The Open House Festival takes place in Belfast from September 6th to the 12th. To mark the event, the organisers are giving away a free 14 track digital mix that includes the likes of Modest Mouse, The Felice Brothers and Old Crow Medicine Show. A couple of our favourites from the mix are below, and to find out more about the event and download the … Continue reading Free Mix from Open House Festival
All Tiny Creatures is the side project of Thomas Wincek, who is also in Collections of Colonies of Bees, which is the band that collaborated with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver fame to form Volcano Choir. Confused? Don’t be. All you need to know is All Tiny Creatures have released a track from their forthcoming album, Harbors, which again features Justin Vernon, and is titled An … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…All Tiny Creatures
We Are Trees hail from Virginia Beach, and are offering up this four track EP titled Boyfriend from their Bandcamp site for free. Just click here. We suggest you make the minimal effort required to grab a copy as it is lovely lush, folk-pop that vocally has drawn lots of favourable comparisons with Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear as well as Bon Iver. The four … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…We Are Trees
We have to confess that we were hitherto unaware of Baby Eagle, the ‘other’ band of Steve Lambke and given our lack of knowledge of The Constantines catalogue, we didn’t have hugely high expectations. All the better then to discover that Day Of Our Departing the advance track from new album Dog Weather (which was released yesterday on You’ve Changed Records) is a beauty with echoes … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Baby Eagle
We were big admirers of the first Duke & The King album, 2009’s Nothing Gold Can Stay, a lovely mix of melancholy, country tinged folk songs from Simone Felice and partners. Following the critical acclaim that greeted the debut album, the band are back with the September 20th release of their new single Shaky on Loose Music / Silva Oak. Shaky previews the band’s second album … Continue reading New single from The Duke & The King
We became aware of Haunted Windchimes via an eMusic recommendation and having some credits to use, duly downloaded the album Honey Moonshine as much for the great name and great artwork as anything else. And, boy are we glad we did. It is a wonderful album of authentic, bewitching folk that draws you in and holds you tight. Beautiful harmonies and the traditional topics of … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Haunted Windchimes
Although Drumming For Pistols is the fifth album from Puerto Muerto and was released over here way back in February, it is the first album of theirs that we’ve had the pleasure of discovering. The Chicago band are a husband and wife duo drawing in influences from the Clash to the Nick Cave to Jacques Brel and spewing them out into a swashbuckling mix of … Continue reading Mad Mackerel Recommends…Puerto Muerto
We are a little embarrassed to say that we’ve sat on this for a little while and so it is a little later than we would have liked getting posted on MM. American Graveyard have been described as ‘debauched Americana’ and certainly they do sing songs about boozing, fighting, women and all other kinds of trouble. However, they do it with a skill and panache … Continue reading MM Recommends…American Graveyard
Paul Hawkins & Thee Awkward Silences play a wonderfully quirky brand of anti-folk that could only come from these fair shores. Their songs are constructed in a way that puts the minutiae of British ways and customs firmly under the microscope and then gleefully dissects them to expose their often ridiculous nature to all and sundry. And they do it so well by being masters … Continue reading New from Paul Hawkins & Thee Awkward Silences
A while ago we featured a song from the excellent debut EP by The Cutaway, an alt-indie folk band from south London. Escapists is the name of a new side project featuring two members of the band. They have played a few live shows and have just finished recording their debut EP. We’ve listened to a couple of demos (especially the naggingly catchy Burial) and … Continue reading Introducing…Escapists
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