’s latest free Muse sampler is a gem featuring twelve tracks that includes such MM faves as Phosphorescent, Caitlin Rose, Water Liars, Cheyenne Marie Mize and Futurebirds alongside some Americana heavyweights like Son Volt and Will Johnson and the new-wave inspired indie rock of the Features. Just head over to their Bandcamp page here and download it all for nothing. . . Continue reading American Songwriter’s Muse Sampler For May
Videos today from the wonderful Parson Red Heads and their studio film for new track Times, and also a brand new video from the Lumineers for Stubborn Love. Lastly we have Barry Brusseau’s new video for Til The Wind Blows Everything from his wonderful album The Royal Violent Birds. . . Continue reading Videos of the Day: The Parson Red Heads || Lumineers || Barry Brusseau
We’re perhaps a bit late with this as Eastbound Jesus released their latest album Northern Rock last month. This is the upstate New York sextet’s third full length in as many years, and although it’s tempting to call the music bluegrass due to the omnipresent banjo, Northern Rock sees the band expanding on the sound of their previous records by further exploring the boundaries of … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Eastbound Jesus
Vandaveer is the project of Mark Charles Heidinger, releasing their debut album Grace & Speed in 2007 before following it up with the acclaimed 2009 release Divide & Conquer, which was the record of theirs that first made us sit up and take notice. Since then we’ve had the equally excellent Dig Down Deep in 2011, and now the wonderful Oh Willie, Please… a fabulous re-interpreting … Continue reading MM’s 5:1 Interview No 11: Vandaveer
The brilliantly weird Americana of the Handsome Family has long been a fave at MM and new album Wilderness is awaited here with much eagerness. For now, enjoy the video for Woodpecker about the famous 1890s Wisconsin window smasher Mary Sweeney (pre-order the album here) and stream a second album track in the shape of Caterpillars. We’ve already posted a couple of times about Dead Confederate … Continue reading Videos of the Day: The Handsome Family || Dead Confederate || Jonny Fritz || Foxygen
Our video selection today includes JAN’s brilliantly creepy video for her excellent single Work For The City, which takes being leered at and pawed over to a whole new level, and David Ramirez’s monochrome view of the long drives and late nights of a touring musician in The Bad Days. We have Shellshag’s model village excursion for Driving Song (another top tune too) and Lake Isle’s energetic film … Continue reading Videos of the Day: JAN || David Ramirez || Shellshag || Lake Isle
Better late than never, here is our monthly round-up of the best of our April downloads together with a handful of brand new tracks. More than twenty songs especially prepared for you to put together an eclectic and appealing mix to impress all your friends and bore your boring work colleagues. Enjoy! Wild Wild Wets – Criminal Blue Tripped out, freaked out, psych pop. . Hey … Continue reading Mad Mackerel’s Best of the Month: April 2013
Boasting some of the best album sleeves around, together with a fantastic brand of rollicking, dark-hearted folk, The Builders And The Butchers have been longstanding staples of MM playlists for a number of years. They now have a new album, Western Medicine, in the pipeline that draws its inspiration from the post-apocalyptic stories of Cormac McCarthy no less. The first taste is Dirt In The … Continue reading Return Of The Builders & The Butchers
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