We’re way late on this one, but having hit a (rich) psych-pop vein earlier, we’re now loving the 60s pastoral, jangly psychedelia of Candy Flip the debut 7″ single by another New York outfit, Spires. It is backed by the equally good, and vintage sounding, Comic Book. Fire up a fat one and listen below. Continue reading Spires – Candy Flip 7″
Zula are a four-piece psych pop band from Brooklyn. Their debut LP, This Hopeful, is currently streaming on SPIN, and gets an official release tomorrow (29th) on Inflated Records. Listen to the first single from the album, the irresistible Twin Loss, a perfect mix of sunshine, hypnotics, restlessness, and weaving, sinewy melody. Continue reading MM Shorts 465: Zula
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
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
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
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
The slow core Americana of Lo Fine’s latest album Want Is A Great Need has slowly grown on us, infiltrating, seducing, overcoming any resistance with its dark melancholy and occasional sonically malevolent world view. Grab All We Need Is Hell below. You can get previous track Lie In White from our Round Up post here. Continue reading MM Shorts 464: Lo Fine
Radioactivity consists of Jeff Burke and Mark Ryan from Marked Men. The first of two albums from the band is due next week on Dirtnap Records. Radioactivity is a continuation of The Novice, Jeff Burke’s band while living in Japan. Jeff has since moved back to Texas, and out of respect to the Japanese lineup of the band, has changed the name to Radioactivity. Some … Continue reading Radioactivity: Locked In My Head
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
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
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