I rather love this song. And being a rather obsessive listener, it’s been on non-stop. If it strikes a chord then I will know every nuance, every hat tap, every little murmur; I can’t tell you how many hundreds of times I’ve listened to my numero uno of 2015. But that’s another story for another day. Truth be told, it’s been a rather pants introduction … Continue reading Mrs Mackerel’s TFI Friday: 8th January
Yo, swimmers. It’s been a while. Still, it’s a brand new year; time to leave the sadness, disappointments and malaise of 2015 behind. It’s funny, in the course of writing this short paragraph I decided to revisit the music I was listening to when I last wrote TFI. Weird. Music is a peculiar and very personal punctuation mark for life’s events, don’t you think? Last … Continue reading Mrs Mackerel’s TFI Friday (1st January)… Back for a one-off appearance!
Happy New Year! We’re kicking off 2016 with Chris T Popper’s first recommendation of the year for you. The excellently named Meatraffle are new to us, but on the evidence of Nice Young Couple, a brilliantly lo-fi, ramshackle tale of drug dealing in the local community, we will be checking out their debut album Hi Fi Classics immediately. Watch the video for it here. Continue reading New Video: Meatraffle – Nice Young Couple
It has been more than a year since we featured Soft Fangs, and now the Brooklyn-via Boston singer/songwriter will release his new album The Light on February 19th via Exploding In Sound and Disposable America Records. The first single is The Air, a perfect mixture of the fragile and the muscular as a haunting melody and introspective, poetic vocals collide and combine with crashing drums and … Continue reading MM Shorts 807: Soft Fangs
Raised The Bar comes from Chris Storrow’s upcoming album, The Ocean’s Door, which is set to be released on 5th February. It’s a vibrant and warm slice of indie-pop that’s heavily influenced by the 60s AM Gold era of music with its elegant sound and tasteful use of organ and horns. Listen below. Continue reading MM Shorts 806: Chris Storrow
Swedish post punk, new wave band The Litsos recently released their first single Vultures from their upcoming long player. The track revolves around the feeling of desperately wanting to create while you are constantly being told to just produce. It is about any business that turns regular people’s blood, sweat and tears into money, without even a sign of gratitude. With the haunting voice of … Continue reading MM Shorts 805: The Litsos
In recognition of the season of giving, Blitzen Trapper have shared a song off their debut self-titled release, Christmas Is Coming Soon, as a pay-what-you-wish download. All proceeds will go directly to Mercy Corps, who’s mission is to alleviate suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping to build secure, productive and just communities in some of the toughest places in the world. Frontman Eric Earley, “This is … Continue reading Festive Fayre (24): Blitzen Trapper
Having proved themselves to be one of our bands of the year in our Best Of lists, it seems entirely appropriate that today’s Festive Fayre offering comes from Quiet Hollers. They have shared their cover of Nightmare River Band’s Christmas tune, First Christmas. All proceeds from the sale and publishing of the song (so please do buy it) will go to St. Jude’s Children’s Research … Continue reading Festive Fayre (23): Quiet Hollers
And so here is the final personal Top Twenty of the year. This time it is my turn! Another twelve months neatly wrapped up and delivered for your listening pleasure and here’s to 2016… 20. Quiet Hollers – Mont Blanc An apocalyptic, “end-is-nigh” rolling, country rock anthem. Pure poetry with the best coda to a song I heard all year, “shed a tear for the books … Continue reading MM’S BEST OF THE YEAR: MAD MACKEREL’S TOP TWENTY SONGS
Loop Line’s A Christmas Song is about Santa and aliens, inspired by The Clash and 1950s Sci-Fi. The song is sung from two perspectives: a group of aliens who believe that Santa Claus and his seemingly unlimited powers pose a threat to their civilization, juxtaposed with a group of Earthlings who try to convince the aliens that Santa is actually a symbol of peace and … Continue reading Festive Fayre (21): Loop Line
The Mad Mackerel 