Straw Bear – The Land Witch

The perfect warm-up to Halloween comes from our favourite eerie Fens folksters Straw Bear, and the track The Land Witch taken from their excellent album Black Bank. A boy stares out from a car window as it meanders through a rain-soaked wood. “Don’t let the boys go in there with the Land Witch,” his grandmother mutters, and from the backseat the wide-eyed child scours the darkness to … Continue reading Straw Bear – The Land Witch

New Album From Heyward Howkins

We thoroughly enjoyed The Hale & Hearty LP by Heyward Howkins, a record full of melancholy and playfulness and distinguished by some unusual arrangements and instrumentation. Now he is back with Be Frank Furness, which is equal parts turmoil and glittering melodies and idles somewhere comfortably between the sound of Andrew Bird and Dent May. Within the opening moments of the new album, the cheerful guitar instantly … Continue reading New Album From Heyward Howkins

Mad Mackerel Recommends… James Keyes

Occupying his own unique space in American music somewhere between the throaty junkyard stomp of Tom Waits and the wild mercurial ramblings of Dylan, James Keyes is a musician who travels solo with only a guitar and his right foot beating out the time on a home made pedal board. Gut-bucket blues, honky-tonk tear jerkers, songs of the road and its endless freedom, dark nights in … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends… James Keyes

Debut EP From Scowlin Owl

Back at the beginning of February we posted the excellent debut single Mifune from all-female folk band Scowlin Owl. Taking influences from the classic (Dylan, Baez, The Band, Fairport Convention) to the contemporary (Decemberists, Midlake, Sufjan Stevens) and led by main songwriter Nina Lovelace, the band prefer to be inspired by life’s great stories, places or people rather than simpler themes of love or loss. In November they … Continue reading Debut EP From Scowlin Owl

New Peggy Sue Album

Peggy Sue’s new album Choir Of Echoes will be out in January on Yep Roc Records. We were big fans of their previous release of noirish folk Acrobats and of the new record, the band says “Choir of Echoes is an album about singing. About losing your voice and finding it again. Voices keeping each other company and voices competing for space. The call and response … Continue reading New Peggy Sue Album

Videos of the Day: Miraculous Mule || Less Love & Wondernaut || The Cabin Project || Brandy Zdan

Videos for Sunday morning come with some Dangerous Blues from Miraculous Mule, and from a excellent collaboration by Less Love and Wondernaut we have the video for their track Like Shaking Hands. We also have orchestral indie pop from The Cabin Project and some classic Americana from Brandy Zdan who used to be one half of the the brilliant and sadly defunct Twilight Hotel and … Continue reading Videos of the Day: Miraculous Mule || Less Love & Wondernaut || The Cabin Project || Brandy Zdan

Introducing >>> Calliope Musicals

Sharing a collective love for David Bowie, Paul Simon, Talking Heads, Animal Collective and Edward Sharpe to name a few, Austin TX six-piece, Calliope Musicals are proud pedlars of psychedelic party folk, and Clouds On Fire is their new offering. A cacophony of noise designed to move and shake the innocent and the not-so-much, the poppy rush of the swoonsome Jeanie O is an engaging nod to the … Continue reading Introducing >>> Calliope Musicals

Mad Mackerel Recommends…Holyoak

Montreal-based musician Neil Holyoak has released three albums under the name Holyoak. His latest release is an EP titled Silver Boys, out on the 5th November. It precedes a new full length Rags Across The Sun, due early 2014. The title track is a gently hallucinatory lullaby of equal parts indie folk and lyrical poetry. Listen/download below. Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Holyoak

Videos of the Day: Beach Fossils || Such Hounds || Dark Bells || The Head And The Heart

Top notch videos to round off, and round up, the working week from Beach Fossils (trippy lo-fi), Such Hounds (ramshackle, punky Americana), Dark Bells (ethereal psychedelia), and The Head And The Heart (indie folk). . . . . Continue reading Videos of the Day: Beach Fossils || Such Hounds || Dark Bells || The Head And The Heart